[ { "id": 210769, "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": 120, "title": "RAS-1986", "content_text": "103\n\nlimestone-bricks fired in open country kilns. Roofs are thatched or patched with pine bark, or of fired earthenware tiles which can cost as much as ¥600 for a single roof. The floors are generally earthen, although concrete floors are also common. Timber is used for rafters, beams and house-posts, and in some areas for inner partitions or lattices which may be elaborately lacquered, as with the Bai housing of Yunnan and in some Naxi areas. Villages vary in size from 10-15 houses to 60-80, although in remote areas villages can be very small, consisting only of some 4-5 houses. Much larger minority settlements and resettlements are also quite common, with populations of 10,000 or more, in lowland regions.\n\nAround the mud paths of the village hogs and fowl, cattle and oxen wander freely or are penned to one side of the house, often in close conjunction with the privy. Primary schooling facilities exist in most areas, but secondary education is rare, and tertiary education reserved for the very few. This is despite the eleven colleges established nationwide specifically for the members of national minorities. Medical stations exist at the xiang level. Children help in the house, in the fields, and at the market, when they are not at school or during school vacations, and their labour is particularly useful in animal husbandry and transportation. The economy remains agricultural, in common with more than 80 percent of China's population, with important elements of animal husbandry, forestry, hunting, and fishing, and in some areas cash-cropping. Hunting small animals provides an important source of protein, while rabbits, deer and other animals are trapped for fur. In some areas a small household trade in pig-husbandry provides a needed source of cash, while fishing in the Dai areas has been reduced owing to the use of chemical fertilizers. Yields and acreages vary widely, depending on altitude, climate, and regional policy. Predominantly wheat and corn-cultivating Naxi households in the arid highlands of Northwest Yunnan cultivated as much as 25 mu of land, while wet-rice and corn-cultivating Yi households in the Kunming plain cultivated only 3 mu per household, and the mixed forestry and wet-rice economy of the Yao in Northwest Guangdong cultivated 0.8 mu of padi per 'mouth.' Sideline occupations are common, particularly chipping granite from quarries by the roadside for resale, or the horse stock-breeding of the Naxi, where a stallion may fetch up to ¥1,000.\n\nPage 120\n\nPage 121", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1986.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211267, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1987", "page_number": 328, "title": "RAS-1987", "content_text": "303\n\ncultivation of controlled accidents, synthesis of East and West: \"Chinese brushwork is really individual, like Western color. Good brushwork is so beautiful. It can make you look at it many times... It's just like with voice when I hear one song, if the voice is good I want to hear another song. It's the same voice, but each time it's a little bit different: that attracts me so much. . . .” (p. 42).\n\nOther notable scholars and critics who have written about artist-collector-connoisseur Wang have also been allowed to speak with their own voices, which gives the story a clarity and authenticity rarely achieved in a scholarly book. Moreover, the book is lavishly illustrated not only with Mr. Wang's works of all periods but also with the paintings that were most influential in building his style.\n\nIn addition, Professor Silbergeld recounts the long history of C. C. Wang as collector, and how he has been a central figure in influencing the growth of major collections of Chinese art in the West, notably that of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, through the sale of his own collections.\n\nMind Landscapes has been laid out with great beauty and intelligence. It would have been impossible to produce such an outstanding volume without financial support. This was provided through grants from the Henry Art Gallery Association, PONCHO, the University of Washington Press, and the J. Paul Getty Trust. Yet it is rare to have such a thoughtful and handsome product even if one has the resources. Kudos are also due to the designer, Douglas Wadden.\n\nThe publication of Mind Landscapes coincides with a major retrospective of C. C. Wang's work and serves as a catalogue to it. This book is a fitting climax to Mr. Wang's career and sets a standard of excellence in its field. Let us hope that young scholars in Asia and the West will take note.\n\nJOAN LEBOLD COHEN*\n\n* Joan Lebold Cohen, art historian and photographer, is a lecturer at Tufts University and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her most recent books discuss various aspects of contemporary Chinese painting: The New Chinese Painting, 1949-1986 (1987) and Yunnan School, a Renaissance in Chinese Painting (1988).", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1987.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212200, "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": 142, "title": "RAS-1990", "content_text": "119\n\nLiuchow where one of Colonel Chennault's schools for training Chinese pilots was at that time established. I arrived just in time to observe the results of a Japanese air-raid on the field, when they succeeded in shooting up two of the latest type of Curtis Hawk fighters, the only two at that time in China, concealed in some trees on the edge of the field. Training under such conditions was not easy and the school soon had to move west again into Yunnan province.\n\nThree hundred kilometres a day is good going on these lightly metalled roads. I reached Kweilin on the evening of the third day after leaving Wuchow, and put up at the government hostel. From time immemorial the idea of travel has filled Chinese with apprehension, induced not only by fear of the ubiquitous bandit, but also by the abomination of the fetid roadside inn. With the advent of the motor car, the need for better hotel accommodation became evident, and the various provincial governments opened official hostelries at key points. While these left much to be desired by western standards, they were a prodigious improvement on the old-style inn.\n\nKwangsi is one of the more progressive provinces, for long controlled by Generals Li Tsung Jen and Pai Chung Hsi, who rank next to the Generalissimo himself. The hostel at Kweilin was better than average. There was a wireless in the lounge, and a small crowd of us sat and listened to the news as it came in. It was the period before Munich. A young German amongst us, flushed with arrogance, gloated over Hitler's successes. My first contact with the aboriginal Nazi spirit left me angry and dismayed.\n\nChinese buildings are flimsy. The rooms are small and dark, and not clean. When you have made allowance for this idiosyncrasy, Kweilin appears a delightful little town. The city wall circumambulates from shrine-crowned hill to hill; the river is full of junks that sail down to Wuchow; the roads are wide and straight, and shop arcades cover the pavements on either side. The little separate hills rise steeply from the plain, in those fantastic shapes seen in Chinese paintings. Their rocky tree-fringed summits staggered drunkenly beneath the sky. The hills are full of natural caves, most convenient for storing war supplies, or to act as shelters in the event of raids. But Kweilin was still far from the war. The Kweilin merchants believed that the Japanese planes would have difficulty in locating their little city snuggling amongst the hills. The excitement was all about the new railway,", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1990.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212823, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 132, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "117\n\nwithdrew partly into India and partly back into Yunnan. Kokang was left high and dry. Undaunted the Myosa from his own funds purchased what weapons he could from the retreating Chinese troops and the disbanded men of the Burma Rifles, who had been instructed to disperse to their villages with their weapons, which were to be retained for local protection until the British returned. He acquired several hundred rifles, a small stock of ammunition, and a few Bren guns, and organised his own force, the Kokang Defence Force. Fortunately the prowess of the force, which could scarcely have proved high in the face of the battle-trained troops of Japan, was not put to the test. The Japanese advance stopped at the Salween, a convenient barrier on which to consolidate their East Wall in Burma.\n\nThe Myosa, left thus in a most dangerous situation, in the front line, as it were, of the Allied positions, applied to the nearby ally, China, for assistance. The Chinese who were themselves receiving equipment from America for their forces in this part of the world, could spare him no equipment, but undertook to train officers for his force. The quality of the training so provided will grow evident as this story unfolds.\n\nIn 1943 the Myosa made the journey to Kun-ming to apply to the British authorities for assistance and it was at the British Consul General's* house in Kun-ming that I met him. I saw an alert slight figure, young looking and brisk for his 45 years, dressed in a western suit of Palm Beach cloth. He looked Chinese, but I believe there is also an admixture of tribal blood, possibly Shan; there is, of course, a good deal of intermingling throughout all that border country. The prince spoke Burmese and Chinese, but very little English: though his schooling on the border had probably been rough and ready, he possessed in a strong degree that charm, which goes with a courtesy so cultivated that it becomes natural and can conceal the aptitude for decision based on a habit of command. The prince was accompanied by his son, a capable young man in his early twenties, who had been educated at the Princes' School in Taungyi and spoke excellent English. The Myosa explained to us, his son serving as interpreter, the difficulties of his position, the trouble he was having with Chinese troops, a battalion of whom had been stationed in Southern Kokang, and the hope that we might be able to come to his support. We discussed the situation and the nature of the\n\n*Strangely, he had been the Consul at Kiu Kiang in 1927, from whose house we retired to the warships", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212836, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 145, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "130\n\nthe new officer to remove himself and his troops from the village where we were staying immediately. Poor man, he was only obeying his orders and did not know what to do; but he went. After that we were only watched by plain clothes men; but the dismissal of the escort, or prisoner's guard, as it would be called to the natives, showed the natives that we intended to be masters in our house, and helped to break down the fear under which they laboured.\n\nI was sorry to lose the men of the escort: they came from far away Hunan, and were good representatives of the salty peasant stock of a great nation.\n\nExcept on certain main routes used by the Chinese troops the villages in Kokang were not deserted, like many of those we had passed in Yunnan. It is an old story. A British officer, H.P. Davies, who was travelling through these parts in 1895, wrote: 'Our first march only took us back to Na-hsang, the place I had passed through on my way to Tawnio. This village which appeared quite prosperous a month before, we found almost entirely deserted. On enquiry we learned that some Chinese soldiers were expected there soon as escort to the boundary commission. No doubt these worthy villagers had had previous experience of Chinese troops and were determined to hide themselves and their property as much as possible.\n\nTawnio in Burmese, and Malipa in Chinese, is the name of the chief town in south Kokang; Na-hsang is a village across the border on the Chinese side. Here again it is most unfair to blame the Chinese troops. They are expected to move without commissariat and to live off the country; they have no money with which to pay for what they take, so no wonder the people of the villages make themselves scarce.\n\nAt Nancha we came across the makings of a small tragedy. The old headman had two unmarried daughters - his son had been carried off by the Chinese to attend school at Kun-ming, in other words he was a hostage - the elder of whom had bound feet, and the younger not bound. The modern young men would no longer look at any girl with bound feet; that was out of fashion; but until the elder sister was married, the younger, a bright good-looking girl, could not marry. It was a puzzle to which there appeared to be no solution. But the women in these parts are very independent; I heard later that the younger girl had run away from home and married the swain of her choice by just going to live", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212915, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1992", "page_number": 224, "title": "RAS-1992", "content_text": "209\n\n1935 was a memorable year because it was the Silver Jubilee of King George V. The British Consul in Chefoo put on a great fair to which we all went. Here we were given bank notes specially drawn for the occasion, which entitled us to rides and ice cream and so forth. The bank notes were so attractive that I could not bring myself to spend them all and kept some for years.\n\nFrom time to time ships of the Royal Navy called at Chefoo and there would be sure to be some entertainment. Sometimes it was open day on the ship, once they dressed up as pirates and came ashore on our beaches and gave us a party there. We also played football against them. The main port for the Royal Navy was Wei Hai Wei, some sixty miles down the coast. Chefoo was the summer home for the American fleet, who would have come up from the Philippines, and who also took us on boating expeditions to nearby islands.\n\nHolidays at School\n\nAfter two years in the Prep School I was old enough to go to the Boys' School. The transfer took place during the summer holidays which I was, like many others, spending at school. As I said, children came to these schools from all over China. Most were children of missionaries but businessmen also sent their children there. Some came from nearby Tsingtao or Tientsin or Shanghai. These children could go home for the month-long summer holidays and some even went for the two weeks at Easter. A party of us came from Hong Kong and South China and, as it would take us ten days to get to Fatshan, we only made the journey once a year during the two-month long winter holidays. Others came from so far away in Yunnan Province that they never went home. So there were always a good many children in the schools during the holidays. These holidays were made very enjoyable times for us. In the summer it would be swimming and tennis. In the winter some went skating but at all times the staff would think of amusements and games, hobbies and outings which came in great variety.\n\nIn 1937 my father had planned a trip to Peking but the outbreak of hostilities with the Japanese prevented this. Instead my mother came to Chefoo for the summer holidays and we all stayed at the Missionary Home. This was a simple hostel where we had our meals and slept but that was about all. There was an Anglican church nearby and I recall the atmosphere of peace and reverence at my first Evensong there. During", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1992.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x", "rank": 0 } ]