[ { "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": 204857, "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-1964", "page_number": 160, "title": "RAS-1964", "content_text": "BOOK REVIEWS\n\n135\n\nThe First 50 Years is not only a beautiful memento of the Jubilee Year but also an interesting first history of the University and a useful work of reference. More research is needed on certain subjects, such as the activities of graduates in China and in Southeast Asia as well as in the colony itself. I suspect that the University and the Medical College which preceded it, and such secondary schools as Central (later Queen's College) and Belilios, exercised more influence in China than is generally recognized. For that matter all of the contributions of Hong Kong to the modernization of China need study; many of these have not even been identified. When the definitive history of the University of Hong Kong is written, after considerably more research has been done, The First 50 Years will be one of the principal sources.\n\nCornell University\n\nKNIGHT BIGGERSTAFF,\n\nTHE CHINESE ON THE ART OF PAINTING: TRANSLATIONS AND COMMENTS. Osvald Sirén. Schocken Books, New York, and Hong Kong University Press, 1963. 21 monochrome illustrations. H.K.$16. U.S.$1.95.\n\nThis book was first published by the firm of Henri Vetch in Peiping in 1936 and had long been out of print. It is excellent to see it available again, this time in a paper-back edition, printed on good paper, with reasonably wide margins, attractive print, and twenty-one extremely good black and white illustrations.\n\nThis book was a landmark in the study of Chinese painting in the West when it first appeared because it gave the reader, through translation and comment, a knowledge of the attitudes of Chinese painters to their craft throughout the centuries. Now it is again available to a new generation of readers who will be able to discover what the Chinese themselves have said about the art of painting. It contains extracts in translation from Kuo Hsi's famous Shan Shui Hsün (“Comments on Landscape\"), put together by his son who gives us a vivid picture of his father's method in the following passage: \"On the days when he was going to paint (he would place himself) at a bright window before a clean table and burned incense right and left. He took a fine", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1964.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205001, "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": 109, "title": "RAS-1965", "content_text": "100 \n\nCOLINA LUPTON \n\nwell, it seems, have been ruled by largely Chinese civil servants. It would have been helpful if Mr. Endacott had discussed the question more fully. \n\nHowever, the book is useful as a concise account of the history of the exercise of power in Hong Kong. Mr. Endacott writes clearly about the early governors and their administrative problems. But Hong Kong is today so different a place that such background sheds little light on today's problems. Hong Kong has, of course, inherited its constitution from those early days, but this was in any case of the normal colonial type devised by Britain in the nineteenth century. On the post-war history of the Colony, a little more information might have been desirable. Why, for instance, was the opinion of the Legislative Council, as voiced by the Hon. D. F. Landale, so inexorably set against the Young Plan, and why was it that the Government spent two years working out a detailed scheme for its establishment only for it to be thrown suddenly overboard at the last moment? What are these \"wider powers\" which he mentions in his reference to the police? And, while he makes the point that in fact the government does work in most cases harmoniously with the people, could he not have analysed a little more fully than he does the causes of the 1956 riots? \n\nThere are people who think that a chance has been missed by not making Hong Kong into a show window for Western democracy. Mr. Endacott's book makes clear just how difficult such an ideal would be to achieve and how little real opportunity there has been for it. Apathy, factionalism and an appreciation of international realities today virtually rule it out. But a modest progress towards constitutional development is surely to be desired. If the institution of democracy is of any value, it is worth some effort to promote.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1965.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205792, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1969", "page_number": 98, "title": "RAS-1969", "content_text": "92\n\nR. BRUCE\n\nknowledge of the language. English for Mongkut was the key to the new knowledge. What he had started with the French bishop he now continued more avidly with the American missionaries. Geography, mathematics and especially astronomy fascinated him and he found no inconsistency between Buddhism and science. He placed no obstacles in the way of the American Presbyterians who, like the Catholic Bishop, were invited to discuss religion and to preach their doctrine.\n\nHere then was an unusual Abbot of a Buddhist monastery in nineteenth century Siam; not that Buddhists are ever inimical to other faiths but Mongkut excelled in liberalism. As a devout and learned monk he had brought fresh inspiration and discipline to his religion. As a monk he had come to know his people and his country better than any of his royal predecessors. And because of his intellectual stamina he had acquired a greater knowledge of Western civilisation than any of his contemporaries.\n\nWhen Mongkut became King Rama IV in 1851 he had been a monk for twenty-seven years. The kingdom which he inherited was a feudal corner of Asia, an absolute monarchy in which the people were forbidden to look upon the face of the King. Slavery was common, polygamy normal. The economy was primitive, the population small, there were no roads and no schools. Except for a few missionaries and merchants there was practically no contact with the Western world, King Mongkut determined to change all this. Nobody urged him, there was no popular discontent, no demand for reform. He was his own most radical liberal.\n\nWithin a year of his accession decrees came from the Palace \"by Royal Command, reverberating like the roar of a lion\" which began the slow process of change. The people were invited to look at the King when he moved among them, not to shut their windows and run away. Citizens could send him petitions on any matter and he would investigate each complaint. He did not abolish slavery but he insisted on good treatment for slaves. Nothing was too detailed for him: he issued edicts on the safe construction of fire-places and ovens and the improvement of window fittings. To prevent disease he ordered that dead animals should not be thrown in the canals. He reformed the currency, replacing lumps of gold and silver with flat coins.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1969.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206126, "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": 206, "title": "RAS-1970", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n199 \n\ntide and is reached by a single bamboo ladder. The verandah is railed, and is sometimes covered and sometimes not. The shed stands on five pairs of piles, the front two of bamboo and the other three of local granite. The roof is pitched and normal save that it is covered with palm leaves and not with tiles. The hut itself is made entirely of wood.\n\nIt will be seen from the plan that the main part of the shed has three partitions to provide four rooms, each of which has a door and two windows, one at each side of the room. The kitchen is on the right-hand side of the first room leading off the verandah with a hearth, fuel beside it, and an altar to To Tei (1), the earth god and to Tso Kwan, (#) the kitchen god. [The notebook does not say of which material the hearth was, but it was presumably of brick or stone in a wooden dwelling.] The next room was apparently used as a bedroom by the master [and presumably mistress] of the house; the third was given over to the ancestral altar, that, like the kitchen altar, was set against the east wall; whilst the fourth and last room was used by a married son and his wife. Inspection of neighbouring sheds also shows the cooking place and ancestral altar on the east side.\n\nOn the day of the visit it happened that a new shed was being built nearby. See Fig. 2. [The structure was new though it could have been a reconstruction on old piles.] It was rather smaller than the one just described, measuring 7′ 6′′ wide and 18′ 6′′ deep with a 'round roof' (sic). There was also a verandah-to-be, not yet constructed. From this verandah a door led into one large room. This had a side door onto an open platform that ran outside and along the full depth of the main structure. Beyond the main room was a second, smaller one, with a window opening onto the open platform. There were three pairs of stone piles for the main structure. Again it appears that the cooking was to be carried out on the east side, but this time on the open platform.\n\nThe structure was entirely built of wood, with bamboo slats supporting the roof. The roof beam was already in position and from the centre hung over and down from it a red cloth with a single \"cash\" or Chinese copper coin at each corner, put over it and pinned. In addition two oranges hung over it at one edge.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1970.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206411, "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": 228, "title": "RAS-1971", "content_text": "202\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nground; they are not apparently built-up structures. Two possess shafts connecting the holes with the upper air and each has an entrance through which a man could crawl. Perhaps they are ancient charcoal ovens or equally ancient coral-lime kilns; but if so why so high up on the mountain side? If charcoal ovens they must be very old for it is many years since there was enough wood on this hillside to provide wood for kilns. In other parts of the Colony, similar holes have been found; there was one in a bank near Tai Tam reservoir and another was found when Aberdeen reservoir was constructed.'\n\nThe last reference is interesting. Only recently I was given several notebooks belonging to the late Walter Schofield (1888-1968), formerly of the Hong Kong Civil Service and a gifted amateur geologist and archaeologist. They contain the following reference to structures recorded at and near the Aberdeen reservoir in 1931:\n\n\"Aberdeen Reservoir, 14.3.31. Valley trending north from main valley, behind dam lies a flat open area with old paddy terrace walls. At north end of first patch of cultivation from mouth of valley is an oval structure of pounded earth, or chunam, mixed with small stones, 6' from E to W and 8' from N to S. Walls 3\" thick and variable. No sign of roof or window. Floor uneven, of rough earth and stones. Two feet below it is a built-up field, triangular, each side about 8 yds long.\n\nIn main valley east of the dam, close to point where upper valley branches off, and on a southern slope, is a fairly well-preserved hut with part of the dome remaining. It is circular about 8' in diameter, and of chunam. It is on a steep slope, 15' above bottom of valley, where there are at present no signs of cultivation. On its inner side is a narrow square chimney-like groove in the wall, vertical, and with a stone wedged in the bottom almost like a grate front. The outer wall is broken by a gap not over one foot wide.\n\nA third hut of similar type, preserving part of the dome, was seen in valley below Aberdeen New Road, north of the reservoir headquarters. This hut faces west and is on the eastern side of stream 8' or 10' above it. It was not closely examined.\"\n\nThese structures, particularly the second, seem to me very likely to have been charcoal kilns. These apart, there are two pits", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1971.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206554, "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": 102, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "96\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nor family. The night soil coolies used to commence work at 1 a.m. in the Chinese quarters of the city, and each was equipped with a pair of buckets suspended from a bamboo pole. The pots were brought into the street and emptied into one of the buckets and then rinsed with water from a third bucket. The first rinsings were added to the night soil and the second rinsings were put back into the water bucket. When full, the buckets were taken to a junk. Fortunately, police regulations required the buckets to have covers.\n\nAs for the disposal of waste kitchen water, all that was provided was a rough earthenware pipe coated with plaster which delivered contents from the upper floors onto the floor of the cookhouse below. Commonly, drains ran from cookhouse to cookhouse under the party walls of adjoining tenements until they reached a public sewer. In some instances, drains traversed several lots under separate ownership, and in cases where there were no rights-of-way the rebuilding of one property in the row sometimes deprived other premises of an outlet. The upstairs residents had no means of disposing of rubbish other than by throwing it out the window or stuffing it into the downpipe from the kitchen; when this happened, the pipe became choked causing it to overflow and saturate the walls with filthy effluent.\n\nThe streets of the city were made of decomposed granite and this was rapidly formed into deep gulleys by torrential summer rains. Little thought was given to ensuring the reservation of adequate street widths, and in some cases the public right-of-way were so narrow that the bamboo poles used to hang out washing reached from side to side. The \"system\" of storm water drains was just as chaotic as the street network and drains were also inappropriately used as sewers which emptied directly into the sea. With few exceptions no attempt was made to carry out the effluent below low water mark, nor to select positions for outfalls where a strong tidal stream would carry it away. Consequently, there was an offensive smell at low tide along the whole waterfront. Worse still, none of the public drains had vents, so that uprising sewer gas had no means of escape except through untrapped house drains and gulley holes at the top end of the sewers.\n\nWater supplies in the dry season amounted to not more than 6 gallons per head per day, which was barely sufficient for cooking and drinking. Chadwick noted that \"to economise water, the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206555, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "REVIEW OF HOUSING CONDITIONS IN HONG KONG\n\n97\n\nPokfulam supply is distributed on the intermittent principle, conducted in a manner which subjects it in the highest degree to all the well-known dangers appertaining to that system. The water from the Wong-Na-Chong dam is not actually turned off daily, but the pipes are so small that the supply is virtually intermittent at the western extremity of the district which it supplies.6 Families in houses with no water supply had to hire water carriers to obtain their day's supply from public standpipes. The water at these points was turned on between 2 a.m. and 5 a.m., and there was usually a mad scramble during this brief period; those who were left out had to obtain their supplies from distant water holes and streams on the hillsides.\n\nIt is not surprising that under such vile conditions the life expectancy of the Chinese citizens of Hong Kong was relatively short. To illustrate this point, Chadwick produced statistics to show that the mean age at death of adults (persons over 20 years) was 43 years in Hong Kong in 1881 compared to 55 years for the whole of England in 1840. No wonder then that Chadwick was forced to the conclusion that \"…the foregoing facts clearly show that the health of the population is not so good as to make it presumptuous to attempt to reform time-honoured abuses; on the contrary, to my mind, they prove that reform is urgently required.\"\n\nChadwick made a considerable number of bold recommendations which the seriousness of the situation demanded. In particular, he recommended the provision of open spaces at the rear of buildings, the prohibition of cocklofts and earthen floors, the provision of a window in every habitable room, and the limitation of overcrowding so that each adult would have 400 cu. ft. of unobstructed space in undivided rooms and 600 cu. ft. in rooms divided into cabins. Further recommendations included the reconstruction of the drainage system, the improvement of the water supply, the requisition and reconstruction by Government of existing public latrines and the provision of additional facilities, the provision of public bathhouses and a laundry, the construction of new markets, and the improvement of the scavenging system. Other notable recommendations were that before building lots were offered for sale, the roads should be laid out, surfaced, and provided with drains; that Government…\n\n6 Ibid., p. 16.\n\n7 Ibid., p. 22.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206562, "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": 110, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "104\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nSection 151 of the new Ordinance restricted the depth of domestic buildings to not more than 40 ft; greater depths could be permitted, however, if every storey were provided with windows to ensure that the whole storey was adequately lit. Another provision prohibited rooms in existing domestic buildings which had neither a window nor skylight. Cubicles were limited to no more than two per room and each cubicle had to have a minimum floor area of 64 sq. ft. and a minimum depth or width of 7 ft. In rooms with no adequate natural lighting and ventilation, cubicles were prohibited.\n\nSection 179 of the Ordinance when first mooted required every domestic building to be provided with open space at the rear equivalent to not less than half the roofed-over area of the building; however, due to opposition from property owners, this provision was made to apply only to buildings erected on land leased after 1903. For buildings erected on land obtained before that date, the amount of open space to be provided was not less than one-third the roofed-over area.\n\nIn the case of building heights, opposition from vested interests also resulted in differential controls being applied so that on land obtained after 1903 the height of buildings was limited to a dimension not greater than the width of the street whereas for land that was leased before 1903 the maximum height was set at one-and-a-half times the street width. A maximum height of 76 ft. and a maximum of four storeys also applied in addition to the above limitations. These provisions remained in effect until 1935.\n\nIt was not long before the new regulations came under attack, and in 1906 a commission was appointed to look into the effectiveness of the Ordinance and also the existence of corruption in its application. The Commission was very sceptical over the value of many of the new regulations and, in particular, criticised the prohibition of cubicles as this was frequently the only means by which Chinese families could obtain accommodation at a rental they could afford.18 The Commission also found that corruption amongst all grades of the officers of the Sanitary Board was prevalent which, in turn, reduced or nullified the effectiveness of the regulations.\n\n18 Report of the Commission Appointed by his Excellency the Governor to Enquire into and Report on the Administration of the Sanitary and Building Regulations Enacted by the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance 1903 and the Existence of Corruption among the Officials Charged with the Administration of the Aforesaid Regulations, Hong Kong, 1907, p. 10.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206631, "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": 179, "title": "RAS-1972", "content_text": "THREE CHINESE DEITIES\n\n173\n\nborn a lump of formless flesh which so horrified his father, King Chou, that he ordered it to be abandoned outside the city walls. The lump was recognised as an Immortal, the caul split open and the child removed. He was cared for by a hermit and brought up and nursed by one of the eight Immortals, Ho Hsien Ku († plikt). When he came of age, Ho revealed to him his identity and that his mother, as punishment for bearing such a \"monster\", had been thrown from a high window. Yin then determined to destroy the Imperial concubine who was the Royal favourite and by her calumnies had caused both the death of his mother and his ejection from the city. Yin was presented with two magic weapons by the Goddess T'ien Fei (Ait), a gold club and battleaxe. After the big battle between the forces of Shang and Chou, Yin destroyed the Imperial concubine and was rewarded by the Jade Emperor for his bravery and for his filial piety with the titles of T'ai Sui and Marshal Yin (†). Yin Ch'iao means \"Yin (who was deserted in) the suburbs\". His child's name, so Doré records, whilst living with Ho Hsien Ku was Chin No Cha (4). This adds further confusion to the legends surrounding No Cha, another deity and one who appears with great frequency in Chinese legends and fairy tales.\n\nAnother of the legends in The Deification of the Gods tells of Yin Ch'iao first on the side of his father, the wicked King Chou, and then later, switching sides, and fighting with the good King Wu. Yin Ch'iao was decapitated by a general during the battle after being enclosed by the Buddha Jan Teng () between two mountains leaving only his head protruding. He was deified by Chiang Tze Ya (†††), as described in the 99th chapter of The Deification of the Gods during the general elevation of the gods and also given the presidency of the Ministry of Time. In another novel of the same era as the Deification, the Sou Shen Chi (†††2) the Jade Emperor (11) conferred on Yin the title of T'ai Sui, Marshal Yin (★★K) for his services in combating evil.\n\nYet another story describes a jealous rival of Yin Ch'iao's mother who, as a concubine to the King, caused him to order the execution of Yin Ch'iao, his son, for plotting treason. He was saved by the magic of Ch'ih Tsing Tze (T).\n\n2 Record of Research into the Gods (part of the T'ao Tsang).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1972.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206806, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "SWATOW HORIZONTAL STICK PUPPETS\n\n77\n\nbeing 2-3 feet high but cannot remember how they were manipulated. They were probably Fukienese string-puppets, which would not be surprising, as Fukienese Min-nan opera groups were popular in Ch'aochow, so why not Fukienese puppets? In Mr. Su's home, in Ch'aochow city, the greatest pleasure children derived was to play their own leather-shadow puppets behind the paper-screen. Besides the ceremonial puppet-shows at the temple festivals there were always puppet-shows performed for public entertainment in those days. He recalls that the leather shadow-puppets were by far the most interesting to watch.\n\nApart from traditional subjects, they offered a kind of political cabaret caricaturing the confusion after the 1911 Revolution or performing an amusing burlesque. They are said to have given realistic renderings of the feats and behaviour of the warlords and bandits who roamed the country between 1911 and the 1930s. These street performances were usually given by a team of two opera-singers who were too old to perform on stage. From a bamboo pole balanced on their shoulders hung a bundle of personal belongings at the rear end, and a trunk containing puppets, stage, and musical instruments at the front end. The two would set up their bamboo-frame stage in a rich private house or a public square, adjusting their lamp behind the paper-screen. They manipulated the puppets, spoke, sang, and played musical instruments using their mouths, hands, and feet simultaneously.\n\nOne very special occasion in Ch'aochow was the lantern festival on the fifteenth day of the first moon, when puppets were of prime importance. In the evening, a crowd would throng the streets to find a place at one of the many puppet-performances. Street-vendors offered puppets, with delicate heads made of clay and complete with clothes, for sale. The puppets looked exactly like those for performances, but were immovable and had no sticks at their hands or back. If parents wished to have a son or a daughter, or a groom or bride for their children, they would buy an appropriate doll on this day and keep it at home.\n\nThe transition from shadow to round puppets is clearly stated in the Chinese literary sources.* It is there repeated that shadow-puppets came to Ch'aochow in the Sung dynasty and were always performed behind a paper-screen on a bamboo-frame called chu-chuang44* (bamboo-window); and that by the end of last century\n\n* See Liu and Sun under Bibliography to this article.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 206807, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1973", "page_number": 84, "title": "RAS-1973", "content_text": "78\n\nHELGA WERLE\n\n(sun-win- \n\na glass-screen came into fashion called yang-chuang dow). With the glass-screen the puppets became round, their bodies were made of straw, hands and feet of paper, the head of clay, the costumes were copied from the string-puppets, sticks were attached to the hands and the back, and then these puppets were called yuan-shen chih-ying-hsi | ✯✯✯ (round-body paper-shadow play). Later, it is stated, the glass-screen was discarded and curtains were attached to the bamboo-frame, but nevertheless it continued to be called 'Paper-shadow-play'.\n\nAll over China the shadow-play was called p'i-ying-hsi ★BA \"Leather-shadow-play\" because the figures were cut out of leather, but in Ch'aochow strangely enough this term was never used. Referring to the paper-screen it was always, and is still now, called \"Paper-shadow-play\" and I met several Ch'aochowese who were convinced that their shadow-figures were cut out of paper. The misinterpretation is probably due to the name.\n\nThis description of development suggests many questions. Why should a light, convenient and cheap paper-screen be given up for a glass-screen, which is heavy, expensive, easy to break and almost impossible to transport? How should a hawking puppeteer carry a delicate glass-screen with his bundle and box? Was the fascination of the newly imported foreign glass-windows so great that they were adopted for the 'paper-shadow-play' in order to lend it new attraction? And if there was a glass-screen, was it translucent imitating the paper-effect or was it transparent window-glass? This question is important, because the difference would decisively influence the shape of the puppet. The name 'Sun-window' could also suggest that the shadow was not produced by an oil-lamp, but sunlight.\n\nOld Ch'aochowese vividly recall impressions of the shadow of puppets appearing on a paper-screen, but I heard no one speaking of glass. Being unable to find a logical reason for adopting a glass-screen, I would like to consider it the invention of an author who tried unsuccessfully to explain the disappearance of shadow-puppets in Ch'aochow.\n\nSome Characteristics of Ch'aochow Puppet Opera\n\nI turn now to consider various aspects of Ch'aochow puppet history. Among these, the patron saint of puppets shows certain interesting characteristics. Whilst the Peking opera actors venerate the emperor T'ang Ming Huang (713-742), who was the founder of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1973.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207038, "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": 109, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "The monuments of Vientiane and Luang Prabang\n\n103\n\nwent to Bangkok and the temple in Vientiane lost its importance. It has been restored many times and is technically no longer a temple but a 'haw' or hall since services are not held and the building has been converted into a museum. At the entrance is a fine Dvaravati Buddha and there are several good examples of bronze Lao Buddhas with characteristic sharp, pointed noses both outside and inside the building. Among those inside is an elegant and extremely attenuated standing Buddha and two walking Buddhas. The restored pediments of the building are good examples of Lao woodcarving and so are the carved window panels.\n\nNearby is Vat Srisaket which is a quiet spot without having any particular artistic merit, though its galleries of Lao-style Buddhas, the carved ceiling of vihara and its naive frescoes of animals are worth seeing. The only other temple of note is Vat Ong Tu, near the market with good carving on the portal only in the Chiengmai style. The primitive wall paintings at Vat Oup Muong are a modern interpretation of the Ramayana but the temple is otherwise without interest; Vat Xieng Yuen and Vat Chantaburi, by the river Mekong, have peaceful and shady courtyards, and the temple of the Sankaraj, or Lao Supreme Patriarch, Vat Dong Mieng is remarkable mostly for its carving and hideous modern paintings.\n\nVientiane boasts the usual ministries of an administrative capital and a small modern royal palace for the occasions when the king comes from Luang Prabang. Modern Vientiane is largely without interest, the only building of note being the Monument to the Dead on the broad avenue leading to the That Luang; it is a top-heavy and as yet still incomplete miniature of the Arc de Triomphe. The teak-lined boulevards running parallel to the Mekong have a tranquillity which few capital cities can boast.\n\nThe difference between Vientiane and Luang Prabang is striking; the former has on occasions something approaching a bustle of modernity. Luang Prabang, a half-an-hour away by plane, is a century away in time. There are virtually no modern buildings, there is no traffic, and the ring of mountains around seems to keep the world away. The morning market is peopled by Lao villagers and Meo tribesmen, the latter heavy with silver and bright with colour; three soldiers look after a pig and half-a-dozen people watch a kettle boil on the side of the road. Local silk is offered at very low prices and the silverware is unusual. Luang Prabang is the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207039, "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": 110, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "104\n\nMICHAEL SMITHIES\n\nhome of the Lao royal family and the small royal palace at the foot of the Phu Si or central hill sets the modest tone of the town. Its temples are so numerous that it would be impossible to detail each one, and unrewarding, for many are extremely simple, testimonies to the faith of an unaffected and devout people.\n\nThe most splendid is undoubtedly Vat Xieng Tong, originally approached from the Mekong river up a broad stairway. It is the largest temple in area and the compound has a number of interesting buildings; the vihara has high curving roofs coming down very low to the sides and surmounted by an elegant dort xoi fa (flowers pointing to heaven), the many-pronged symbol of the universe, each point tipped with a tiered parasol, that is to be found on nearly every Lao temple roof. The carved portico is striking and the inside of sober simplicity; the altar has a large antique Lao Buddha statue and the ceiling is coffered and painted. The runnels with decorative dragon-head spouts used in ordination ceremonies are kept in many temples in Luang Prabang and there is a good example in Vat Xieng Tong. At the back of the altar, on the outside wall, is a mosaic representing the tree of life, and nearby a small chapel to a Lao hero, Sri Sawai, is entirely covered with charming mosaics on a red background. There are a number of other chapels in the grounds, as well as a small building for a prayer drum. The most opulent of these is undoubtedly the building containing the royal funeral carriages; the carving and gilding is almost overwhelming on the outside, and if the inside of the building is simple, the objects it contains are not; the royal funeral carriages are masterpieces of carving which, until the present king changed the tradition of burning them after the cremation of the monarch they had borne, used to disappear without trace.\n\nAlong the main street going towards the Phu Si is Vat Sene, with a three-tiered roof in the Lao style. The entrance is elegant and raised on octagonal columns and the walls are decorated gold on a red background. Nearby is Vat Pak Khe, one of the most unusual temples in Luang Prabang, with Siamese style frescoes inside and on one of the entrances are supposed to be represented Dutchmen and on a window Venetians. Certainly the objects of the panel carver's attention are European and the style of the dress dates from two to three centuries before the founding of the temple in 1861. Father de Leria visited Vientiane between 1642 and 1647 and his information is recorded in Father Filippo de Marini's book", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207040, "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": 111, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "THE MONUMENTS OF VIENTIANE AND LUANG PRABANG\n\n105\n\non Tonkin and Laos; the Dutch merchant van Wusthoff also visited the capital of Souligna Vongsa from 1641-42 and left an interesting account of his travels. But neither Protestant merchants nor Jesuit priests could have made such a visual impression that more than two hundred years later their envoys should be recorded in a different city from that they visited. No known accounts, either written or visual, survive from the Lao side to record the visits of these gentlemen; however the visual tradition of Europeans, particularly the French, in 17th century Siam was strong during the reign of King Narai (as the lacquer pavilion in Suan Pakkard Palace in Bangkok bears witness), and was continued into the nineteenth century, and as the artists for the frescoes undoubtedly came from Siam one suspects that the inspiration for the unusual door and window carving comes from the same source. It is significant that the foundation date of the temple is also that of Mouhot's visit to Luang Prabang, one of the first recorded visits by Europeans. In the grounds of the temple a resourceful monk had utilised a plasma bottle and dripper to feed his roses.\n\nVat May, past the royal palace in the main street, was built in 1820 and has an unusually high roof; the portico is decorated with large gilded panels representing scenes from the life of the Buddha. It was for a time the shrine of the Pra Bang, the palladium of the Lao kingdom. This statue came from Cambodia in 1358 at the founding of the Kingdom of Lane Xang and was moved to Vientiane when the capital was transferred in the 16th century. It was taken in 1778 with the Pra Keo by the Siamese; the Pra Bang was returned in 1781 to Ong Boun. The Siamese again removed it in the sack of Vientiane in 1828 but King Mongkut restored the statue in 1867. Recently it has been moved from the temple for safekeeping in the Royal Palace. Between the temple and the palace is a small red lacquer post and dais; until recently, each year the royal elephants were preached at and requested to behave themselves before being sprinkled with lustral water.\n\nThe two other principal temples of the town are away from the main street. Vat Vixun was restored in 1867 and much changed in shape. It has a large nave and fat pillars and it is far more imposing than many temples in the town. A number of pieces of woodcarving have been collected in it to form the basis of a museum, but at present it is but a jumble of spirit houses and shrines. Here are to be found several flags, each with a number of small Buddhas", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207146, "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": 217, "title": "RAS-1974", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n211\n\nNote the offices of the Nam-pak Hong Association on the left-hand side of Bonham Strand; the divided shops of the Chun Lung Sang porcelain business (1878) and the bamboo and rattan ware dealers further along, also the frontage of the Ping Heung Tea-house next to Ching Wah Kok.\n\nDuring this visit Members are advised to look around them, up as well as down, because there are all sorts of interesting little vistas to have had, often revealed by the removal of a house for redevelopment.\n\nFootnote:\n\n1) We will not be going to the Shun Tak District Commercial Association at 67, Queen's Road, West, as hoped, because a terrible blow; the furniture and fittings have already been cleared out prior to demolition of the building.\n\n2) The Tung Kwun District Commercial Association was founded as the Tung Yee Hop Tong in 1893 for charitable, including educational, work among persons of that district resident in Hong Kong. The present premises were purchased about 40 years ago. There is an interesting commemorative board above the window in the main hall presented by four shops in Liu Po New Market, Tung Kwun in 1912 in appreciation of flood relief work and settlement of disputes and of a defamation case by the Hong Kong Chamber. This shows that its influence extended beyond Hong Kong.\n\n3) The Nam-pak Hong Association in Bonham Strand, though in new premises that are of no appeal, is of great interest. This powerful commercial association was established in 1868 by merchants from different parts of China together with Chinese merchants from South-east Asia. This explains the name of the association which, in Chinese, means South-North Firms' Public Office.\n\nAdditional Notes for the Visit to Old Western District Carl T. Smith\n\n(a) The Development of West Point\n\nThe area we are visiting today was formerly dominated by two points of land. After the British occupation of Hong Kong they became known as Possession Point and West Point. Between the two was a steep hillside with a bay at its foot. The present Ko Shing Street approximates the original beach.\n\nDr. Eitel in his history of Hong Kong, Europe in China, pp. 123-124, gives an account of the event which gave Possession Point its name:\n\nOn January 24, 1841, Commodore Bremer, having arrived at Lantao, directed Captain Belcher, in command of H.M.S. Sulphur, to proceed forthwith to Hongkong and commence its occupation.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1974.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207308, "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": 76, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "68\n\nE. G. PRYOR\n\nintelligence service to pin-point danger spots and proposed the distribution of 100,000 hand bills publicising the causes and symptoms of plague, the destruction of rats and the addresses of places where sickness could be reported. Another recommendation was the establishment of a plague department with wide powers for the discovery, prevention and cure of plague including inoculation with a highly potent horse antiserum prepared at the Haffkine Institute in India.\n\nA final recommendation made by Simpson was a general improvement of sanitary conditions and stricter control over the design of tenement blocks which he described as follows:\n\n\"The rooms, as a rule, are far too deep, the object of this depth being to subdivide each room into a number of cubicles for the accommodation of families or lodgers. Though there may be windows at each end of the room, the great depth materially obstructs the light to take an example from the better class of buildings, many of the houses that are being erected are eighty feet deep without lateral windows and contain long, narrow rooms of fifty-five feet in depth, by twelve or thirteen feet in width, lighted in front by a window and also in the rear by another window which looks into a backyard of twelve feet. . . .”*\n\nFrom the recommendations made by Simpson arose the Public Health and Buildings Ordinance of 1903 which set new standards for the design and occupancy of buildings and which remained in force until 1935.\n\nBy 1904 a considerable amount of deductive evidence had accumulated to link the occurrence of plague to the fleas carried by rats. Dr. J. M. Howie of Changpoo, for example, was of the opinion that the main cause of plague was inoculation through the bite of fleas, lice and mosquitos. Dr. H. Dobson of Yung Kong also noted that the cases he had observed appeared to have been caused by \"the bites of insects (fleas), contamination of open wounds on legs or elsewhere (or) through food containing the germ.\" William Hunter, the Government Bacteriologist of Hong Kong also noted\n\n* Second Memorandum from W. J. Simpson to James Stewart Lockhart Sanitary Board Office, 20th March 1902, p. 15 in Blue Book Reports on Bubonic Plague 1894-1907.\n\n+ W. J. Simpson, Report on the Causes and Continuance of Plague in Hong Kong and Suggestions as to Remedial Measures, London, 1903, p. 31.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207432, "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": 200, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "192\n\nDONALD C. BOWIE\n\ndical Services of the Japanese Army of Occupation. Selwyn-Clarke represented to Eguchi that it was essential to take precautions to avoid outbreaks of epidemic diseases in the chaotic conditions following our surrender and he, with his wife and daughter and a handful of his staff, were spared internment for a while in order to organise the necessary work. Certain other categories of people, for example senior bankers, were likewise not interned at the beginning though the movements of all these men were always restricted within narrow limits. Selwyn-Clarke's mind turned at once to ways in which he could help those who were in P.O.W. or Internment camps. He knew exactly what would happen and how health would suffer and he set about getting food and drugs to combat the infectious and deficiency diseases he saw to be inevitable.\n\nI do not know how these relief operations were financed nor do I know many details. He visited the camps and though not allowed to see the prisoners he did get guides as to what was needed e.g., food, fuel, meat, cooking oil and at the same time he got the names of many prisoners. He had found out that the Japanese would allow entry to parcels of food etc. addressed to individuals but would not accept bulk supplies for delivery. He then recruited a number of women helpers; some of these had husbands, relatives or friends in the camps and hospital. Before hostilities Selwyn-Clarke was at all times completely absorbed in the task he had in hand. In a community where alcohol and tobacco were cheap and widely used he did not drink and he did not smoke and I think found it difficult to interest himself in the small talk usual in the kind of society in which Hong Kong took pleasure at that time. His wife was an electrifying woman, full of energy, vastly intelligent and widely informed, with great warmth, firmly held opinions and completely devoted to the welfare of the Chinese citizens of the Colony. She unfortunately has since died, but she always played a leading part in organising the parties delivering food to the hospital.\n\nOne of her main helpers was Miss Helen Ho. Miss Ho was arrested three times by the Japanese, the first being shortly after Selwyn-Clarke's own arrest. She was imprisoned once below the Supreme Court; another time she was confined in a house above Queen's Road, but being allowed to open a window for air she attracted the attention of a passing friend by flashing a reflected ray of sun in her eyes using a hand mirror. She then dropped a pre-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207487, "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": 255, "title": "RAS-1975", "content_text": "CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG\n\n247\n\nrun by as entirely separate institution. After the Canadians moved from North Point we drew our patients only from Kowloon and I suppose that the prestige of adhering to the Geneva Convention outweighed in Japanese minds the administrative drawbacks of our site in Bowen Road.\n\nAs time went on the need to supply and guard a unit widely separated from the main body of prisoners must have become more onerous. Increasing shortages and difficulty in supplying electricity and water to Bowen Road were probably instrumental in finally bringing about our transfer to Kowloon.\n\n24 MARCH -- 9 SEPTEMBER 1945\n\nWe now moved into the last few months of our captivity. At first, staff and patients were accommodated in Sham Shui Po camp and from there working parties of our staff went out daily to prepare the hospital. It was on that day that I got my only view of the Heep Yunn School and I did not like what I saw, but the same day I learned that we were to have the Central British School for use. This looked and proved to be a suitable building and we began to move our gear there. A little later Saito told me that the staff would be reduced to 40 all ranks though previously he had said that there would be 40 other ranks. On 9 April 6 officers and 34 other ranks moved in to the Central British School. Besides myself there were Major G.F. Harrison, Major J.W. Anderson, Captain A. Coombs, Lieutenant (Q.M.) F.J. Campbell and the Rev. James Squires our padre. There were five Royal Engineers, M.S.M. Sims, Q.M.S. Tyas, and sappers Samways, Carvell and Climo, and there were 29 other ranks R.A.M.C. and R.A.D.C. headed by Sergeant-majors Muxlow and Bartley. On 10 April 62 patients of whom 58 had been in Bowen Road and four were newly arrived in the hospital. There were at first no non-medical workers though these had been promised. On 12 April a further 62 patients arrived, 31 of these being crippled but in fair general condition and a further 31 being what we then called old men (i.e., unfit for service by reason of age). Two army officers and some American and British merchant navy officers were included, but we had no special accommodation for officers. The Japanese ordered that all patients were to have white beds, another example of window dressing. The hospital provided for 34 beds for patients on the ground floor and 81 on the first floor which also housed the operating theatre, X-ray room and laboratory.\n\nPage 255\n\nPage 256", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1975.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207808, "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": 196, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "The Ancient Mon-Pagan, Peru & NAKORN PATHOM 181\n\nof the earliest is also one of the most unusual; the Nanpaya has beneath the spire four square pillars of stone each of which on two sides has a figure of Brahma holding lotus flowers in both hands. This is reputed to have been the residence of the captive Mon king Manuha, but this seems unlikely; it could have been his particular temple. The figure of Brahma in what was almost certainly a Buddhist temple is not impossible to explain away; the Brahma carvings face towards the central square pedestal which, originally, would have had a statue of the Buddha, possibly one looking in four directions; Brahma, a representative of Hinduism would be looking towards, and lower than, the Buddha. The temple is exceptionally faced with stone throughout, and the quality of the window pediments very fine.\n\nThe Abeyadana temple, not far away, is attributed to King Kyanzittha but an inscription determines his chief queen as the founder. It has a prominent harmika or bulge on the spire above the central core and a large seated brick Buddha in a recess in the core to the north (the whole temple is oriented to the north). The temple's great importance is in the quality of the paintings it still possesses, with Hindu gods and deities of Mahayanist Buddhism round the core and some excellent Jataka scenes with Mon inscriptions in the walls of the front projecting nave.\n\nAlmost opposite this temple is the Nagayon. It has good proportion and a very dark corridor pierced with five windows running round the central core. The quality of the paintings illustrating Jataka tales with Mon and Pali inscriptions is good.\n\nThe two Seinnyet temples are a little further south; the Ama is a square temple with four main porches, and the Nyima a solid stupa on three terraces. Lastly in this group is the Lawkanada stupa, built in 1059 by Anawratha beside the Irrawaddi, over which a magnificent view is obtained at sunset.\n\nOf the temples in the central area, nothing remains of the bulbous Bupaya stupa which fell into the river in pieces in the earthquake. The Gawdawpalin of the later period suffered severely and its tall finial is no more. In style, however, it resembles the Thatbinnyu which was built in the middle of the twelfth century. Only the eastern porch projects from the main plan, and the first floor where the main Buddha is located is reached by two narrow passage stairways built into the walls. The effect is of considerably greater height than the earlier buildings. As it is still in use it is", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207858, "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": 246, "title": "RAS-1976", "content_text": "SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963\n\n231\n\ninhabiting the village point to the ruined ancestral halls of their late rivals and ascribe their own fortune to the cunning of their ancestor who, at the time when all the ancestral halls were being built in a line, surreptitiously made a slight alteration to the direction in which his own hall was to face. If ever there was such an incident, which I take leave to doubt, the alignment now to be seen bears no trace of it. The jubilant survivors cannot detect it either; they merely assume it to be there.\n\n64. Just as the fung shui (and in consequence the status) of people may be attacked by poaching on grave-sites, so conflict can arise over buildings. X's attempt to build higher than my house is an affront. I say he is ruining my fung shui. I am implying that he has no right to put himself above me. Y has pierced his wall to make a new window. It has caused sickness in the village. We protest against his lack of consideration; he should have taken precautions. Perhaps we are also saying that he should not have done what others do not do. And fung shui objections become intensified when those who have been held to be at fault are outsiders: strangers or the government. For then the community as a whole can be united in its determination to defend its interests.\n\n65. A village is not just the ground on which its fields are made and its houses stand. It is the whole area which, by custom, falls within the control of the community. When the British arrived they acknowledged rights not only to building sites and cultivations, registering these rights in the land records, but also to a wider village territory within which the local population had certain privileges, especially for burying their dead, grazing their beasts, and collecting fuel. Villagers stand by these rights in the sense that intrusion is resented and attempts made to force trespassers to pay for their boldness if they cannot, or it is not desirable that they be, excluded. The immigrant vegetable-grower or poultry-farmer may think that he has acquired the right to put up a shack but he may find himself the centre of a dispute from which he can extricate himself only by paying a sum of money. An industrialist may have all the necessary permits but he may be forced to come to terms with the people in whose area he wishes to operate. The wise immigrant and the wise industrialist make their terms before they begin to build. Similarly, the government undertaking public works may fall foul of objections which are phrased in fung shui language. A hole is being drilled; a child falls sick; the work must stop.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207991, "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-1977", "page_number": 30, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "14\n\nLEIGH WRIGHT\n\nAt the height of Brunei's \"golden age\" the earliest contacts with Europeans occurred. The best records of the early contacts are found in the account of Antonio Pigafetta, the chronicler of Magellan's circumnavigation voyage. In 1521 Magellan's fleet visited Brunei. I quote at some length a description of Brunei under Sultan Bulkiah.4\n\nWhen we reached the city, we had to wait two hours in the prau, until there had arrived two elephants, caparisoned in silk-cloth, and twelve men, each furnished with a porcelain vase, covered with silk, to receive and to cover our presents. We mounted the elephants, the twelve men going before, carrying the presents. The present for the king consisted of a vest velvet in the Turkish fashion, a chair of purple velvet, five yards of red broad-cloth, one cap (beretoo), a gilded goblet, a glass vase with a lid, three quires of paper, and gilded inkstand. We brought for the queen three yards of yellow broad-cloth, a pair of silver-embroidered shoes, and a silver case filled with pins. We thus proceeded to the house of the governor, who gave us a supper of many dishes. Here we slept for the night on mattresses stuffed with cotton (Bambagic), and cased with silk. Next day, we were left at our leisure until twelve o'clock when we proceeded to the king's palace. We were mounted, as before, on elephants, the men bearing the gifts going before us. From the governor's house to the palace the streets were full of people armed with swords, lances and targets: the king had so ordered it. Still mounted on the elephants we entered the court of the palace. We then dismounted, ascended a stair, accompanied by the governor and some chiefs, and entered a great hall full of courtiers, whom we shall call barons of the realm (Baroni del regno). Here we were seated on carpets, the presents being placed near to us.\n\nAt the end of the great hall, but raised above it, there was one of less extent hung with silken cloth, in which were two curtains, on raising which, there appeared two windows, which lighted the hall. Here, as a guard to the king, there were 300 men with naked rapiers (stochi nudi) in hand resting on their thighs, at the further end of this smaller hall, there was a great window with a brocade curtain before it, on raising which, we saw the king seated at a table masticating betel, and a little boy,\n\nPage 30\n\nPage 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 207992, "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-1977", "page_number": 31, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "BRUNEI: A HISTORICAL RELIC\n\n15\n\nhis son, beside him. Behind him, women only were to be seen. A chieftain then informed us, that we must not address the king directly, but that if we had anything to say, we must say it to him, and he would communicate it to a courtier of higher rank than himself within the lesser hall. This person, in his turn, would explain our wishes to the governor's brother, and he, speaking through a tube in an aperture of the wall, would communicate our sentiments to a courtier near the king, who would make them known to His Majesty. Meanwhile, we were instructed to make three obeisances to the king with the joined hands over the head, and raising, first one foot and then the other, and then kissing the hands. This is the royal salutation.\n\nBy the means pointed out, we made it to be understood by him that we belonged to the King of Spain, who desired to live in peace with His Majesty, and wished for nothing more than to be able to trade in his island. The king answered that he would be much pleased to have the King of Spain for his friend, and that we might have wood, water, and trade in his dominions, at our pleasure. This done, the presents were submitted, and as each article was exhibited, the king made a slight inclination of the head. To each of us was then given some brocade, with cloth of gold and silk, which were placed on the shoulder and then removed, to be taken care of. After this, we had a collation of cloves and cinnamon, when the curtains were drawn and the window closed. All the persons present in the palace had their loins covered with gold-embroidered cloth and silk, wore poniards with golden hilts, ornamented with pearls and precious stones, and had many rings on their fingers.\n\nWe remounted the elephants and returned to the house of the governor. Seven men preceded us, bearing the presents which had been given to us, and as soon as we reached the house, to each of us was given his own, the cloths being laid on the left shoulder, as had been done in the king's palace. To each of these seven men we gave recompense for their trouble a couple of knives. After this there came to the house of the governor ten or twelve porcelain saucers with the flesh of various animals, this is, of calves, capons, pullets, peafowls (?), and others, and various kinds of fish, so that of meat alone there were thirty or two-and-thirty dishes. We supped on the ground on mats of palm-leaf. At each mouthful we drank a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208193, "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-1977", "page_number": 232, "title": "RAS-1977", "content_text": "216\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nhead for the hall, the result is that the hall would bring about Great Wealth (大富)\n\nOn the ancestral hall itself, it is apparent that it is being surrounded by green mountains and beautiful streams. Its walls are finely made and its direction is carefully orientated so as to suit the Dragon form. The rooms inside are spacious, comfortable, and neatly packed together. In front of it is Shau Sing Kung Shan (壽星宮山) (\"Long-life mountain\") and on the left of it is Kwun Yam Shan (觀音山). All these signs imply that from here “Great Nobility\" (貴) would appear. Its form, so magnificent, calls for the Red Bird (朱雀) to lead the way (朱雀護送迎) and the Green Dragon and White Tiger to kneel (†). It drives the ranges to curl around it and the stars to look after the outlet. Every mountain, no matter how far comes to guard the cave, and every stream comes to gather round the hall. This indicates \"Great Wealth\" (大富). Thus the window of Heaven is made open and the door of Hell is tightly shut.\n\nThis is the best Dragon form. It should foster great wealth and great nobility. It explains why the Tang clan has had so much success in wealth, fame, and in civil examinations, as compared with the other villages in Pat Heung (八鄉). Of course, it owes very much to the keen choice of Fung-shui by the Tang ancestors. Hong Kong, 1973\n\nJOHN THOMAS Kamm\n\nBEAN SKIM (豆漿皮); A PRODUCT OF BLOOD & SWEAT FROM THE MAKERS\n\nBean skim is a traditional rural product in the Tsuen Wan District of the New Territories of Hong Kong. The following account was written by WAN Chung-yan of Pun Shan Village, Chai Wan Kok, Tsuen Wan on 12.1.1976, at the Hon. Editor's request.\n\nBean skim is a kind of bean product of rich nourishment. In the age when the electric motor had not yet been invented, such product was really a product of blood and sweat from the makers.\n\nThe making of bean skim is easily described. Choose the best yellow beans, dry them under the sun and peel them. Then soak the beans in water and crush them into a paste. After filtering off the refuse, boil them in a pot. Skim off the upper layer of foam. Keep heating the paste at a certain temperature until a thin layer", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1977.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208609, "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": 66, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n39\n\nmattresses. As the Bishop's house is built on the side of a hill, as are in fact practically all the houses in Hong Kong, the outer wall of our dugout, facing north, was on a level with the garden, so as an extra precaution against bomb fragments, a heavy loose stone wall had been built up outside as high as the ceiling. There was but one small window and this we covered up in accordance with the blackout regulations. In this emergency dugout, His Excellency, Fathers Craig and Downs slept a little more securely than in the upper rooms. Father Rosello, however, kept to his upper room. One night, during the early days of the war, we were rudely awakened by a terrific blast, which must have shaken the whole island. We could hear fragments of shells or bombs falling just outside of our improvised loose stone wall, and it seemed as if the Cathedral had been hit with a salvo of shells. We could learn nothing that night and after a while returned to our couches.\n\nLater we heard the story. It seems that the British had a large store of dynamite or TNT on Green Island and it was decided to transfer this explosive to the Hong Kong shore. For this duty a squad of volunteers was chosen, comprising some British and Chinese police. As the story goes, they were instructed to leave Green Island at a certain predetermined time, but in some way or other, they started earlier. As their boat containing this high explosive neared the Hong Kong side, someone, fearing it was an enemy vessel, fired on it, and that was the tremendous explosion that shook the whole island, and which blew all those brave volunteers into eternity.\n\nAs was remarked above, the Bishop's house is situated on quite an eminence overlooking the harbor, and consequently we had a real grandstand view of the attack on Hong Kong. From our vantage point we saw shells fall in various parts of Kowloon; saw them encircle and finally land directly on Stonecutters Island, a fortified zone in the harbor; heard them whistle over our heads and strike the Navy Yard and other points to the east, and the Peak to the South. We could not see the shelling and bombing of Mount Davis, another fortified zone, but we could hear distinctly enough. From our vantage point we watched ships burning and scuttled in the eastern approaches to the harbor; we saw planes circling over Lyemoon forts, we saw the feeble anti-aircraft actions against the marauding planes. The fire from these ack-ack guns seemed brisk", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208624, "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": 81, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "54\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\ntip of a soldier's nose; then another came along a little later and gave the poor man a cigarette. Such action was noticed often; some of the Japanese being cruel, or at least stern, while others were quite humane. Later on we learned that these wounded British Tommies were thrown out through a window and bayonetted to death. During actual hostilities the Japanese took no prisoners, but once the armistice was signed, prisoners' lives were respected.\n\nSitting on the floor from time to time we heard loud knocking and pounding throughout the upper floors of our house. Later we found out that the Japanese had broken in the panels of many of the doors leading to the rooms. At one time, also, a machine gun was carried into the house, set up on one of the back verandahs for action, as there were apparently some British soldiers still in the vicinity of our house. From time to time a Japanese soldier would pass by and ask “Time?” at which some unsuspecting padre would show his wrist watch and then the soldier would reach out his hand for the watch.\n\nThus the day wore on. Case upon case of our precious foodstuffs were being carried out and we could see a growing pile of discarded bottles and cans on our front lawn. A Japanese could open a can or a bottle and if the taste or smell was not to his liking, he forthwith threw the can away. As mentioned earlier in this narrative, we had barricaded the door leading into the downstairs chapel with mission boxes to avoid being hit by stray bullets, and when the Japanese found that this entrance was more convenient for their looting, they immediately chopped in the door and removed the barricading boxes. This coupled with the fact that the British soldiers were found in our house must certainly have increased their suspicions of our status, and apparently they could not figure us out.\n\nAlong about four or four-thirty one of the soldiers stooped down and raised the hem of Father Murphy's cassock. What he saw, a pair of khaki trousers, evidently removed all suspicions and sealed our fate. For we were all ordered to stand up and take off our cassocks. We were then searched, told to stand in line and tied together in twos, threes and fours, with our hands behind our backs. This accomplished, with one soldier leading and another bringing up the rear we were led out of the front door and down our front road. I do not know what the thoughts of the others were, but I", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208627, "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": 84, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n57\n\nwe saw a number of flower pots, a pile of lumps of clay, a few boards, a couple of ramshackle old beds which had long outlived their usefulness, a couple of large water jars and odds and ends of debris, together with a small portion of the family (or was it the gardener's) wash still hanging on a line. One window gave us a little light, but no air, the only air coming in through the crack between the door and the wall. Into this space, say sixteen by eighteen (a generous estimate) we, some thirty-four prisoners of war, were thrust, the door closed and a guard on duty outside.\n\nTaking further stock of our new quarters in the gathering dusk, for by now the sun had sunk behind our hill, we found we were on a concrete floor, at least that part which was not covered with debris. Kicking some of this aside we began to see if we could find enough space in which at least to lie down for the night, as it was now rapidly getting dark. We were still tied up and were given to understand that if we got loose, we would be shot, so we tried to sit or lie down on the concrete floor, but tied as we were, with our hands behind our backs and two and three and four tied together on one rope, it was almost impossible to maintain any position for more than a few minutes. If one of a group sat down, the rest perforce had to follow suit. For a time we tried sitting back to back in order to get some rest, but even that was too tiring. As remarked above, Father Szeliga and Michael were not tied, and they did yeoman service for us in picking up the debris and piling it in corners and under the two rickety beds. Every once in a while the guard would pass by and peek in through the crack. When he did so everyone was as quiet as a mouse for we were also given to understand that we were to make no noise.\n\nJust before dark our door opened a little and a sentry called for three of us to come out. The ones nearest the door were Fathers Tackney, Knotek and O'Connell. At first we thought our time had come, but when the purpose was revealed, namely, to carry a few sand bags, we breathed easier. Finally we lay or sat down in order to try to get some sleep. Outside by this time there was almost an unnatural stillness, the booming of guns had stopped and we wondered what was happening. However, stretched out on the floor in almost every conceivable pose, we could not get to sleep, and in desperation we sought means to get loose from our bonds, come what may. One had already succeeded in loosening his own hands", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208632, "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": 89, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "62\n\nREVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS\n\nWe did not know quite what he meant, but as he repeated these words, he made a motion towards our house on the hill. We interpreted all this to mean that peace had been concluded and that we were free to return to our house. We pointed to our house and he nodded his head. We leave our feelings to be imagined by the reader as we prepared to return.\n\nPicking up our few belongings, and, of course, the food which Major Kerr had kindly secured for us, and bidding goodbye to the British soldiers, we trudged back to our house. Be it confessed however, that we were not too hilarious as we did not know what awaited us above. Reaching our front lawn, we found Japanese soldiers in the house. They looked at us with unemotional faces and refused to allow us to enter. So we sat on the lawn until almost dusk when they said we might stay in our lower chapel. Entering in we found the place fairly presentable, though the odor in some spots was none too pleasant. We opened the window, did a little cleaning up, and settled down for the night, sleeping on the floor between the altars.\n\nDuring the night the temperature fell considerably, as only it can in South China, and as we had but a couple of blankets, and only a few had retrieved their cassocks, so we shivered. We would fall asleep only to be awakened by the cold. Then a walk over and around other sleeping forms, and another attempt to sleep. We had fixed up toilet facilities as best we could under the circumstances in the corridor and finally the dawn came. Before retiring we had managed to get a cup of our now famous stew by building a temporary fireplace just outside the chapel door, up against the walls of our building.\n\nAs the day dawned, we were up and trying to get warm by walking around, until our culinary staff announced breakfast, which was similar to the previous night's supper. During the morning we were allowed to walk around outside on the lawn, managed to improve our fireplace, picked up some firewood and carried water from our garage tap. As the soldiers were still in the building, we were not supposed to go beyond our lower chapel, but now and then during the day one or two of us would venture through the building. Sometimes we were unmolested, at other times we were warned to keep out, with a grunt. On these occasional forays we contrived to retrieve some of our belongings, such as clothing,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208699, "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": 156, "title": "RAS-1979", "content_text": "The Maryknoll Mission, Hong Kong 1941-46\n\n129\n\nSpirit School is on the way to the Cathedral; the writer stopped for a little chat with the Sisters and, while having tea with Sister Paul, we were suddenly startled by a series of explosions. We rushed to the window overlooking the harbor and Kowloon, and there, right in front of us along the Kowloon dock area, were a number of columns of smoke rising. Hong Kong had been bombed! American planes? Of course, we could not know, but it was not hard to conjecture. Yes, some eight or twelve American planes based in China had actually bombed Hong Kong. As they came over the city and dropped their deadly missiles, the numerous Japanese planes previously flying around were nowhere to be seen, but evidently the Japanese had wind of an approaching bombing. Later on, we heard varying and conflicting reports of dog-fights over the New Territories and of both Japanese and American planes being shot down, but we had no means of verifying them. In any event, we felt like hurrahing, though we were just a little frightened at renewed bombing. This took place around three o'clock, and after the hubbub had died down, we started for the Cathedral, meeting on the way some of our confreres from Bethany who had just arrived. Japanese soldiers were on the streets, and an occasional truckload, fully accoutred, passed by. The Procession was scheduled for five o'clock, but arriving there we learned that because of the disturbance it had been called off. Then we began to wonder if there would be martial law, and whether we, being enemy nationals and Americans, would be allowed to roam the streets back to our home. However, nothing untoward happened, and we got the bus as usual at the University for Pokfulam. During the actual bombing, the few people I noticed on the streets did not seem to be very much perturbed and walked along nonchalantly. No doubt, they were rejoicing inwardly.\n\nThat night we felt pretty cheery at Bethany, and after discussing the incident and its possible effects, we retired as usual. At about half past one the next morning, we were awakened by another crash of bombs, though fainter. Hong Kong was getting it again in bright moonlight. The raiders dropped their load and immediately sped away. Well, things began to happen, and everybody was on the qui vive. The next day, Japanese planes were in the sky all day, looking for more visitors. On the following Wednesday, the American eagles swooped down again on Hong Kong with a few missiles of good will. At the moment, there were no Japanese planes in the air, and the American fliers raced away.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1979.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208954, "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": 116, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "84\n\nDAVID LUNG\n\ncockloft reached by a ladder may be added to provide for additional storage or sleeping space. The front and back rooms are gable roofed, while a portion of the courtyard may be covered to provide shelter for cooking. The walls are load-bearing structures, 12-in cavity walls, made out of greyish bricks of Kwangtung size (11″X 5\" x 3\"), manufactured in regions along Sikiang, West River. Some houses have three to five courses of granite stone on the facade running up from the foundation. Clay roof tiles laid in single layers are supported by rafters spaced roughly 8 in apart. The rafters are in turn placed on beams of fir or pine roughly 6 in in diameter supported by end walls. Window openings are rare and do not belong to the original design. Light is let in through doorways opened to the courtyards and the lanes. The front door openings are usually 8 ft tall and 3.4 ft wide closed by a set of timber doors from the inside and another set of shutters about 5 ft from the outside. Decorative reliefs called hua-liang are commonly found above door openings.\n\nThe planning of the village is based on fung-shui principles. Fung-shui, literally meaning wind-water, is a form of divination based on topographical and architectural features, and is commonly translated as geomancy. It is a science (or quasi-science) which deals with the analysis of the formation of the landscape in selecting sites for graves, buildings, villages or even cities. The notion of siting of towns and buildings by means of oracle divination can be attributed to Shang times from the Chou records,\n\nSchools of Geomancy\n\nThere have been two schools of geomancy since Sung times: the Fukien School and the Kiangsi School. The former puts more emphasis on li, the earth pattern, su, number theories based on the trigrams and hexagrams of the I Ching, and hsiu, astrological elements, which consequently depend more on the use of the compass. The Kiangsi School, on the other hand, looks for ch'i, the cosmic breath, and hsiang, the forms of mountains and watercourses, and so, the use of the compass is subordinate. However, the two schools have fused together since the 19th century.\n\nli # su #\n\nI Ching 易經\n\nhsiu 宿 ch'i hsiang\n\nhua-liang #", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208997, "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": 159, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n127 \n\nand gong, and a chi lin dancing, go over to greet the car. More fire crackers are set off to frighten away any evil spirits still around. The bridegroom gets out, dressed in a Western dinner jacket, white shirt with elaborate red-edged ruffles down the front, followed by other relatives, and then the bride. She is dressed in the traditional red kwa—a two-piece jacket and skirt made of satin and elaborately sequinned and embroidered, and hired for the day from a shop in Taipo. On her feet are red wooden-soled clogs with red plastic uppers, in her hair red ornaments, and carrying a pink feather fan. \n\nBefore she steps out of the car, two old women go to meet her. One is carrying a pair of black fu in a bamboo sieve to indicate the bride has older unmarried brothers or sisters or to indicate male dominance? This is carried over the bride's head as she progresses to the house. The other old lady places two bamboo sieves, with red painted circles in the centre, one after the other on the ground for the bride to step in as she walks. The sieves are rolled vertically over each other in a ceremonial fashion, and don't actually make contact with the ground until they are horizontal. The procession moves slowly towards the houses, the bride stepping in the sieves with each step, and following the chi lin, cymbal and gong players and the groom. When she reaches the groom's house, she steps over hot cinders in the doorway. She goes into the house to the back room which is their bedroom, and sits on the bed, with other female relatives and friends. The other villagers and guests then queue up through the house to take turns to peer through the window and doorway into the bedroom, to watch a first glimpse of the newcomer to the village. All the while, the mah jong and Chinese music continues. \n\nDaam, the Chinese term for a dowry, have been exchanged a week before the wedding. After negotiations between the match-maker and the two families, the proper amounts of money, food and livestock etc have been given to the bride's family by the groom's. The marriage has already been registered. \n\nAt 12.45 while the mah jong and music continues, men are seen going into the chi tong to light candles and incense in preparation for the actual ceremony of ancestor worship, which forms an important part of the marriage ceremony. On the altar in the chi tong is a large selection of edible items, including plucked and cooked chickens, pieces of pork, bowls containing sweetmeats etc,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209028, "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": 190, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "158\n\nNOTES AND QUERIES\n\nYET ANOTHER LIBRARY\n\nIn his Korea, published by William Heinemann of London in 1904, Angus Hamilton has a good deal to say about John McLeavy Brown, C.M.G., LL.D., formerly Treasurer-General of that Kingdom and, when he wrote, Chief Commissioner of Customs, that is, of the Korean Customs.\n\nHamilton writes (pp. 85-86):\n\nIn his official life he represents a type of Englishman that is rapidly disappearing from our public services. His private life reflects the culture and the grace of an attractive personality. They say, in Seoul, that Mr. McLeavy Brown is more skilful as a diplomatist than as an administrator; and his brilliant conversational powers give some colour to the assertion. Upon arrival in Seoul, newcomers are apt to hear that \"Brown is a walking encyclopædia.\" He speaks, reads and writes with equal facility French, German, Italian and Chinese. It will be remembered that he is in the service of the Korean Government, a sphere of utility and activity which demands fluency in yet another language. His library attests the breadth of his culture; it numbers some 7000 volumes, and fills the walls of the rooms and corridors of his house at Seoul from floor to ceiling. Boxes of new books arrive by every mail. When he reads them it is difficult to conjecture. At night, as one strolls from the British Legation to the Station Hotel, the lights in his study window may be seen burning brightly. He is believed to sit up with his books very often until dawn. It would be typical of this silent self-contained man if he found in the pleasures of his library the antidote to much which takes place in Seoul.\n\nMcLeavy Brown appears in the contemporary Who's Who in the Far East 1906-7 published by the China Mail, Hong Kong, in June 1906, where he appears as 'ex-Head of Customs and Controller of Finance, Corea', having resigned in 1905 and gone on tour abroad in April following. He had been appointed a Student Interpreter in China in 1861 and was Acting Chinese Secretary in the British Legation at Peking 1871-72, resigning in 1872. He was later appointed a Commissioner in the Chinese Customs and appointed Commissioner-General of Customs, Corea.\n\nI am here less concerned with the man himself, despite his stature and later career which can be followed in the Dictionary of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209766, "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": 25, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "In fact a pair of monkeys liked the place and seemed to want to join up. They would scamper all around the house as if they owned it. However, as they were not housebroken they were a nuisance. One day a very religious monkey was found in the chapel. He ran into the sacristy and the door was slammed on him. Then the tennis net was brought up to capture him. The door was flung open, and in charged the priests with the net flying. The monkey was so frightened that he smashed right through the window and disappeared in the woods. Apparently he had decided he didn't want to be a monk after all.\n\nThere were no great incidents at the house till the war came in 1941. Incidentally, I was ordained in 1941 and arrived in Hong Kong the night before Pearl Harbor on the last of the Pan Am Flying Clippers. And today happens to be the anniversary of the starting of the war!\n\nIt was dusk on that Dec. 7th as we drove from the airfield out to Stanley, so we didn't see much of the city. Next morning when I was saying Mass in the lower chapel, there were big explosions and the altar jumping around. I thought this is probably the way they start every day in the East. Then when I came down to breakfast, the news had been received on the radio that the Japanese were attacking Hong Kong. We also got the first uncensored reports on Pearl Harbor. As the Japanese army gradually conquered Hong Kong Island, many refugees came to take shelter in the house. The Salesian Fathers had brought out a group of orphans and taken over a part of the house. Some military were also quartered in the house. With us nine new arrivals, the staff etc. there were some thirty people. The war started on Monday, so on Tuesday we as aliens had to go downtown to register. The bus went through Aberdeen, right past Mt. Davis, a big British military installation. The Japanese were bombing this all day, and so we spent practically all day jumping on and off buses, diving into the gutters along the roadside or darting into air raid shelters. We arrived in town just in time to catch the last bus home. However, after dark, the bus only went as far as Repulse Bay and we had to walk the rest of the way. With us were two Carmelite Sisters who had been to town to buy provisions for the siege. As we came down the road into Stanley", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209819, "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": 78, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "56\n\nwith kuk (*) and the other with mai (*), and candles and joss-sticks placed standing in the rice. Worshipping takes place at the shrines of the earth god (t'o tei £) and kitchen god within the house. If the applicant can still afford it, he holds a feast for friends and relatives who often bring presents of mirrors and furniture.\n\n12. Some Fung Shui (¥) Problems\n\n(a) Certain localities, particularly hills, are sometimes regarded as throwing out good or bad influences, according to the animal which the locality represents. In the same manner, strong objections are frequently raised to the opening of windows in a house that faces some other house or temple. The window represents the open mouth of a tiger ready to swallow up the occupants of the building facing it. A lamp flashing in the direction of a house is equally obnoxious.\n\n(b) Antidotes to these evil rays or influence are often difficult to apply. One method is for the aggrieved householders to put up a paat kwa (^) or eight-sided diagram on the outside of their house. Alternatively, a mirror sometimes will suffice to reflect the evil rays. A third method is to erect some effective barrier in between, such as trees or bamboos, with a temporary wall until the trees have attained sufficient height and bushiness to be an effective screen.\n\n(c) These objections are for the most part confined to Cantonese rather than Hakka (). However, because of their greater belief in animism, Hakka (*) are the more concerned with fung shui (¥) trees and rocks, damage to which they will strenuously oppose.\n\n13. Oaths\n\n(a) Before the lease of the New Territories to the Crown in 1898 and the coming of British law, the question of which party to a dispute was telling the truth was customarily settled by a form of trial by ordeal in a temple. Both parties would attend at a mutually agreed temple (miu, never a clan temple or Tsz t'ong) with witnesses and all interested villagers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209999, "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": 258, "title": "RAS-1983", "content_text": "236\n\nthe eaves: this may originally have been painted. It is hoped to remove the carved doorway pillars and preserve them for re-erection at a suitable location within the village.\n\nExternal and Internal Walls\n\nApart from the entrance facade the internal and external walls were built in two styles. At either end of the building the walls which would have taken the weight of the transverse gables were made of granite rubble blocks, packed with granite chips and with patches of blue brick here and there, the whole heavily plastered on both internal and external faces. This granite rubble construction extended to a point about 8' above the floor, above which the walls were predominantly of roughly coursed blue brick. The granite rubble blocks of these walls were not coursed and were only very roughly shaped. This method of construction is that usual for village houses in Shatin down to about 1950. In order to give a smooth finish to the walls the plaster was laid in some places up to 1½ to 2\" in thickness. At one place it could be seen that the plaster had been laid on in 5 layers, the outer layer possibly dating from the time when the squatters took the premises over.\n\nRunning back from the main entrance were two walls which divided the area under the entrance gable into three sections. These walls were built of the same granite rubble and blue brick construction as the external walls, and would have helped carry the transverse gables. The entrances to the two outer of these three sections had each a threshold granite paving slab. There were no signs of sockets for doors surviving at these entrances. The eastern of these outer sections contained a window though the entrance front. This appears to have been an original feature as it had been blocked by the squatters, and had been provided with a plaster hood moulding. These outer sections, each measuring about 11′ 6\" x 7' were probably used as village stores.\n\nThe sections of the side walls facing the Incense Smoke Tower, however, which would have carried only the weight of the light lateral lean-to roofs were made of a weak construction of mud brick with no blue brick or stone stiffening. These walls were also plastered heavily on both internal and external faces.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1983.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210585, "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": 192, "title": "RAS-1985", "content_text": "173\n\ncrows come into the city to roost, as it is warmer than their summer estates.\n\nThey are really Chinese crows for they quarrel a great deal and like to live huddled together. I have seen hundreds sleeping in one tree and they make little villages at nesting time. Several times have I seen as many as eight nests in one tree and it's rarely you see just one. They are great thieves too and carry away a great many eggs. Any one keeping chickens has to watch closely for the eggs for the crow is cute enough to hear the hen cackle and immediately flies down and off with the egg. I have seen a crow sit for a long time watching one of our hens in the nest just waiting his chance, and another time he got it but as he flew it fell and then he sat a long time on the wall debating how it happened. Perhaps he thought of the rhyme \"All the king's horses and all the king's men could never put Humpty-dumpty together again.\"\n\nI still have bats; fear of them is a thing of the past. They live somewhere in the peaks of the roof. I had to have the roof mended not long ago for every rain saw me placing basins and pails around. And the roof mender nearly landed through twice, much to my consternation. I had quite a roof garden of blooming fungi, but he swept it all away. I don't know what it is, whether it's fungus or cactus, but it grows on roofs and walls and has a very pretty white flower, very waxy looking.\n\nMy house is separated from the two-story house by a little garden which I told you before. In the picture I haven't put anything in the garden, but in front of the right-hand window is a grape arbor and vines, in front of the arbor is an old pomegranate tree. The width of the garden is all that belongs to us that way, but our compound is long from the front to the back. If you would be interested in a plan of the compound I can send you a rough one on request.\n\nWe have many unfriendly neighbors in the back lane and Mr. Malcolm is trying to do something for them, so every day just about the time they are eating their food we three stand at the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1985.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210862, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1986", "page_number": 213, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "196\n\nCARL SMITH\n\n\"nese language to watch over the proceedings.\"\n\nThe effective discipline maintained by the associations within the Chinese community and their benevolent activities outweighed the danger of their usurpation of the functions of the officially constituted institutions to maintain law and order, so that, in spite of the apprehension they aroused, they were permitted to continue their activities.\n\nToday the Committee of the Six Companies represent the conservative, wealthy portion of the San Francisco Chinese community. In recent years their recognised control has been challenged by an influx of youth with Hongkong Triad Society background. This challenge to community authority has produced many problems in San Francisco's Chinatown with an upsurge of extortion, gang fights and murder.\n\nEven in A-chick's time the authority of the associations did not go unchallenged by other groups. An incident occurred in 1855 in which A-chick as community leader tried to act as peacemaker. A meeting with this end in mind was convened, but in the course of the meeting, Tong A-chick had to leave unceremoniously by leaping from a second-storey window.\n\nA street fight between two rival secret societies led up to the incident. The Hung Shun Tong Society was the established group, but its power was challenged by the E Shing Society. When the members of one of the rival groups wanted to enter a Chinese place of entertainment which was controlled by the other group, they were refused admission. The reason given in the newspaper account was \"because they spoke a different dialect from the proprietors of the house.\"\n\nThe next night the two groups were out in force with axes, knives, bamboos and bottles. The Hung Shun Tong could rally more fighters and routed the weaker E Shing group.\n\nThe fight occurred just below the quarters of the Canton Merchants Association rooms in Sacramento Street where a meeting had been called to investigate the causes of the previous night's", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 210863, "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": 214, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "197\n\ndisturbance. Tong A-chick was in charge. Some of the combatants of the previous night were present. They were from the E Shing Society which was a bitter enemy of the Yeung Wo Association, of which Tong A-chick was one of the directors.\n\nThey questioned his impartiality. Tempers flew, threats were made, and blows exchanged. The climax came when a group of armed men rushed into the meeting from the street attempting to break it up. A-chick sought the nearest exit, a window. Flying through it, he landed on a sheet iron awning which collapsed with a terrible clatter.\n\nHis unceremonious exit and consequent clatter stopped the turmoil inside the building, but it roused the neighbourhood.\n\nIn due time the police arrived. The whole lot were hauled into court for disturbing the peace and riotous behaviour.\n\nThe E Shing group tried to claim that it was all due to the presence of Tong A-chick, who had tried to act as mediator. He, as usual, ably defended himself, “reciting every circumstance of the occurrence in a clear and impartial manner, in the English language, with which he was perfectly conversant.”\n\nOccasionally the associations were given a favourable notice in the press. In 1853 a band of desperadoes had been harassing the countryside. A Company of Rangers had captured the leader of the gang, a man named Joaquim, and thus brought an end to the terrorising.\n\nTong A-chick, as representative of the Chinese district associations, presented a cash gift to the Rangers in appreciation. The San Francisco Herald commented: “The Chinese here, although in no manner bound, have with commendable liberality come forward with this contribution of $1,000 in token of their appreciation of the Rangers' services. They have proved themselves in this city on many occasions a liberal and public-spirited people.”\n\nTong A-chick as leader in the Chinese community during its first decade in California guided it through a difficult period. His", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211408, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 124, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "100\n\nUnfortunately Ngit Chiu, who went to Honolulu and worked as a carpenter, became addicted to opium. A burial permit dated 15 November 1924 states clearly that he had died of an overdose. Whenever he visited us, and that was not often, he would borrow from Father, who would give him only a few dollars since he disapproved of Ngit Chiu's drug habit. In 1919 when I visited his foster mother in the village, she inquired about him because she had not heard from him for many years, but I was forewarned not to tell her about his circumstances.\n\nJok King, the fifth son, also died in his 20s and left a daughter, Iu Dai, but no male issue. Likewise, Jok Sau ‘gave' another of his sons, Dai Geng, to this brother. Dai Geng did not live long and left a widow with several sons in Canton where he had been working in a bank. Jok King's widow and daughter remained in the village. They were both quite agitated the day Aunt Auyoung and I visited them, as they related how someone had tried to get into their home by ladder via a rear window. Aunt Auyoung did not seem to feel the incident really happened, tried to be very reassuring and told them no one would dare to harm them because First Uncle would not allow it. Iu Dai is said to be the first and only old maid in our village. Because her mother was so selective of a husband for her, when she reached 18, she was considered too old to be sought after. Even though she was a victim of an old culture, the village youths would tease her about it. During World War II when no one could send support to her, I heard that she had to go out to beg for food.\n\nAfter Great Grandfather's death, his business continued under Jok Jun, after whose death Grandfather took over. The business failed under his management, reportedly due to a bad loan to Grandmother's family for the operation of an oyster farm. This is the reason given why no photographs of grandmothers in our family were preserved – certainly misplaced hostility. Grandfather therefore decided to emigrate to Hawaii to seek a livelihood and hopefully to be able to return the depositors their money. According to Second Uncle's wife, when she was left in the village, she often had to hide from the creditors. Many years later, First Uncle paid these debts on a percentage basis.\n\nMy grandmother, surnamed Au, was born on 23 January 1846. She was a native of Joo Poo Tau Village, and was related to...", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211532, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1988", "page_number": 249, "title": "RAS-1988", "content_text": "WINDOW\n\nSUPPORT BEAM\n\nPIGPEN\n\nASHDUMP\n\nLATRINE\n\nPLANK\n\nPIGPEN\n\nGAP\n\nBAMBOO ARMREST\n\nDOOR\n\nPLANK\n\nBRICK COLUMN\n\nSTEP\n\nGABLE\n\nDOOR\n\nEAVES OVERHANG\n\nWINDOW\n\nGABLE\n\nURINE PIT\n\nWINDOW\n\nCATTLESHED OR STORE\n\nTRADITIONAL LATRINE AT WO HANG\n\n*\n\n2\n\n3\n\nFEET\n\nWINDOW\n\n225", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1988.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211676, "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": 91, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "66\n\nAnother time the alarm went, due to a slight misunderstanding at one of the gates. It was approaching dusk and the sailor sentry, who had no doubt been standing guard at this particular gate at the back of the Concession for some time, was beginning to get bored. The gates, of wood, with a small window through which persons on the far side could be inspected, were open. Outside stood a row of hawker's stands, for the most part purveying cooked foods to the coolies who passed in and out. The stand nearest to the sentry held a large copper pan, of the sort in which rice is cooked, over a small fire. At the moment the pan was empty, and the sentry, being of an enquiring mind, wondered what would happen if he put a rifle cartridge in it. The experiment produced a loud bang and several holes through the bottom of the pan. An infuriated hawker, supported by increasing numbers of excited fellow tradesmen, shouted curses at the sentry and loudly demanded large sums of money in compensation for the damage done. At the sound of the explosion the naval guard in a near-by house turned out. The petty officer in charge was a great barrel of a man, an old tarpaulin of long service in many parts of the world where opportunities for cultivation of that diplomatic tact, in which the Royal Navy is so accomplished, must have been numerous. In less time than it takes to tell he had the situation well in hand, had paid one dollar compensation for the damage done, had closed the gates, and had nipped an incipient riot in the bud. It was considered unwise to allow a \"matelot\" of such an enquiring mind ashore again, and for the remainder of that destroyer's stay at Kiu Kiang he was confined to his ship.\n\nLate on an afternoon early in January, 1927, as the river water swirled past the hulks under the hard light of the wintry sun, a strange tall man walked down the Bund, accompanied by a number of Chinese dressed in civilian clothes. He wore the collarless buttoned-up jacket, the knee-high black leather boots, and the little leather-peaked brown cap, of one of Borodin's officers. His companions were members of the Revolutionary Kuo Min Tang party. They moved along looking at the houses, at the cross-roads, and at the foreshore, talking and gesticulating. Outside the Consulate they paused to read the pink posters and the green posters. They were planning the organisation of riots, the object of which would be to draw fire from the British sailors guarding the gates. The bodies of a few dead Chinese rioters, shot by the blackguard Imperialists, would provide excellent fuel to inflame still further the feelings of an excited populace; and would at the same time give ammunition for the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211678, "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": 93, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "68\n\nmembers of the Kiu Kiang Defence Force, a small volunteer group recruited from the foreign residents. Some of the men were veterans of the Great War, and the force had originally been armed with rifles and Lewis guns provided by the Navy; however, to avoid all possible accident, these lethal weapons had been withdrawn and replaced with truncheons. Men were despatched to close the Concession gates so as to keep out accessions to the rioters from those directions, and by the exercise of a good-humoured restraint and some sang-froid the rioters were gradually dispersed and shepherded away. By nightfall all was quiet again at the cost of a few broken heads and windows, but the atmosphere remained dangerously charged with emotion.\n\nThe Consul ruled that the women and children must be evacuated that very night in a river steamer, which he had caused to be held up for the purpose. I dashed off to our small flat overlooking the tennis courts at the back of the Concession to warn my wife. We had also our two infants, the one in arms and the other just able to walk; and their dear old amah, of course, had plenty of advice to give. During the early days, while the Revolutionary Army was still attacking the Northern troops who held the city, there was a certain amount of indiscriminate shooting and shots fell amongst the houses in the Concession. One came in through our front door and down the hall. The old amah then used carefully to drape a layer of blankets on the window side of the children's cots \"to keep out the bullets\", as she would ingenuously explain.\n\nOn a large verandah outside the flat where a good view could be obtained of the back gate, the Navy had mounted a Lewis gun and installed an inlying piquet. My wife arranged to cook meals for the sailors, and what with the assistance of an occasional bottle of beer from the Club over the road, they voted that life in Kiu Kiang was not so bad. It was a change from the routine of shipboard and had one unforeseen result; the sailors made so strong an impression on our infants that when he grew up nothing would satisfy the elder boy but that he should join the Navy.\n\nNow the sailors volunteered to assist in the packing, but time was short and there was little room on the steamer for other than the bare essentials. It was more than any Chinese coolie's life was worth to be seen carrying baggage for the foreigners, and so with naval assistance husbands and bachelors helped each other to get the boxes down to the ship.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211737, "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": 152, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "127\n\nabove it which could be used as a further bedchamber. A small window lights the cockloft, and there is also a single-brick opening near the ladder to the cockloft which provides a little light. Apart from this, the only light for this area comes through the archway linking it with the Main Hall. In front of the bedchamber was a small living hall, originally with chairs and side-tables this space could also have been used as sleeping space if the number of guests was large. The nunnery Bell and Drum are housed in this area, near the arch.\n\nThe front part of the fourth section is the kitchen, with a store-room behind it. The kitchen is quite large, with a large wok built into a brick stove, and three charcoal stoves on a stone shelf. The kitchen also contains the big water jars and the guest latrine. There is no cockloft in this area; the kitchen occupies the whole space below the rafters. There are two tiny windows in the front wall of the kitchen, one above the other, to let light in and fumes out.\n\nIn the kitchen, in place of the more frequently found Kitchen God, is a paper tablet to Na Luo Wang (**捺罗王**). This rare deity, found only in monastic kitchens in the Hong Kong region, is the deity who supervises fasting and vegetarian diets, and his shrine in the kitchen is intended to ensure that the kitchen is not defiled by being used to cook meat.*\n\nThe ruins of the Lung Kai nunnery seem to show a plan similar to that of the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz. The Lung Kai nunnery was larger, forming a rectangle about 60 feet deep and a little over 60 feet broad. It was divided into five sections rather than the four of the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz. Whereas the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz faces approximately south, with the residential area on the west (to the left as you look at the building), the Lung Kai nunnery faces approximately north-west, with the residential area on the west (to the right as you look at the building). The worshipping halls at the Lung Kai nunnery were three in number, and occupied the back part of the three easternmost sections. They opened into a large Tin Tseng, which occupied the central part of all three of these sections, and which was surrounded on all four sides by a covered walkway. The Tin Tseng was one or two steps lower than the worshipping halls. The three altars were to an eighteen-armed Kwun Yam, to Yuen Tan, (2), and, it is thought, to Kwan Tai.\n\n* I am indebted to the kindness of Mr. Keith G. Stevens for the information in this paragraph.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211868, "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": 283, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "258\n\nOn Sunday my troubles began in earnest. The weather came on very rough early in the morning, and my first intimation of it was to see the water pouring in at the window, and flooding the bed. So I got out to move the bed, when over it goes to the other side of the room with a bang, which woke me up and no mistake about it. Over goes my washing table, and flooded the room again, so that I had a pond, first on one side of the room, and then every time the ship rolled, on the other. Then the boxes began to slide about, and dash first one side and then the other. Then the easy chair, hat box, umbrella, books, etc. etc. joined them, and in a few minutes over went the pan I had used for vomiting on Saturday. All these kept rolling round the room in fine confusion, and I will leave you to imagine that they in no wise helped the seasickness which fast increased. The scene was pitiable in the extreme. I never spent such a Sunday in all my life. It kept raining very hard. All I could do was to make my bed as dry as possible and stay there all day, in a most pitiable condition. I need not say that I wished myself back to Hythe, or down with the good folks at Chudleigh.*\n\nOn Monday the weather increased in fury, and we had a regular dashing about. I grew more and more seasick. We were now about 20 miles from Teignmouth, and I heartily wished the ship might be driven right in by the wind, that I could have got out, and found refuge at the old house at Chudleigh. But no, off we went close to France, and then back again to Lizard Point. Then back to Cape la Hogue in France, and then on Tuesday noon we were to the west of the Scilly Isles. About then the seasickness abated, but came on again furiously at night.\n\nThis morning I awoke a different being, as light and happy and cheerful as possible, and began to sing, and dress myself, and put my place a little straight after so much vexation and trouble. All day I have mended, and now after enjoying my tea, I feel almost right, although as thin as a red herring, having kept nothing at all on my stomach for several days. It has left me very sore at the sides with so much straining and retching, but I shall soon get over it, and be all jolly. The wind keeps right against us. The water is very rough. The ship rolls about dreadfully. During the storm, which has lasted some days, vast had been the amount of damage done to the ship, but more especially has the crockery ware suffered. It would make a person unaccustomed to such sights laugh to see us at meals. The nuisance is dreadful; but I am now a sailor, and am now grown accustomed to it. The waves are running mountains high, and all I wonder at is that we have not been dashed to pieces a hundred", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211877, "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": 292, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "267\n\nTomorrow Captain Moate and I are thinking of commencing to exercise with a pair of 18-pound shot, which for a few days will prove warm work. On Wednesday one of the men refused to go aloft to the top mast and tar the shroud on the plea of illness. But the captain made short work of it by having a rope tied round him, and hoisting him up, where he hung till the evening about eight o'clock, when he was let down, and has since been below on the sick list. The captain declares it is all sham, but I do not think so.\n\nWednesday, April 24th\n\nLast Sunday we crossed the line early in the morning. The weather was intensely hot. During the day we spoke with an outward-bound ship, the Pathfinder of Swansea, bound for Cochin in India. She had been out 39 days, and so in proportion was no better off than we are.\n\nThe hot weather makes but little difference to me. During the day the sun shines on the top of my cabin, and then at night it is like an oven, so that it is difficult to get off to sleep. I slept for some nights with no clothes on, and even now it is a trifle cooler I can only bear one sheet and the window wide open. Yet this is not nearly so hot as Hong Kong will be when we get there.\n\nWe are now going along capitally. The ship seems almost to fly through the water. We generally make about 200 miles a day. I expect now we are about 10 degrees to the south of the line. It is now 45 days since we left London. How glad I shall be when we can add another 45 to them. It begins to get rather wearisome work since it is the same thing every day, and I like a variety.\n\nThere is only one person on board, whom I can at all associate with, and that is Capt'n Moate, and he is poor company, since his views will not accord with mine. Yet I can notice a considerable improvement in him since he came on board, and once or twice I have caught him reading his Bible. I cannot help speaking out sometimes, and Capt Harper says I can never touch lightly, but I always do it with a \"regular maul\". So it shows the cap fits him.\n\nWe had rather a rough sea lately, and on Monday it made me feel rather squeamy, but today I am all right again. We have had some fine moonlight nights lately, and I have sat on the deck for hours, thinking.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211879, "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": 294, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "269\n\nnow out of the tropics, and already begin to find it much cooler; every day will now make a difference. As we reach the Cape it will be toward the middle of winter, so that we may expect to find it cold. The sea air continues to agree with me, although I very much miss being able to take exercise that is suitable. And I find it rather injurious to sleep in a cabin where the air is quite close, and the heat like an oven, even with the door and window open. Still I hope to more than make up for it in the cold weather. As it is, I am enjoying very good health, and have a good appetite, so that I ought to be thankful for them.\n\nOur fowls are beginning to get fewer every day. Yet we have I should think nearly half a hundred. Directly there is an egg laid they all begin to peck at it, and in a minute it is gone. So we watch and directly we hear the cackle we run to save the egg from being destroyed.\n\nThe poor third mate is in for it today, and has had nothing but bullying. The officers and men seem to get a day of it in turn. The captain's son, George Edward, gets it all day long. Every few moments he has a good smacking, so that if his heart does not grow tender, there is something else that does. It is disgusting to see a child, that would be quite an A 1 if properly managed, made quite a fool of, and treated worse than a dog. Captain Moate and I often have a laugh to ourselves to see their goings on. He does not forget to ridicule the way the men are managed and how things are carried on. But now I am growing quite hardened to such things and hardly notice them.\n\nWednesday, May 8th\n\nAfter a good deal of knocking and blowing about we are now a little quieter, so I take advantage thereof to add to my journal. \"We are now about a week's sail from the Cape, and probably about half the voyage is over. We had three days of very stormy weather, so that the captain says he does not remember a storm lasting so long before. During the night it was worse by far. Of course sleep was an impossibility, and long before the weather was over I was nearly used up. The ship rolled very much, and all I could do was to roll about in my berth, first to one side and then the other. But now we are all right again and going on tolerably smoothly, which I hope may continue.\n\nThe wind now blows from the south, which is the cold quarter for this part of the world. It is now as cold as it was hot a few days ago.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211883, "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": 298, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "273\n\ntask of adding to my journal. Today however the weather is more moderate, and the sun shines out quite refreshing, so as to make one feel in a little better spirits than of late.\n\nAnd now to begin the chapter of misfortunes. We went along pretty fairly till Saturday week, when the jolting of the ship, which was labouring heavily under a wind, snapped the top sail yard, which is the next to the largest in the ship. Of course it had to come down and another one to be entirely made and put up. It was an immense spar above 55 feet in length, and thick in proportion so you may imagine it was a work of time to refit a new one with all the hoops, block, etc. All day Sunday all hands were kept hard at work, and well supplied with grog, so much so that the carpenter cut away the new spar too much, and made one side of the new yard very weak. I said to myself all the way along that Sunday work and grog would be sure to bring something amiss, and was not mistaken. It took all hands till Tuesday night to put the new yard in order and readjust all the ropes and tackling.\n\nOn Wednesday the breeze grew rather strong, and the sea very heavy; on Thursday it increased, although even then it was nothing really alarming. While I was at dinner it came on to rain, and I sent Fin the Chinese youth to see if my window was closed. He came in with the startling information that my room was full of water from the sea. All my bedding was thoroughly saturated and the water covered the floor several inches, so that as the ship rolled to and fro you may imagine the scene, and the mischief done to everything. Towards night, however, I got them a little dry, and contrived to sleep as well as I could, and as dry as I could.\n\nOn Friday the breeze kept increasing and the wind rose, while the barometer fell rapidly. About eight o'clock the sea burst into my room though I had secured the window and thoroughly stopped it up. It gradually grew into a hurricane. The sails were out, and the sea dashed over the ship fearfully. The men, as I expected they would, ran and hid themselves, and no one could be found to reef the sails. Of course the men will take such an advantage when they are daily bullied and treated like dogs.\n\nAt last no one could stand on the poop, and things were quite alarming. Suddenly the wind veered round eight points, and the ship was taken very comically as you may imagine. A heavy sea came just at the same", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211886, "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": 301, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "276\n\nwas \"scarfed\" together and \"fished\" and \"dowled\", which operation has rendered it nearly as serviceable as a new one. We cannot use more than about a quarter of the sails yet, and it will take a long time to get the new masts up, and new sails made. Yet we are going along quite favourably considering, with a strong favourable wind.\n\nYesterday we were on the look out for St Paul's and Amsterdam, two small islands in the Southern Ocean. Through the chronometer's being out of order on account of the storm, we had made a wrong reckoning, and did not pass between the islands till after ten o'clock at night, when the captain came and told me to look out of my window and see them, as I was gone to bed. It was too dark to see more than the bare form of them. In fact Amsterdam was the only one I could see from my side of the ship. It is simply a rugged rock, about 15 miles long, and quite uninhabited except by sea-birds, of which a great number were soon flying round the ship.\n\nThis morning when I went on deck they were far out of sight. We ought to get to Java in 12 days if we were in good trim, but in our shattered condition we shall perhaps make nearly double the time. There will be a short stay also at Batavia to lay in stock of masts and spars to repair with. As yet we have been wonderfully favoured by the wind, and notwithstanding the storm and the fortnight tossing about in the Channel, we are four days ahead of the last voyage the ship made to Batavia. We shall now soon be going northward into warmer weather.\n\nThe captain was quite knocked up with the storm, and has not yet got over it. He does not take his meals with us yet, and Capt Moate and I are in no hurry for him to do so, for we get on far better by ourselves. In fact I may say we are good friends, and have been so all the voyage. We have never had a misunderstanding between us, and as long as he does not swear or talk improperly I do not much mind him as a companion, especially as he is a far better scholar than I am, and has resided at Hong Kong, so that I know by this time what I must expect when I get there. I have got him to read some good books, and now and then a little serious chat with him, which he submits to just to oblige me. I know all his personal history, and in fact could write an account of his life with tolerable accuracy. He is thoroughly disgusted with Capt Harper, who is quite an uneducated man, and thinks he is a perfect gent. For my own part, I never disliked anyone more than I do him. I can hardly be civil to him at times; for he acts in such a disgusting manner", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211904, "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": 319, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "294\n\nIn fact since reaching Java I never enjoyed such good health. Captain Moate continually jokes me about my stoutness. I am really getting quite a corporation, in spite of having my clothes continually saturated with perspiration. Even now as I write the perspiration stands in great drops on the backs of my hands.\n\nOur diet holds out wonderfully well, in fact we laid in a good store in Batavia. Every morning I have a great dish of rice and curry. It is a capital dish and the condiments in the curry tend to strengthen the stomach, so that I can now almost digest a brick bat. I mean to live chiefly on it at China if all is well. Today there has been a pig killed, so tomorrow there comes a feast of liver and crow and roast pork. Meat here never keeps over a day, even under the most favourable circumstances.\n\nA few days more and with a fair wind we ought to finish our journey. I shall begin to pack up tomorrow. I brought a piece of American Drilling at Batavia. I got forty yards for eight rupees. Already I have made myself two pairs of trousers and nearly finished a third. I cannot however finish them off before reaching China. All on board in the cabin dress in white, as is the universal custom in Java, and China.\n\nMy cabin is like a little oven on account of the hot sun shining on it all day. At night I sleep with my window open and of course never think of bed clothes. It is only towards morning that the temperature of the room becomes bearable. All day nearly I sit on deck under the awning, where there is generally a fresh breeze blowing when there is a breath of wind. Walking about or taking exercise is an utter impossibility on account of the heat.\n\nI find however the benefit of taking nothing of stimulative drinks. I am always myself, which is more than I can say of the rest of the folks. Only fancy a man taking these things during the day:- at seven o'clock a stiff glass of grog, made with full quarter pt [pint] of rum. Ditto at eleven, at twelve, at five, at eight and at midnight. At dinner a large glass of beer, and three or more glasses of port or sherry. I might have just as much if I liked to drink it, only I know a trick worth two of it. Captain Moate is almost if not quite a slave to spirits. He envies me for looking so stout, while he is continually troubled with a dysentery and is quite thin.\n\nA The Chinese has come off rather badly lately on account of this", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212008, "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": 423, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "398\n\n16\n\nSee Chapter 32 of the Yuet Tai Kei\n\n1\n\nWan Li edition.\n\n17 See the Map of the East Coast of the Kwangtung Province in the Ching Cho Hoi Keung To Shuet. The book was prepared in the Reign of Yung Cheng (1723-1736).\n\n18 See Chapter 10 of the San On Yuen Chi. 1819 edition.\n\n19\n\n20\n\n+\n\nSee Chapter 125 of the Kwangtung Tung Chi, 1822 edition.\n\nSee my article \"More about the Tung Lung Fort\", Vol. 22, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1982.\n\n21 See my article \"Distribution of Forts and Guard Stations on Lantau Island during the Late Ching Period\", Vol. 18, Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1978.\n\n22 See Chapter 3 of the San On Yuen Chi. 1688 edition.\n\n23\n\nSee Chapter 2 of the San On Yuen Chi, 1819 edition.\n\nTUNG LO WAN 銅鑼灣\n\nTung Lo Wan, the small bay which lies on the north coast of Hong Kong Island, got its name because it has the shape of a bronze gong. Before the 1840s, there were only a few Tanka boat people living in these small bays and anchorages. They fished in the local waters and lived in some proximity to the land people of the two nearest local villages of So Kon Po 掃管莆 and Wong Nai Chung 黃泥涌,\n\nBefore 1840, the area was known as Hung Heung Lo Shan. Legend said that in olden days, there was a red incense burner floating on to the shore which landed at the site of the Tin Hau Temple (Tin Hau Temple Road). Thus the hill was known as Hung Heung Lo Shan; and in 1810, a guard station (shuen) was posted there,\n\n+\n\nIn the early 1840s, the land around Tung Lo Wan was known as Tang Lung Chau, which means Lantern Isle. It stretched from Tai Hang 大坑, through Causeway Bay 銅鑼灣 to Kellett Island 奇力島. The incense burners placed in front of the Tin Hau Temple of Causeway Bay and the couplets inscribed by the window of the Lotus Palace of Tai Hang are evidence to this old name. The Tang Lung Chau Market in the area is important evidence, too. However, the origins of the name Tang Lung Chau are unknown.\n\nIn 1871, the Causeway Bay Police Station at Causeway Bay was built, and in 1884, 23 acres of land were reclaimed at Causeway Bay. With the construction of the causeway joining Kellett Island and the shore of\n\n!\n\n------", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212009, "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": 424, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "399\n\nTang Lung Chau, Tung Lo Wan got its new English name, Causeway Bay, from the new causeway.\n\nNowadays, the area of Hung Heung Lo Shan has been renamed Tai Hang, and Tang Lung Chau is included in the area of Causeway Bay.\n\nI\n\nNOTES\n\nANTHONY SIU KWOK-KIN\n\nThe names of So Kon Po and Wong Nai Chung first appeared in Chapter 2 of the San On Yuen Chi, Chia Ching edition XCR(85)72. This shows that they were established only after the abolition of the Edict of the Coastal Evacuation in early Ching Dynasty.\n\n2 See Chapter 12 of the San On Yuen Chi, Chia Ching edition GR1178/1922/32(III).\n\nThe Royal Hong Kong Yacht Club is situated Kellett Island which is by the entrance of the Cross Harbour Tunnel on Hong Kong side.\n\n4\n\nOn the three incense burners which are placed outside the Tin Hau Temple of Causeway Bay, the Chinese characters 'Tang Lung Chau Tin Hau Temple' can be seen.\n\n5 The couplets inscribed by the window of the Lotus Palace of Tai Hang show the name 'Lung Chau'.\n\nThe Tang Lung Chau Market dilapidation is still in existence in Jardine's Bazaar 603 in Causeway Bay.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212204, "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": 146, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "cannibalisation. Until the Japanese advance, in the autumn of 1944, flowed over Hengyang you could see a harlequinade of locomotives there in various states of disintegration. Without these reserves, saved through the foresight of the railway personnel, the Chinese would have found it impossible to maintain the service between Kukong, Hengyang, Kweilin and the west as long as they did.\n\nThere was much activity in the airfields, the civil field over at Wuchang, and the military field near the Race Club behind Hankow. From the latter the Russians were operating light bombers, which would pass over in twos and threes on missions beyond Kiu Kiang; and Russian fighters laid in wait for Japanese raids. As I was riding down the Bund one day in a rickshaw - petrol was scarce and under control - a single Russian bomber flying overhead, for no apparent reason, blew up.\n\nThe foreign married women and children had long since left Hankow. The two faded cabaret dancing-halls prospered even more than usual. Artistes, who spoke Russian with a Harbin accent, so I am told, made lots of hay; but, as will happen when news and women both are short, it was chiefly at the clubs that the men foregathered. It was the fashion to go out to the Race Club of an evening. There on the lawn after sunset you would see the British, the Americans, and the French. Hitler had recently recalled the officers of von Falkenhausen's mission, so that the usual sprinkling of German officers was missing, but occasionally Russian air-force officers came to sit huddled in a group by themselves.\n\nI was able to book a berth on a ship of the China Merchants Steam Navigation Company leaving for Kiu Kiang. It is an overnight journey. I do not propose to enlarge on the minor discomforts of travel in China. In the railway carriages, in the ships, and even in the cinemas, the bedbugs and fleas take a long rest during the winter from November to February. It was only June and so I was up on deck soon after dawn to watch the familiar banks go by. As we moved alongside the same old hulk I observed the Kiu Kiang Bund. It had grown shabbier. The process of degeneration, which appears to follow on the withdrawal of the foreigner, was evident. Flaking paint, dirty window panes, broken plaster, left their mark. The Chinese are not good at maintenance, whether it be of houses or machines.\n\nApart from Shanghai, Hankow, and Tientsin, where there were large\n\nIII", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212242, "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": 184, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "161\n\nis the loftiest room I was ever an occupant of, being 15 feet high, which is the height of all the rooms upstairs belonging to me.\n\nAThe sea view is very good, though slightly interrupted by trees, which Mr Beach advises to cut down. We now come into the verandah, which has Venetian shutters, or rather doors, which open with a view of the playground, and the whole way up the Peak and surrounding hills. Many fine villas lie around. The villas in the corner of the [ground floor plan] are very fine ones indeed, and are occupied by high families. We can see them very capitally, although they are a good height above. If it were evening by moonlight we could see the dining and drawing rooms of each house well lighted up, and hear the piano, accompanied by some good male and female voices. Sometimes I have to wait half an hour before I can sleep, till they have finished.\n\nAMy bedroom has two large windows opening to the verandah, and one the other side with a sea view. I had the bed newly painted. You will see the mosquito curtain of green gauze, which however I never want to use. There is a capital barometer which I hang up inside the window; about the best I ever saw; so that I can always know the state of the weather and temperature. Over the mantel piece hangs my picture gallery of portraits, before which I spend several odd minutes, and wish often enough I had a great many additions to it, which I expect every mail. There is a mahogany dressing table, which however I do not use, so I cover it with my “deer skin”, and use it as a side board. I forgot to point out the round mahogany table in the parlour. Next allow me to show you my pantry, etc. There are two or three [meat-] safes and cupboards, a dresser, and shelves all round piled up to the top with Chinese books. The other day I had 500 large books put up there out of the way. Here all my provisions are kept, and the food that has been prepared in the kitchen below. Beyond is a spare room, which I can in emergency use as a bedroom. Indeed it was intended for that purpose, but I never want to use it so leave it locked up. Any of my friends who can honour me with a permanent visit shall be made very comfortable there I promise them.\n\n^We now turn the corner, and enter the library, which has large doors opening to the verandah, as well as the opposite end. The breeze in the daytime is generally very refreshing through the room.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212243, "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": 185, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "162\n\nIt is a bonny great room. The books are arranged in mahogany cases round, or rather at the sides, against the side walls. In the middle is a fine mahogany table, a round ditto at the end nearest the window, where I generally sit to study and write. At the other end a sofa, and a settee, while round the room you see any number of arm chairs. You will not fail to notice the scientific apparatus, and the globes, etc. The books form about the finest collection I ever saw, except the \"Museum\".'* There is a large case of foreign bibles and testaments in every language one can think of, presented by the Bible Society. Hours and hours have I spent in looking over all the books. I shall never be able to see the inside of one fourth of them. A great number are on Theology. I noticed Dr Stevenson's works, and the Memoir of the brother of the Misses Breay at Chudleigh. There are so many books that I am quite bewildered which to read first.\n\nThere is a round cylindrical tin case, containing a copy of the Scriptures in Hebrew, found among a number of Jews in the interior of China. They are a most interesting set of people,\" and retain the Hebrew language and Jewish religion, although very much corrupted. It is supposed by those who discovered them that they are of extreme antiquity. The book is just like pictures I have seen of the Jewish Pentateuch. It is written in most beautiful Hebrew characters on soft white leather, and when unrolled would reach a long way. It is regarded as a great object of interest. Before going out of the library I will call attention to the chandeliers, and the great punkah over the large central table, where I might dine if I felt disposed, but I prefer my own snug little parlour.\n\nNext I will show you the Chinese dormitories. Each contains two rows of iron bedsteads, on which during the summer is spread a Chinese mat, and pillow, which is like a square block of wood, although soft when one gets used to it!! Each has a box at the side of his bed. I shall only allow them to go to their boxes twice a day for a quarter of an hour. The rooms are very open and airy. The students have to be very quiet, for every sound can be heard. I shall not allow a sound after the lamps are put out at nine o'clock, when all hands assemble. At the sides you will notice the masters' room, shut off by a curtain. Before the entrance on the verandah is the staircase.\n\nWe now pass through a door into the Bishop's part of the house,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212244, "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": 186, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "163\n\nand there on the right is the room I occupied for the first six days after my arrival. We will go through the verandah, and just peep into the bedrooms, and then look at the study which is a comfortable room indeed. There is a sort of bow window to the verandah where one can sit and have a most wide and delightful view of the whole town. By moonlight the scene is sublime. The bay seems quite like a sheet of silver. I will now show you the Tower Room, a compact little nook. We will go then upstairs to the Upper Tower Room, another snug little corner, and at last come out on the top of the tower, where the view is beyond description, and the air is generally cool and pleasant of an evening.\n\nHere having rested with you a short time after the fatigue of looking about, and having given you a draught of the iced water of Hong Kong, which I know you will think very refreshing and agreeable, I will conduct you downstairs to the Hall. Then taking you round the lawn, and pointing out a few of the most remarkable flowers and shrubs, I now conduct you to the gateway. As we walk down the footpath it pleases me to hear you all say you are gratified with the place; and with much gratification at having pleased you, I bow you out of the gate wishing you a safe walk home and a very good evening.\n\nToday I sit down to give an account of my domestic arrangements. Before I could commence keeping house, I had to do what everybody has to do, lay in a stock of apparatus. Accordingly there being no earthenware for me, I went and bought a good assortment of plates, dishes, knives, forks, spoons, glasses, cruet stand, sugar basin, tea cups and saucers, and other items too numerous to mention, for which I had to pay the most extravagant prices. Next come table cloths, feather dusters, shoe brushes, blacking, two large wooden tubs for washing the aforesaid crockery, dish cloths, bowls, knife board, pots and kettles, tea pot, and tea canister, and all the necessary apparatus for a single gentleman. But once fairly started I soon began to get to rights, and now I am quite at home, although I shall never regard this as a home.\n\nI have three servants. My personal servant I will first introduce to your notice. As he walks in and makes his bow, you will surely notice his fine pig-tail reaching to the ground. He little thinks how often I am almost tempted by his blunders, to catch hold of it and", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212392, "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": 334, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "311\n\nspite of his deep love for his motherland.\n\nNaturally, his pictures take pride of place in the 'Overseas Chinese Museum' which has over 6,000 exhibits portraying the Ming and Qing diaspora. The building was completed in 1956, endowed by Tan and other overseas donors. Like most similar establishments in China, information is available in Chinese only. If the People's Republic really wishes to attract overseas visitors, is it too much to ask that literature and captions be printed in English as well?\n\nThe Group also made a visit to Huli Shan Fortress, completed in 1823, which protected the entrance to the fine, deep-sea port in the lead-up to the First Opium War. The island of Quemoy, from which the Nationalist Government relayed propaganda with loudspeakers during the 'cold war', lies only 2.4 kilometres off the Communist China Mainland near this fortress.\n\nThe RAS Party later went to the Nanputuo Temple, under the towering 'Five Old Men Peak', which is an architectural masterpiece and crammed with Buddhist statuary. Renovations were in progress. It was encouraging, too, to see the local People's Patriotic Church had recently been given a facelift by the provincial government.\n\nBut impressions lie in the senses of the beholder. Some RAS Members may especially remember Xiamen for its reasonably priced seafood available, with over 600 varieties of fish compared to Hong Kong, or the edible frogs or fine noodles. There was even champagne available with the buffet breakfast!\n\n―\n\nNevertheless, for the author, the most treasured recollections are of banyans and buildings. Some of the former, with labyrinths of contorting, twisting roots, were probably growing a century-and-a-half ago, before the island became a Treaty port. The town is also a 'museum' of vernacular and colonial architecture.\n\nWhether the vantage point is Bill Job's workshop or the hotel window, a vista of old, mellowed, orange, Chinese 'roll and trough' roof tiles, with some roofs of interlocking tiles, blend in reasonably well with new structures erected often from overseas remittances. Although the more ornate, gently sloping, swallow-tail roofs were traditionally reserved for temples, official buildings, and residences", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212582, "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": 136, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "116\n\nThe stylised format remains similar to the 5th century edition. Traditionally, preparing this almanac was the responsibility of the Board of Astronomy.\n\nThe funeral service in this study involved five Taoist (sometimes Buddhists are engaged) monks who, as is customary, chanted mantras. They were accompanied by an orchestra. 'Wooden fish' (*), namely sound boxes, bells and small brass singing bowls were struck. A high-pitched flageolet, a musical instrument with six or eight finger holes, played what some would describe as discordant music. As the coffin was wheeled into the hall, head first on a bier, relatives crouched and mourners born in the Year of the Monkey were instructed over a microphone not to look at the casket. If they did it could bring bad luck. With the head of the corpse towards the altar (in a Christian church feet usually face east towards the altar) the 'body was shown to the gods'.\n\n26\n\nWith patrilineal kinship ties, if there are sons or grandsons in the family a ceremony of 'buying water' (A) takes place. With a traditional funeral in Hong Kong's New Territories this still consists of the eldest son, the chief mourner, being escorted to the nearest stream or well, dropping three cash (old copper coins) in and bringing back a bowl of water. The ritual can vary from bathing the corpse to a symbolic dab on the dead parent's forehead. This, in Confucian tradition, signifies filial piety. It also helps to ensure the lineage continues. 'I have no sons to buy water!' is a not uncommon lament by some husbands, which, in the old days, meant taking a concubine because the first spouse did not give birth to an heir. As there were no sons in this study the three daughters kowtowed three times and walked around the open coffin three times. Other mourners then bowed.\n\nThe public 'lying in state' continued until the 'last glance', towards the end of the ceremony. With the upper portion of the body visible through a clear, plastic 'window' family mourners, followed by the congregation, filed around the coffin. There was weeping. Some children were held up to look at the corpse. (By contrast, I have heard it said a mourner should not get too close for fear of being 'possessed'.) The lid was then secured.\n\nAfter the service the dead person's spirit was 'led' to Chung Yam Fat Ser (Pine Shade Buddhist Association). This hall is situated in multi-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212622, "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": 176, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "156\n\non the door panels drew attention wherever they passed, the Allies were arriving. Alas, the advance party was the only party we were to receive: the attack on Burma was developing very quickly and all supplies and reinforcements were diverted there. Then the Burma road was cut, and as time advanced we found we had to get along with what we had. It was not as if we had even a first claim on such supplies as had already reached China for the British Military Mission. Our particular activity was not the main interest of the Mission, and we were not on any priority list.\n\nHowever, the future was concealed from us. We started off, full of enthusiasm, for Chin Ya in our four lorries accompanied by the General Commanding the Engineer Troops of the 3rd War Zone, a particular friend of ours, and reached our destination without incident. Mac's arrangements had all been completed and we were able to enter immediately into the quarters prepared for us.\n\nI was a little uneasy about the magazine, a flimsy outbuilding, used as a temple and distant a hundred yards from the village. We removed the idols from the shelf at the back, stacked our explosives there and on wooden racks built for the purpose, so as to keep them off the damp floor; and locking the door posted a sentry over it, hoping for the best. There were several tons of explosive; had they gone up they would have taken the village with them.\n\nA row of houses had been taken over for the students; in a small wood at the back three open thatched sheds had been erected as lecture rooms; and the top floor of the largest house in the village, owned by a widow, was occupied by our Chinese assistants. The widow lived on the bottom floor; she was old-fashioned and had strong objections to our installing windows in the walls of her house to admit light to the rooms. There was a local superstition that windows let the money fly out, thus impoverishing the occupants; all the houses in the district had only little slits, inadequate to relieve the gloom inside. With Michael's assistance we persuaded her to allow us to put in roughly made window-frames, fitted with wooden shutters for use if it rained; we, of course, had no glass.\n\nTwo temples had been reserved for our own quarters: the one, at a little remove from the village, I used as my office and living quarters: the other contained a large hall facing a small yard, open to the sky.\n\nI\n\nI", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213254, "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": 76, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "55\n\nThere were two attempts to escape from the Hung Hom Bay Camp. The first try was made by five prisoners. They were assigned to build a platform for concerts. The platform was near the barbed wire fence. It provided a shelter for them to tunnel to freedom and a storage place for the earth removed during their digging. Under cover of darkness, five crept through the tunnel; however, the last of the group was spotted by a sentry, who shouted the usual \"Halt or I shoot\". The escapee kept on going, and the sentry shot. The bullet hit the bag the prisoner was carrying, containing some of his gear, so he escaped injury, but he was overtaken and captured. Shortly after, another of the escaped internees was found in the hills of the New Territories. Several days later, the remaining three were rounded up near Sai Kung.\n\nSome time after this incident, another man arranged to accompany two other prisoners on a visit to a dentist in the Hong Kong Hotel. The dentist was only expecting two patients. He took these two into his surgery; one was to serve as an interpreter for the other. The third man, who had somehow arranged to come along, was left in the waiting room with a guard. He informed the guard he must go to the toilet. The guard accompanied him there; however, he did not go into the toilet as he wished to keep his eye on both the door of the dentist and the door of the toilet to ensure that none of his three prisoners escaped. The man in the toilet was able to escape through a window, but he was caught the same night and returned to the camp.\n\nThe patriotism aroused by war stirred up in a British colony much doubt, distrust of old friends, ill will, and harsh words. The clubs passed resolutions excluding enemy aliens; the ties of former friendship were severely strained and, in many cases, broken. Many in the Colony who frequently passed the former premises of the Deutsche Asiatische Bank on Queens Road, not far from the Hong Kong Shanghai Bank, were irritated by the continuing presence of the Prussian double-eagled ensign, an architectural feature of the building. Many indignant letters appeared in the correspondence column of the newspapers before the emblem was finally removed.\n\nSince my delivery of the talk upon which this paper is based, Anne Selby has published a well-researched article in the South China Morning Post on 25 June, 1988, entitled \"When Germans were unwelcome in HK\". She used many of the same sources as I have used in the Public Records Office. I would refer interested readers to her article for information I have not included in my account.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213281, "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": 103, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "83\n\nThere was a severe landslide on Fathers' Day, in June 1972, on the steep slope 200 metres to the west of the flat in this case study. After three days of torrential rains the hillside, with its excessive yang, turned to mud. When the earth is healthy humans thrive. When it is 'sick', humans suffer. The slippage extended from Po Shan Road, down to Conduit Road and below to Kotewall Road. The conclusion of the public enquiry was that extensive site development had caused the disaster. Sixty-seven people lost their lives after a 13-storey block of flats was cut off at its base and swept downhill. Life can be incomprehensible and vicious.\n\nHong Kong is not liable to seismic activity. The last earthquake, in 1918, did little damage. But a report by the late Professor S G Davies of Hong Kong University, shortly after the 1972 Kotewall Road landslip, noted fault lines. One line is said to run from Wanchai Gap over to Aberdeen, to the south of the flat in this case study. It is thus not difficult to appreciate how villagers, mentioned above, feel living at the foot of, or on the slopes of, a mountain. In the flat in this study, when it rains heavily and the slopes above turn to mud, as residents put it, 'one finds oneself gazing up at the mountain with its latent, supernatural power and wondering.' This is basically why, even if there is rhythm in the cultural landscape of nature, gentle slopes are preferred.\n\nUnderstanding the empirical ground rules of fung shui land usage, and the aesthetics of Chinese geomancy as a traditional form of spiritually based planning, can provide lessons for western architects, townplanners and environmentalists even today. Fung shui attempts to ensure that everything is in harmony with its surroundings. Its scope ranges from the planning of an entire town, to the construction of a high-rise building, to the design of an interior in an office or a home.\n\nWith respect to fung shui the owner's study, in the flat in this case study, is probably the best room in the flat. The owner has, however, been advised it would be better, even if he would miss the view, if he moved his desk around so he faced the door, rather than looking out of the window. With his back to the entrance much of the time, he always half-expects someone to come in. There is a loss of 'power'. It is not easy to concentrate. If he moved he would also not have to turn around when visitors come to see him. One's back should never face a window or a door as the force of chi is too great. The operator of a computer, which can stimulate chi, on the other hand, should face a door. If not, he or she may feel nervous and suffer stress.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213284, "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": 106, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "86\n\nIn England between 1697 and 1851, a tax on windows was imposed. Consequently, many were blocked up. For different reasons, Chinese living in villages in the New Territories also consider carefully before cutting a hole through a wall to construct another window or door. These are viewed as 'noses' and 'mouths'. An opening can admit evil influences and bring sickness or death. Their position, size and proportions are important. So is the way they open and swing.\n\nIn the flat in the case study the Chinese amah (maid) was frequently sick. 'Move the gas cooker,' the lady of the house was instructed. 'It is not good for the cooker to face the door.' After this was done, although it could have been coincidence, the amah said her health improved. She had faith that if the cooker was moved she would feel better. Afterwards, she assured the author she did.\n\nWith Chinese culture embracing so many aspects of the universe and influencing daily life, aesthetics have always been considered important. Door gods, for example, sometimes adorn entrances to ward off evil. In turn, colour and lighting affect both mind and wellbeing. If a person prefers dark colours, then, to balance, they should choose patterns that have light backgrounds. Colour and beauty are meant to complement.\n\nColour symbolism has been linked to the Five Elements, the forces of nature (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water), since the fourth century BC. These are not just looked upon as five kinds of fundamental matter but more as five fundamental processes. Fire, for instance, is linked to red. Not only does it look good but it protects the wearer from evil (Baker, 1981:154). For example, the talismanic red spot on the white headdress of a mourner at a funeral service; worn in the nature of an amulet, red (often vermillion) attracts good fortune. It is a yang colour: the colour for weddings and celebrations. It signifies joy, festivities, virtue and sincerity. Yet to have red paint on the end of a bamboo pole, on which the washing is hung high above the street, is not considered appropriate. It could fall and kill. Red symbolises blood.\n\nRegarding the other four primary colours which are linked to the Five Elements. Yellow (emblematic of earth), a natural and loyal colour of old China was sacred to the emperor. It is the colour of the garments of Taoist priests. It signifies longevity and is the colour for burying the dead. Geomantic blessings and charms, to ward off evil influences, are frequently written or painted on yellow paper representing the earth.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213286, "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": 108, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "88\n\nIt is not unlike the West where it is not uncommon practice to construct beams with a slight camber and columns with an entasis. This overcomes the illusion of sagging or concavity respectively.\n\nIncidentally, the length of a briefcase manufactured in many Chinese communities is, very approximately, 43 centimetres (around 17 inches). This, it has been suggested (Walters, 1988: 83), is designed to conform to the auspicious 'fung shui foot'. The actual size of a briefcase could, of course, be coincidence. Or perhaps it depends on the size of files and sheets of paper which the bag has to hold? But whatever the reason for the dimension, a liberal helping of luck is always welcomed by businessmen of whatever nationality.\n\nReturning to the case study: the front view looking out from a building is important for enhancing wealth. If one gazes north out of the window of the master bedroom, one can view the harbour which forms the dragon's lair with all its benevolent power. Beyond are the Kowloon Foothills (including Lion Rock and Beacon Hill), Tai Mo Shan, Ma On Shan, and the Pat Shin Range. Well out of sight is the Kun Lun Shan mountain range of South China. The Hong Kong harbour can be compared to the much smaller fung shui ming tong (ponds) that one sees in front of Chinese villages.\n\nThe water in the front balances the fung shui that flows down the hill at the rear. Of course, it also serves a practical purpose. Not only does the village pond contain fish, but also the water is used for washing, irrigation, and, in emergency, for fire fighting. As previously mentioned, water, in Cantonese, symbolises money. It is good fung shui to have water in front of a building or a grave. But looking across at the ocean, you need to be able to see an island or a strip of land. If there is no 'destination', there is no 'purpose'. A sailor needs to know where he is heading. He must not be 'rudderless'. Looking out to sea or gazing at a water feature, however, gives not only Chinese, but also Westerners, a relaxed feeling.\n\nCertainly, the ambience of a home or office means something to everyone, Westerner or Chinese. And, sometimes, on entering a building, a Westerner's subconscious senses may lead him or her to exclaim, 'I like this place: I can relax here!' It is, however, not always easy to provide an explanation why one's sixth sense indicates a feeling of peace or, contrarily,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213313, "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": 135, "title": "RAS-1994", "content_text": "David, Sarah, \"True Meaning of Life is Made Crystal Clear\". Hong Kong Standard, 20 September, 1994\n\nForsyth, Tim, 'London's Feng Shui Guru', Asia Inc, January, 1994\n\n'Guarding the Bank Across Two Generations\n\n115\n\nthe Long, Loyal Vigil of \"Stephen\"\n\nand \"Sutt\"', Hong Kong Bank News, December 1985\n\nHuang, Cary, 'Benefactor Highlights a Unique Heritage', Hong Kong Standard, 27 September 1994\n\nIggulden, Tom, “Blue-Chip Firms are Lining Up for Fung Shui', Eastern Express, 27-28 May 1995\n\nJasper, Chris, \"Bound by Birth. Does a Faith in Fortune-telling condemn you to fulfil its deadly predictions? Window, Hong Kong, June 1995\n\n'Feng Shui, Winds of Change Ancient Chinese Practice Catches on in the UK', Window, Hong Kong, February 10, 1995.\n\nKahn, Greenstreet, 'Fungshui', Extra Finlay, Hong Kong Standard, 11 October, 1985\n\nKonelus, Tura, 'Feng Shui Gets a Grip in the West', Sunday Standard, 21 April 1991\n\nLeung, Yummy, 'Village to Showcase Lifestyle of Hakkas', South China Morning Post, 1 April, 1986\n\n'The Lions Return Home', Hong Kong Bank News, June 1985\n\nMaitland, Derek, 'Fung Shui', The Asia Magazine, 1 May 1977\n\nMalone, Andrew, 'Top Firms Prosper with Ancient Chinese Force', The Sunday Times, England, 21 May 1995\n\n'A Million to Bury Village Ghosts', Hong Kong Standard, 23 March, 1990\n\nPhillips, David P, Todd L. Ruth and Lisa M. Wagner, 'Psychology and Survival', The Lancet, England, vol 342, November 6, 1993\n\n'Plants that Cure \"Sick Building Syndrome\"', Hong Kong Standard, 13 December, 1992\n\nPage 135\n\nPage 136", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1994.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213458, "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-1995", "page_number": 54, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "21\n\n \n 20\n Natural features are believed to represent animals or figures, such as a girl gathering flowers. Objections on the basis of “fung shui” belief have been raised by villagers when public works have been undertaken. If any project is likely to affect the “fung shui\" of an Hakka village, the villagers believe that a \"tun fu\" ceremony held by a geomancer will safeguard the village. Even in 1912, however, the old ideas of \"fung shui\" were being modified so far as they proved incompatible with foreign laws and ideas; and nowadays the belief is dying out gradually among the younger generation.\n \n\n124\n\n“Fung Shui” objections also occur in the domestic field, to the opening of windows in a house that faces another or a temple. Such a window is thought to be a voracious tiger. A lamp flashing in the direction of another house is counted equally obnoxious. Such objections are mainly confined to Cantonese, but the Hakka, from their greater belief in animism, are more concerned with the \"fung shui” of trees and rocks.\n\nThe siting of graves, as already indicated, is also influenced by \"fung shui\" belief. For the first five years or so, a body is usually buried in an earth grave (wuct chong). Then it is exhumed and the bones are placed in an earthenware funerary pot (kam tap). Such earth graves and earthenware pots are sited in groups where the \"fung shui\" is good. Building or cultivation near such sites is not permitted. If the family or clan of the deceased is wealthy, then the funerary pot holding the bones is usually installed in a masonry grave, which again is sited according to the principles of \"fung shui\" belief, usually on a hill (shan fan). A half-circle in front of such a grave with a radius of ten yards is regarded as sacrosanct, and any disturbance of that ground is, by custom, forbidden.\n\n126\n\nBefore leaving the subject of land, it should be observed that even in the New Territories, the Chinese customary law may be excepted in cases involving land by the provisions of the Ordinance.3\n\nMarriage\n\nThe Chinese customary law of marriage, concubinage, and divorce obtaining in the New Territories does not appear to differ from that same customary law to be found in the Colony.12 From time to time,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213486, "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-1995", "page_number": 82, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "50 \n\nto the new comers? I have come up with four logical reasons: \n\n(1) In the actor's psychology, his role on the stage is to entertain, and as long as he can keep the audience amused, everything will be O.K. Sometimes, he forgets, as when he puts his whims and fantasies into practice, and he throws logic out of the window. \n\n(2) The theatrical people may be inclined to think that the audience's mind cannot be rushed. The action has to be brought about in such a way that they can gradually grasp the meaning and importance of the story being told. \n\n(3) One way to highlight the importance of the story is to prolong the time of the fighting scene. In other words, the more you fight, the more important that fight will be. \n\nThings can turn sour if you run counter with this theme. Take, for instance, the following example which amply proves my point: \n\nIn the play \"Jie Dong Feng\" (f) which literally means \"Praying For The East Wind\", people spend hours acting out the story that leads to the \"The Battle Of The Red Cliff” (EZ). The story has it that strategists of both the Wu (R) and the Shu (S) States are scheming how to defeat the mighty Wei State's fleet that was anchored on the upper reach of the Yangtze River. Since the Wu's forces were in the lower reach of the Yangtze River, they needed the \"East Wind\", in gale force, to help them to win. \n\nWell, when the East gale force winds do come, you would expect that thousands upon thousands of soldiers would throw flaming arrows across the sky aimed at the Wei's fleet, which was tricked to join together with iron chains by internal spies. Then, when the fleet was destroyed and the smoldering ships were cold enough to board, the Wu and Shu strategists would send soldiers to mop up and put a finishing touch to it. \n\nNothing of the sort happened! What they did was to send a couple of men, with maybe two dozen arrows (not even the flame carrying ones), and throw them in the direction of the enemy. Before you even knew it, the war was over! What an anticlimax! So everyone who sat", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213504, "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-1995", "page_number": 100, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "68\n\nsubdivided into a number of cubicles and sublet to a number of households or families. In the district, examples of over 25 people clustered into a living space of 600 square feet could be found easily. The great density and the serious overcrowding had become a matter of great concern. In 1890, an exhaustive report on the subject was submitted to the Government. However, no strong action was taken after that. In that report, an enumeration of the people of the district by the method of verbal inquiry, which could only be assumed as fairly accurate, had been made by the Chinese District Watchmen. A table (Table 2) has been drawn up to show the difference between the figures of the Overcrowding Report and that of the Census.\n\nThe question of insanitary conditions in Sai Ying Pun had also excited attention for a long time. The houses in the district were usually built back to back. The rooms were dark, damp, and badly ventilated. Very few houses had been cleaned or whitewashed inside since they were built. Latrines and dustbins seldom existed in those houses. A large proportion of the houses in the district had the old-fashioned drains which were built of bricks. As the old bricks rotted away, the sewers collapsed and blocked the pipes. Furthermore, a number of houses were converted or used as storage for grains and other goods. These contained an enormous number of rats and cockroaches. In 1881, the Government had decided to seek the service of a sanitary engineer, Osbert Chadwick, to advise as to the sanitary conditions of Hong Kong. A year later, he made a special report and proposed a number of sweeping changes, which included the provision of open spaces at the rear of buildings, of a window in every habitable room, and of 600 cu. ft. of unobstructed space for each adult in rooms divided into cabins, and the layout of roads and drains before the building lots were offered for sale. A Sanitary Board was set up in 1883, but it had only limited powers because of the stiff resistance from the Chinese as well as European property owners and the laissez-faire attitude of the government. The Public Health Ordinance of 1887, which, among other things, provided for the reservation of open spaces at the rear of buildings and the fixing of a minimum standard of 300 cu. ft. of internal living space per adult, and a clause in 1889 whereby mezzanine floors could only be constructed if provision were made for a vertical clearance of 5 ft. above and below, were also met with great opposition from the Chinese.\n\nThe insanitary conditions and the inevitable direct human contacts", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213634, "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-1995", "page_number": 230, "title": "RAS-1995", "content_text": "205\n\nEXPERIENCES AS A WAR CRIMES PROSECUTOR IN HONG KONG\n\nPETER VINE\n\nFifty years ago I caught my first glimpse of Hong Kong through the perspex window of a DC3. I was in transit from Singapore to take up the post of War Crimes Prosecutor in Hong Kong. I was 24 and a Major in the Royal Marines in which I had served for the previous five years.\n\nMy last war-time appointment was as Gunnery Officer aboard a landing craft which mounted a 104 millimetre gun. We had made the journey from Plymouth, England to join up with other units of the Support Squadron assembled in Madras. Lord Mountbatten had planned \"Operation Zipper\" to reconquer Malaya down to the last detail when the announcement came through of Emperor Hirohito's broadcast surrender following the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Since it was not then clear that the Japanese military would respond to this call, Operation Zipper went ahead as planned, and this brought me to Singapore. My landing-craft never sailed again, and I was appointed to the staff of the Flag Officer Malayan area. I had free time at my disposal and I sent for the text-books and arranged with the English Law Society to have the Solicitors Final papers sent to H.M.S Sultan, Singapore where I sat the exam in March 1946. The announcement that I had satisfied the examiners came through in June, and a report appeared in the \"Straits Times\". I then received a telephone call asking me whether I would be willing to undertake War Crimes prosecution. I agreed readily as it offered me an opportunity to get in some legal work before demobilization, and I was appointed Deputy Assistant Judge Advocate General. I cut my teeth as prosecutor on a case which arose out of atrocities in the Andaman Islands, and which ended with a death sentence, and several terms of imprisonment.\n\nLists had been prepared of major criminals in Germany and Japan to be charged (mainly) with plotting aggressive war, and these major trials took place in Nuremberg and Tokyo. At the 1945 Potsdam Conference the procedure for all war crimes trials was worked out in detail. A modified military law would be followed procedurally allowing some flexibility for the introduction of affidavit evidence. For the major", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1995.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213834, "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-1996", "page_number": 186, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "159\n\ntrans-village bodies, such as the Neighbourhood Association, emerged as sponsors of large-scale social and religious activities. Directors of the Association were owners of four shops, Te-ho, Yao-ho & Ali, Ching-ho li and Kuang-hsing, located on Tung Chung Street at lower Ling Pei, then the commercial core of the area.\n\nThe changes occurring in Tung Chung were accompanied by the decline of the chiao ceremony. After the mid-1920s, the festivities never achieved their previous scale and the related rituals were simplified. A 79-year-old villager at Lung Tseng Tau testified that in 1927, when he was a 15-year-old employee of the Te-ho Shop, then the head of the Neighbourhood Association, the chiao ritual was limited to the burning of paper offerings. There were no nan-mo chanting or puppet shows. The festival proved too costly for the villagers. While a Te-ho employee earned only HK$15 a month, for example, the hiring of the chiao priests could cost several hundreds. At the beginning of the 1930s, it is said, the chiao ceremony ceased in Tung Chung.\n\nThe Neighbourhood Association lacked the financial resources to support more than one festival, and the Houwang's Birthday celebration was kept at the expense of the chiao festival.\n\nAfter the chiao ceremony was discontinued, whenever pestilence struck, the Houwang's idol was paraded through the villages at midnight. The nan-mo chanting priests led the procession and firecrackers were used to clear the path. The rituals might be repeated in the following two nights. The route of the parade was decided by divination at the Houwang Temple. When Shek Mun Kap ceased to be the centre of the chiao festival, the Houwang Temple became the most important venue for various religious activities.\n\nIt is not difficult to detect the Houwang's influence on the daily life of Tung Chung's villagers. Charms reading \"under Master Houwang's command\" (侯王爷) can be seen everywhere, on trees, banisters, poles by the road, or on the doors or window frames of villagers' houses. These amulets were “sought\" at the Houwang Temple. At home, villagers may install the Houwang's shrine next to their ancestors' spirit tablets. A family named Feng at Ma Wan Chung had their family shrine of the Houwang elaborately surmounted with golden tassels and draped with red cloth. Everyday, the god, together", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213851, "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-1996", "page_number": 203, "title": "RAS-1996", "content_text": "176\n\nThe Floor Plan of Houwang Temple\n\nC\n\nH\n\nH\n\nA: Yang Houwang (E) B: Military official (4) C: Civil official (X) D: Earth god (±)\n\nE: Other deities (F)\n\nF: Stone altar ()\n\nG: Ritual paper Burner ( )\n\nH: Earth god (1)\n\nI: Small yard (X#)\n\nJ: Window\n\nK: Commemorative Tablet (大奚山東西涌姜山主兩相和好永遠照納碑)\n\nL: Commemorative tablet (ALL)\n\nM: Commemorative tablet (EMI)\n\nN: Commemorative tablet (EITH LO)\n\nO: Iron bell (£)", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1996.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 213997, "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": 66, "title": "RAS-1997", "content_text": "32\n\n* Tiffany Osmond Jumor, The Canton Chinese or an American's sojourn in the Celestial Empire. James Monroe and Co (Boston and Cambridge, 1849)\n\n* Lan Ho Bor and Lam Tin Sang, 'Scaffolding in Hong Kong', Building Technology and Management, Chartered Institute of Building (UK, 1969), pp 196-197 p 196\n\n10 Ibid\n\n|| Ibid\n\n? The slender volume by Ho So. The Craft of Chinese Scaffolding, see reference 4 above, when written was the only book on the subject. This is probably still the case\n\nLin. loc cit\n\nLee Ho Yin, 'Behind Bamboo, Low-Tech Rigs are Still Indispensable', Window (Hong Kong, July 14, 1995), pp 30-31, P 30\n\nThe Morrison Hill Technical Institute (Prospectus) (1971), P25\n\n16 1995 Manpower Survey Report Building and Civil Engineering Industry Building and Civil Engineering Industry Training Board, Vocational Training Council, P34\n\n17 Michael Wong, 'Danger Reaches New Heights', Sunday Hong Kong Standard (27 November 1994), p. S\n\nI Ibid\n\n1 Lin, loc cit, and Ho, op cit p 25\n\n20 Ho, passim\n\n21 One of the worst such disasters was when a matshed grandstand collapsed and caught fire in 1918 at the Happy Valley Racecourse Over 600 people were killed\n\n22 1995 Code of Practice for Scaffolding Safety, this is an approved code issued by the Commissioner for Labour under Section 7A of the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance, Chapter 59 Laws of Hong Kong\n\n23 Wong, loc cit\n\n24 Lee, loc cit\n\n25 Lee, loc cit\n\n26 Lin, loc cit\n\n27 Wong, loc cit\n\n28 Naomi Szero, loc cit\n\n29 Wong, loc cit\n\n30 Malcolm Goodison, \"Bamboo Safeguard'. Hong Kong Standard, letters to the editor (18 October 1995)\n\n31 1995 Code of Practice\n\nop cit p 16\n\n# 12\n\nLee, loc cit", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1997.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214417, "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": 275, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "241\n\nthe freshness, the cleanness, the splendour constrain them; they seem like fish which, from a dirty, marshy river have been transferred to an ornamental pond filled with clear water: nowhere to hide, to shelter, to filch, to swindle, to get oneself dirty or to get one's neighbour dirty.\n\nHaving quickly walked round the whole quarter, we struck the mountain, which at this point was artificially cut away and consisted of a smooth, sheer wall; a new road was planned here. A whole regiment of labourers crowded around; they dug the earth, hewed stones, carted debris away. These were all immigrants from the Portuguese colony of Macau. No sooner had the English conceived the idea of a settlement here, and sent out a call, than Macau became almost deserted. Work, and consequently bread and money, lured up to thirty thousand Chinese over here. Instead of poverty in Macau, they preferred the endless labour and inexhaustible payment here. They were not frightened off by the epidemic fevers that raged in the beginning. Under the supervision of the English they began clearing and draining the soil: the epidemics abated and the migration increased.\n\nWe came down from the rise and entered the Chinese quarter again, passing, incidentally, a house where a bare-chested young Chinese stood in front of a window, strumming a meagre and monotonous tune on an instrument resembling a guitar. A number of women peered out of the window. However not all Chinese wander around the town near naked: it is only porters, manual labourers and shopmen. The higher classes are dressed decently; there are even dandies, in snow-white coats and wide satin trousers, in heavy-soled shoes and with a thick black shiny pigtail down to their feet, with a fine fan with which they cover their heads from the sun.\n\nThe more ordinary women walk around the town themselves whereas those who are richer or more important are led arm-in-arm. Their feet are all more or less maimed; and those who \"through ill-breeding, through parental negligence\" remained as nature had intended, fabricate another artificial foot under their real one, but one so small that they definitely cannot step on it and hence walk with the assistance of servant girls. In spite of the long garments in which Chinese women are wrapped from top to toe; I accidentally, with the aid of a puff of wind, discovered a bit of guile... Olive-skinned women with black, slightly narrowed eyes dress predominantly in dark colours. With hair-dos à la chinoise, and a splendid mass of black hair fastened at the back with a large gold or silver pin, they are not dis-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214578, "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": 436, "title": "RAS-1998", "content_text": "405\n\ndery of Shakyamuni preaching on Vulture Peak, with attendants. This is notable for the skill of the stitchwork, which flows with the contours of faces and draperies to add depth and texture. Some colours, such as the blues, are stunningly deep and fresh, but the reds and greens have faded with time. This item dates from the 7 or 8th century.\n\nA Japanese conservator mounted the paintings on silk in the 1910s at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Many were in an extremely fragile state and they survive today largely as a result of extremely fragile condition. Unfortunately some of the backing material is quite dark. One of the brighter paintings is of Kwanyin on a lotus base surrounded by swirling green draperies that bring the work to life. An inscription on the back of this exquisite piece, from 910, has aided scholars.\n\nA scroll painting also depicts Kwanyin waving a banner on a staff, with the figure of a deceased lady in the background. The scroll is believed to have been offered so that the lady might ascend to the halls of paradise, with Boddhisattvas leading the way. Posters of this work were used to publicise a past exhibition. The collection includes some of these banners - surprisingly modest pieces a metre or so long. One of these notably depicts a Boddhisattva holding a glass bowl of Middle Eastern design, clear evidence that the object, or at least knowledge of its form, was carried on the Silk Route.\n\nWe also saw a vibrant section of a scroll painting of a fierce guardian, originally larger than life size. Sadly only a fragment remains of what would have been a fabulous piece.\n\nIn a different medium altogether, another item is a window painting on paper backed with cloth. This depicts stylised lotuses on the outside and images of the Buddha on the inside.\n\nTo realise that these items, when Aurel Stein discovered them, were rolled, stacked up and abandoned in a cave in northern China only makes one grateful that this much has survived.\n\nFurther reading: The International Dunhuang Project website (http://idp.bl.uk) includes a vast amount of material. It says that an international conference, Dunhuang 2000, is to be held in Beijing to", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1998.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214638, "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": 53, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "J\n\n17\n\nhouse sites had, by then, been divided into two very tiny separate houses (the original layout probably consisted of 130 houses including the temple). The houses were very tiny - 23' deep by 8.5' wide, totalling no more than 196 square feet. Where the houses had been divided, the small houses were less than 100 square feet each. The houses were too small to have air-wells, and consisted each of only a single room, with a tiny cockloft over a small bedchamber at the back. Few had windows (some had a tiny window at the back, lighting the cockloft, about a foot square, defended with iron bars and closed by shutters), and most were aired and lighted only through the house door. The premises backing onto the outer walls were houses, of the same size as those fronting the lanes.\n\nThe village had no well or open space within the walls. The gatehouse was wider than the lane leading to it inside the walls, and provided space for an earth god shrine, and a ladder giving access to the gun-chamber above the gate. At the other end of the spinal centre lane was the Tin Hau Temple, occupying one house site, and facing the gate directly: the Village Office occupied the house immediately to its north.\n\nThe features of the layout of Nga Tsin Wai which it shares with Tai Wai in Sha Tin are the almost square layout facing the optimum Fung Shui direction and not the cardinal points, the narrow lanes, the tiny houses, the layout of six north-south and three east-west lanes with the first and sixth lanes running back to dead ends against the inner faces of the walls, the existence of premises backing onto the walls which are as big (in most cases) as the houses opening onto the lanes, and the temple occupying a house-site opposite the gate-house. Both villages used the house immediately to the north of the temple as the Village Office. The Tai Wai towers in 1905 did not protrude into the moat, but this may well be a modification introduced when the two villages were rehabilitated after the Coastal Evacuation. Of these features, the narrowness of the lanes and the smallness of the houses are special to the two villages (most walled villages within the New Territories had very many fewer, but very much larger houses, and much wider lanes). In most New Territories walled villages the premises along the two side walls are very much smaller than the houses facing into the lanes, and were designed for use as cattle sheds, pigsties, and latrines: to have houses here is unusual. The dead-ends at the end of the first and sixth lanes are also peculiar to these two villages. Most", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215188, "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": 284, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "246\n\nFrom the bus window : Vietnamese girl students", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215373, "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": 150, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "00 \n\nindicated the carrier was presented to the couple on marriage. The characters for lucky, fortunate, virtuous and energetic were also common.\n\nThe centres on the Tanka carriers seldom featured embroidery; if they did, it was on a square purchased from an embroiderer. White open weave cotton squares embroidered with red cross stitch were made in bulk in China and brought to the fishing ports of Hong Kong to be sold. The cross-stitch gave a graphic effect with designs of birds, flowers and Chinese characters for 'double happiness', long life, and a safe and peaceful childhood.\n\nTanka women preferred appliqué or patchwork, which meant they could reuse parts of old clothing. The small pieces and patches were easy to handle and the carriers could be worked on whenever they had some free time on the boat, between cooking a meal and helping the family to fish. Many coloured strips and triangles of cotton were appliquéd onto the centre square and continued up the top straps. When worn, the decoration was visible as far as the knot tied at the front. Patchwork strips of different colours were built up around the border of the square and formed attractive patterns. A form of 'cathedral window' appliqué was popular, proving that craft techniques spread far and wide (Plate 7).\n\nThose carriers made by the Hoklo fisherwomen were even more elaborate, especially for their festivals and celebrations. The carrier was a complex design in a combination of strong colours, often black with yellow, green, blue, white and red. Patchwork was frequently used in the centre of the square, made up of four folded triangles forming squares and decorated with tassels, fringing, sequins, strings of beads, buttons, shiny metal disks and bells to frighten the bad spirits away. Piping and rickrack braid were applied to great effect to outline the appliqué designs in the 'false cloud' pattern, which is particular to the Hoklo people and which resembles a Neolithic design. The Hoklo women cannot explain its origin, but its importance for them is shown by its appearance on most decorated articles of clothing and household use.\n\nLike many customs which were once very common, the use of these handmade baby carriers has almost completely disappeared. In\n\nPage 150\n\nPage 151", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215382, "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": 159, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "108\n\nXIXIXIX\n\nPlate 7. Centre panel and straps in cathedral window patchwork in design of coins, to be made up into Tanka baby carrier, 1990, Valery Garrett.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215410, "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": 187, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "136\n\nIn imitation of a real altarpiece the Dormition of Mary is followed higher up by an image above a rose window representing the Assumpta, or the Assumption of Mary into heaven, a favourite theme of Iberian retables, often combined with the theme of the Dormition. Above her there is a high relief of the Trinity with a Golgotha group at the summit. These images are quite typical of the iconography of contemporary retables and follow the sometimes-convoluted theological arguments of the Christian art of the period.\n\nAs the intricacies of the Late Gothic style gave way to the Italian Renaissance, the artistic potency of retable-façades persisted under different forms, dimensions and styles, and in different places. It spread to Southern Spain after the Reconquista, where it developed its own Renaissance characteristics. Later, mainly in a Mannerist style, it appeared in Portugal. Finally some of the most amazing examples of the genre sprouted in Spanish colonies in Mexico and Peru in a Baroque and Rococo style, sometimes displaying the artistry, or otherwise, of indigenous craftsmen.\n\nAlthough such structures are not usually found in Portuguese colonies, there are nonetheless unusual developments in the decoration of some Jesuit church façades in Portuguese India, which can give insights to later developments in their Macao church. The study of these Indian examples is also useful in another respect. Instead of studying the Macao church in isolation, as is usually done, a comparison with these and a selected number of buildings in India can help us obtain a more coherent chronological and stylistic perspective for the façade of Madre de Deus.\n\nTo trace back some of these developments in Jesuit architecture the city of Goa, today known as Velha Goa, is an obvious starting point because of its importance within the Portuguese empire in Asia. In fact, soon after Afonso de Albuquerque captured it from Yusuf Adil Khan in 1510, it came to be considered by the Portuguese as the capital of the whole Portuguese Empire in the East. It eventually became not only the seat of the vice-royalty, but equally of a huge Bishopric, which encompassed the entire region from the Cape of Good Hope to China. In the seventeenth century it counted some seventy religious establishments, including thirty-one churches.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215414, "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": 191, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "140\n\nhave prompted its choice.\n\nThe Arch of Triumph seen in the entrance to Baçaim Fort is another variant on the motif (Fig. 6). This example is in a style that, without generalising too much, could be said to have belonged to a Late Renaissance Iberian style in architecture. For self-evident reasons specialists have given it the name estilo chão (plain style) for Portuguese buildings and estilo desornamentado (unadorned style) for Spanish ones.\n\n32\n\nThin moulded pilasters frame a rectangle into which the entrance arch is built. The latter was framed by both moulded pilasters and paired Corinthian columns in the round, today missing. Topping the arch is an entablature with a low relief showing the royal arms of Portugal. Above it one may see a niche framed by coupled half-columns for an image of a Christian saint, a feature that differentiates it from a classical Roman Arch. The columns of the niche and the ones below stood on bases decorated with a simple diamond shape.\n\nThese two examples show a characteristic use of the motif in secular structures. But it is its use in religious architecture that is of greater relevance for this discussion. In this respect the Sé or Episcopal Church, Damão, shows one of the most illuminating examples.\n\nConstantino de Bragança, Viceroy of India, captured the Muslim city of Damão, which lies in the southern coast of Gujarat, in 1559. One of the most satisfactory uses of the Arch of Triumph in a plain style in India is to be found in the portal of the city's Sé or Episcopal Church (Fig. 7).\n\nThe charmingly provincial mathematical simplicity of its elevation consists of an acute triangle placed on a rectangle. The triangle in fact delineates a steep gable with a round window, while the rectangle on which it rests is the wall of the main façade. Its ground plan and interior are equally simple, the latter displaying picturesque whitewashed walls.\n\nThe only embellishment on the façade is the large Arch of Triumph, which stands austere in granite in front of the wall. It is quite similar to that of the ruins of Baçaim Fort, except that here paired classical columns on tall pedestals frame only the main arch. On the entablature above flat pilasters and a pediment, united to the lower storey by segmental", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215415, "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": 192, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "-reinfo\n\n141\n\nbrackets, enclose a window. Typical Late Renaissance ornaments and geometric designs of various kinds, such as spheres on pedestals, top the entablature and pediment.\n\nJesuit Churches in India\n\nPerhaps the most ingenious exploitation of the motif in India was by the Jesuit Fathers, whose building schemes form such an important part of the history of art of Colonial Iberian architecture in Asia and the Americas. It can be seen not only on the façade of the now vanished collegiate church of São Paulo in Velha Goa, but also in the Church of their College of São Paulo in Baçaim.\n\nThe Arch of Triumph decoration of their Baçaim church is of great interest for my main argument because at least one art historian has noticed its structural similarities to that of retables. David M. Kowal's recent article implies that not only the façade of the Baçaim collegiate church, but also that of Velha Goa should be so considered and he describes them as \"retable-like.\" Not all art historians would classify any of the church fronts in Portuguese India as retable-façades, including those of the Jesuits, although it is difficult to dismiss D. Kowal's claim for these two churches.13\n\nThe name of the church at Baçaim, built between 1561-1579, is actually Nome de Jesus (Name of Jesus). Its large Arch of Triumph indeed resembles those appearing in a number of Renaissance retable-façades in Southern Spain, such as that of the church of St. Elizabeth, in Seville.\n\nAs far as the Arch of Triumph motif itself is concerned, the most important sixteenth-century example in India may be seen in the Church of São Paulo in Velha Goa. Moreover, one could take 1560, the year when building of the new college and church of São Paulo were initiated, as signalling a more ambitious phase in the Society of Jesus' architectural projects in India.\n\nWhen it was completed in 1572 São Paulo was not only the first major church built by the Jesuits in India, it was also one of the most masterful Portuguese churches in Asia, attesting to the importance that the Jesuit fathers attached to it.15 Its association with St. Francis Xavier", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215423, "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": 200, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "149\n\neach one in his niche, over stone bases with their names carved on them in the same order as we have them on the main altar, all in bronze with their foundry signs: hands and faces painted red; vestments gilded throughout the length of the body, with no other colour. On the second frieze and third storey with columns that rest on the middle window the Image of Our Lady of the Assumption, titular saint of the Church, has its niche, which image steps on a large gilded moon; over her head two Angels in the round of the same metal appear to be holding a closed crown, each one of which holds out his arm on the side where he is. Below these another pair seem to go through the air giving a hand in favour of Our Lady's ascent.\n\nThe third frieze, which runs underneath the last storey, gave place to the last niche. It has on its base the Image of the infant Jesus with a cross on the globe of the world on his hand and which does not differ from the others in anything, except that it is of lesser height than them. Inside the field of the pointed summit which makes a straight triangle - on which rests the stone pedestal on which is to be fixed the iron cross with rod arms that is the crown of the whole work, for which alms were given this year as I said above - from the middle of rays carved in the stone, a kind of image of a dove goes fourth, representing the Holy Spirit with its wings wide open, in gilded bronze and of significant size. Note: for all of this magnificent and sumptuous work expenses were met with alms ....' (italics mine).\n\nThere are several quite remarkable points here. Apart from their gilded garments, the first is that the faces and hands of the images of the Jesuit saints were painted red. That these bronzes were painted is highly unusual. If the faces and hands were actually painted red is perhaps arguable. But the gilded garments of the four bronzes could well have been intended to imitate the technique of gilding practised on carved statues since Late Gothic retables.\n\nBrightly painted images are known in medieval Spanish portals, an obsolete practice in the seventeenth century. It was, however, still in use in the case of some Latin American retable-façades, as the researches of Humberto Rodríguez-Camilloni on the façade of San Francisco, Lima, Peru, have disclosed.21\n\nWhat has equally remained unknown because it is missing in José", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215492, "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": 269, "title": "RAS-2001", "content_text": "218\n\nthe ground.\n\nUnobserved, I saw through a latticed window at the back of the hall the younger monks coming off duty from their performance next door. They were walking along happily, chatting and joking, just as young people would do anywhere, and pulling snacks from deep within their flowing robes.\n\nReturning my attention indoors, I saw that the wooden floors were also, in their own way, a work of art. Onto the pressed mud floor had been laid three-by-nine-inch joists, over which, cross-wise, had been placed two-inch thick planks. And over this second layer was a third, also two-inch planks, laid at right-angles. This last would eventually become the floor and would have the feel of polished marble when finished.\n\nIn the so-called civilised world, with so many obvious technological and other advantages over an undeveloped country such as Bhutan, would it be possible to use traditional skills, methods and materials to rebuild one of our national treasures if it were destroyed? I very much doubt it. It was most moving to see such skill and attention to detail.\n\nThen a workman's mobile phone rang.\n\nBrother, can you spare me a dance?\n\nIt was time to return to the viewing place as the monks were about to do their traditional dance. I don't know about you, but I don't normally associate monks with dancing. I was intrigued. Crossing the courtyard again, the sense of Something About To Happen was greater than ever. Some of the people wandering about were clearly important officials. They were wearing very smart gos, but the traditional white shawl in these cases had red designs on it, and they had extremely fancy woven footwear to boot. More to the point, they were carrying large shiny swords. All Bhutanese gave them an extremely wide berth. I thought it wise to do the same.\n\nThe viewing balcony was more crowded by now, even some other tourists. (Apart from ourselves, foreigners had been very few and far between during our trip - almost to the extent that some of us were", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2001.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215922, "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": 221, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "155\n\nEven me, I said after working for several years, I would have difficulties in speaking English. Now it's better, in these two years, but really in the early 90's when I first joined, I had difficulties.\n\nIn the mood for history...\n\nAppearing on and off stage throughout the day is an elegant woman in her 50's, dressed in a green, form-fitting, side-buttoned cheong-sam. She is the only woman to speak on stage. She is Dr. Elizabeth Sinn.\n\nOne of the talking points of the film, \"In the Mood for Love”— Tony Leung won a Cannes best actor award was actually the costumes made for Maggie Cheung. Cheong-sams in all different patterns and when worn by Maggie, they looked absolutely beautiful. I decided after seeing the film that I would start wearing them, it will be my signature look...\n\nI am a couple of minutes early for my appointment and wait in the hallway of the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong. It's about 10 minutes before I am asked in. Not surprising that the deputy director would be a busy person.\n\nSinn is sporting a lovely purple cheong-sam with a floral pattern and with a violet cardigan over top. Sinn sits behind her desk and invites me to sit across from her. It's a small office but has the benefit of a peaceful window view. Sinn looks so classically Chinese, I wonder if it's to make her fit her roles as Deputy Director of the Centre and vice-president of the RAS more convincing, or to unintentionally perpetuate a cliche.\n\n\"I have learnt a lot about Chinese culture and Hong Kong history from the RAS over the years,” said Sinn. \"It's very different from reading books. Certainly the RAS provides a very different angle for looking at local culture than most Chinese people in Hong Kong have. For me, it's always exciting when I can see things from a new perspective, when there are more options. Of course, I have also made many friends through the RAS, not only the Council members but also ordinary members. They are a self-selected group of people who are genuinely interested in finding out about things.\"", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216002, "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": 301, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "235\n\nEdith Legge, James Legge: Missionary and Scholar, p. 120.\n\n89. Legge's letter to Arthur Tidman, Secretary of the London Missionary Society, dated October 31, 1861, also printed in the EMMC/MM 26 (1862), pp. 18-19.\n\n90. The first and second volumes comprising Legge's translations and commentaries to the Four Books had been completed in February and November that year,\n\n91. The essay, Che'a Kin Kwáng, must be a pastiche prepared by Helen Edith Legge in preparation for her larger book on her father, James Legge: Missionary and Scholar. It is particularly evident in the last few pages, when letters from Chalmers and others are quoted (without notes or details, typical of her style in the book as well). A comparison of the typescript and the chapter in Helen Edith Legge's book on \"Che'a\" (notice the same error in transmitting the name of the martyr, pp.102-121) show that she was using the typescript liberally, the last pages of both documents being exactly the same except in one final addition within the book. That addition is a final, short paragraph, hagiographic to the extreme, summarizing how Ch'ea had received the \"salvation and strength and the kingdom of our God and the power of His Christ\" so that he \"loved not his life unto the death\". Though its sentiment could be shared by all sympathetic Christians, Helen Legge's writing also had other purposes in mind.\n\nA careful reading of the chapter in her book on Ch'ea reveals numerous factual errors -- wrong timing, mixing up place and person names, confusing original situations -- but also contains some new material from her mother's letters (Hannah Mary) received from her father that provide little cameos of other dimensions of the situation. Unfortunately, she used these sources only selectively, and then apparently destroyed the originals. It is quite significant, therefore, that it is only in the typescript mentioned above and in her chapter in the book that a defence of her father's leaving Poklo in the early morning before the vigilantes attacked the city is presented. (She may, however, be referring to the content of a letter by her father to her mother, or to the later portions of the Reminiscences which I could not check.)\n\n92. See a historical description of the development of this very important institution, one which continued on for forty years as the major bureau for foreign affairs in China, provided by Masataka Banno, China and the West, 1858-1861: The Origins of the Tsungli Yamen (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1964).\n\n93. See his Appendix I, “Incidents Mentioned in Text, 1861-1870\" in Paul A. Cohen, China and Christianity, pp. 275-276. In spite of the title of the table, it seems that the summary is supposed to include all major incidents among the religious affairs documents within the files of the Zongli yámén. Another important gap in the record is the burning of the newly built chapel in Buddha Hill City (Fat-shan, M. Fóshan) in September 1870, a malevolent act perpetrated by crowds who opposed the erection of the building and threatened all those who were there with severe bruisings. Ho Tsun-sheen was one of the Christian officials present at the meeting, escaping through a rear window and finding his way back to Hong Kong independently. The event was so traumatic for him, that within six", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216055, "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": 354, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "288\n\nconsul was nearly hit by a bullet that entered his office through the window. This same consul was involved during student protests later the same year when the police quarters were set alight and the students rampaged through the town intent on killing foreigners. He and his family were only saved by the timely arrival of Chinese soldiers, and escaped by river down to Shanghai.\n\nToday the Zhenjiang Museum occupies the former British Consulate at 85 Boxian Lu in Boxian Park at the heart of the old town. Amongst the items on display in the grounds is an anchor said to have been from H.M.S. Amethyst, the frigate of the British Yangtze Flotilla, which, after weeks of being blockaded, stuck on a sand bank, escaped downstream despite having been badly damaged by shell fire from the PLA [People's Liberation Army] during their thrust south across the River in 1948 to liberate China from the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek. British efforts to seek a diplomatic solution involved Edward Youde, a twenty-four-year-old third secretary at the Embassy, who volunteered to reach the senior PLA military officer at Yangzhou to seek a safe-conduct pass for the Amethyst to sail unmolested downstream back to Shanghai. He first had to obtain passes to permit him to cross the line between the Nationalists and the Communists. After several days of adventures and lengthy cross-country hikes, sometimes under fire, Youde reached the senior PLA officer and his request was forcibly rejected. His mission a failure, he returned, again amidst numerous adventures to report to his Ambassador in Nanjing. He later became better known as Sir Edward Youde, one of the last Governors of Hong Kong.\n\nChristian missionaries\n\nThere were Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries, Anglicans and the 'faith missions', Baptists, Presbyterians and the Lutherans, and so on, as well as the individual evangelicals, zealous saviours of souls. The most important aspect of this work, though most would not see it in this light, was by setting an example, though this in no way belittled their social, medical and educational work. Medical missionaries, another dedicated breed, were an exception with their professional abilities being widely welcomed not only by Chinese but also by the Europeans within both treaty ports as well as in the remoter parts of China in which they lived and worked.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216057, "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": 356, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "290\n\na chapel where they stationed an evangelist. By the turn of the century Zhenjiang had become an important Protestant missionary centre in its own right, with adequate missionary cover and the accessories for Mission work including a women's hospital, a girls' school and the large and well-organised men's college of the Methodist Episcopal Mission. China Inland Mission had by this time also opened a station in the city as well as their own hospital,\n\n4\n\nAspects of life which today sound strange were not uncommon, such as the missionary in Yangzhou, immediately across the wide Yangzi from Zhenjiang, having to cross the river with his bride for the civil ceremony at the nearest consulate, in Zhenjiang, before ferrying her back to their future home.\n\nDuring the 1860s and 1870s, the great famine in the Yellow River and Yangzi basins and the anti-missionary troubles across China, Hudson Taylor, who had founded the China Inland Mission in 1865, travelled widely encouraging his workers and authorising the expenditure of funds on orphanages and relief. In mid-March of 1877 he stopped over in Zhenjiang for a month, during which time a fire which had devoured houses all around the Mission premises had stopped short of the Mission, merely scorching one of its window frames.\n\nGunboat diplomacy was part of life on the 19th century Yangzi with recalcitrant mandarins being brought to heel when, for example, they ignored the cries for help of foreigners under attack from mobs or even encouraged such violence either openly or tacitly. In October 1868 a major confrontation in Yangzhou, the city immediately across the Yangzi from Zhenjiang, involved a large crowd of uncontrolled rioters bent on killing foreigners. They attacked the home of Hudson Taylor and his family, injuring several members of the China Inland Mission. HMS Rinaldo, a British gunboat, arrived and under its guns, the Viceroy in Nanjing agreed to terms demanded by the British Consul, Medhurst. However, the Rinaldo's captain fell ill and the gunboat had to be withdrawn. The Viceroy promptly repudiated the terms he had agreed and a further force of four Royal Navy vessels had to be sent to exert military pressure once more upon the Viceroy. Terms were again dictated and once more agreed. Meanwhile Hudson Taylor and his family had been accommodated in the home of the British Consul in Zhenjiang.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216149, "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": 448, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "382\n\ncoastal trading. He offered cheap fares to Chinese workers to encourage them to engage with Hong Kong. In this he was hoist with his own petard as some of the imported bandits crawled up the storm drains and burrowed into his clock and jewellery business premises, removing many valuables. He ultimately left a line of eight coastal steamers to be managed by his nephew and great-nephew.\n\nIn short, Lapraik became a wealthy merchant prince, building a castellated residence for himself and his company; he was a respected civic dignitary and benefactor, but not without his detractors. Memorials to his achievements included the presentation of a civic clock for the clock tower at Pedder Street and Queens Road, but the tower itself was demolished in 1913 and the clock itself has been lost. Much later, his nephews had an elaborate stained-glass window installed in St John's Cathedral and dedicated to his memory; it was regrettably destroyed during the WW2 occupation and few substantial records remain.\n\nAt the relatively youthful age of 48 he retired and returned to England, leaving his nephews to run the shipping business and Mr Falconer, a one-time employee, inherited the clock and jewellery enterprise. That same year he married a lady from the Isle of Wight, having settled a trust for his Chinese concubine before leaving Hong Kong. Sadly, he died a few years later of a malignancy at the age of 51, but with a smile on his face, it is said.\n\nOne of the beneficiaries of his will was a Douglas Dixson, the son of a late colleague who was a newspaper proprietor in Hong Kong and we discover circumstantially that the lady who previously owned my clock had documented connections with that particular family. So, who knows, with such slender conjecture, I may have the master's own clock.\n\nThis is but a thumbnail sketch of the life of an extraordinary man, stitched together from information provided by very many kind people both here in the UK and in Hong Kong. In the interim, I should like to thank in particular Mr Philip Kemp, related to Lapraik through marriage; Dr Dan Waters and Dr Solomon Bard of Hong Kong; and Bernard Hui of the Hong Kong Public Records Office, who made available to me some archival record cards compiled by the Reverend Carl Smith. My searches are not complete and I shall be ever grateful to receive any further anecdotal recollections about Lapraik and particularly about his clocks.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216222, "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": 521, "title": "RAS-2002", "content_text": "455\n\ncould sometimes hear barking deer calling from Victoria Peak. At the time one could still hire a sedan chair and four coolies to carry one up to Conduit Road. There were half a dozen or so parked regularly in Wyndham Street, in Central, up until the late 1950s. The fare was 30 cents for each 15 minutes with a 30 cents surcharge. The working life of a chair coolie was said to be eight years.\n\nAs with many houses in Conduit Road at the time, 41 Conduit Road had a superb view and, long before the days of cross-harbour tunnels, one of the pastimes of children was counting the number of ferries they could spot. Between the two World Wars an eccentric Englishman who lived in Robinson Road, not far away, did not own a clock. He used a telescope to tell the time from the clock tower then standing in Pedder Street. In the \"good old days,\" more than one British Governor used the activities in the harbour as a barometer of the strength of the economy. We are talking of times, up until the mid 1930s, when a cannon was fired from Blackhead Point, in Tsim Sha Tsui, to let residents know when a typhoon was approaching or, alternatively, the mail ship had arrived. Occasionally, inhabitants were not sure to which of the two events the firing referred!\n\nWhen the FCC vacated the premises the final days had come for the old mansion at 41 Conduit Road. In 1960, it was bought by Cheng Hing Realty and, in 1966, rebought by Court Properties. As with so much of Hong Kong it was a case of 'Hungry for the new forget the old.' The old building was demolished and the site remained empty for some time. The sale price was reputed to have been $13 million. The site was then redeveloped. In the summer of 1970, there were 1,200 applications to purchase the 400 flats at Realty Gardens. My wife and I were successful in the ballot and we took possession of our newly completed flat in Venice Court, for which we paid, in mid 1972, the princely sum of $114,000. Prices were still low after the property slump brought on largely by the drawn-out 1967 riots. My flat has been a splendid investment. We let it for the first four years, unfurnished, at $2,000 a month. We moved in ourselves on 1 March 1976.\n\nAlthough I can see a narrow strip of the harbour and Stonecutters Island (an island no longer) from my bedroom window, my flat at Realty Gardens in fact faces south. It is thus shielded from the cold north-easterly monsoon in the winter and receives the benefits of the cool", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2002.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 216310, "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": 69, "title": "RAS-2003", "content_text": "18\n\nRestoring the damage done by the three years of Taiping destruction required a massive reconstruction project which lasted for nearly 30 years from 1871 to 1899. In addition to rebuilding the previous structures, several new halls which had not existed before were added during this time, including the Guest House (Ke Tang) and the Dining Hall (Zhai Tang) in 1887; the Goddess of Mercy Hall (Guan Yin Dian), Ancestors Hall (Zu Shi Dian), and the Kshitigarbha Hall (Di Zang Dian) in 1890; and finally the 500 Arhats Hall (Wu Bai Luohan Tang) in 1896.\n\nThe Republican era, 1911-1949\n\nAt the beginning of the Min Guo Republic (1912), all the monks were forced to move out by armed soldiers who moved in and used the temple as a barracks. The soldiers looted the golden statues from the temple, and wooden parts of the temple such as window frames were used by the soldiers to make cooking fires. However, in 1920 the temple and the pagoda were both repaired, and after being closed for a whole decade the temple finally officially reopened in 1922 when all the monks came back. Holmes Welch's otherwise authoritative 1967 study of Buddhism in China mistakenly stated that Longhua Temple was occupied by the Chinese military for the entire Min Guo period. Photos from D. C. Burn's brief 1926 study of the temple show that the Qing Dynasty 500 Arhat Hall (Wu Bai Luohan Tang) was still intact then, although it no longer exists now.\n\nLonghua Temple enjoyed 15 years of peace and tranquility until September 11, 1937 when the temple was badly damaged during the Japanese attack on Shanghai. Nine Japanese airplanes dropped 30 bombs on the Longhua area. Most likely they were targeting the nearby Longhua Airport and the Guomindang's Longhua Garrison military camp next door, but they accidentally caused severe damage to the temple. Before the attack there had been 80 monks living in the temple, but afterward there were only 7 monks remaining.\n\nDuring the first five years of the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-1942, the internal affairs of the temple were confused and disorganized, with rival masters claiming the post of Abbot, and unqualified persons claiming to be Buddhist monks for the sake of seeking safe haven in the temple. On September 9, 1942 a reorganization committee was", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2003.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390", "rank": 0 } ]