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previously described, no longer carries water, and part of which is still used to supply irrigation water to a village. The ancient grave at Lo-A-Tsai on Lamma Island is made of similar stones; and I am inclined to associate also with these people a number of high standing stones, some of which are still cult objects, of which one stands above Bowen Road, another overlooking Sha Tin115 is known to Europeans by the unnecessarily sneering name of the "Amah Rock". A stone of this type, standing above a rock pool which looks as though it had been artificially enlarged and made circular, stands between the deserted village of Pak Koks at the south-western tip of Shek Pik Bay128 and the new village to which the ancient Fung2 clan of Fan Puisi were moved to make room for the Shek Pik Reservoir. Another overlooks Long Harbour, and about this one there is some mystery, since every year at approximately the date of the Mid-Autumn Festival a considerable number of women can be seen flocking up the hill to this stone, but all villages within walking distance flatly deny knowledge of any such celebration. This is at best negative evidence, and may not indicate the persistence of a pre-Chinese tradition; for a similar reticence regarding religious celebrations by women is observed at the great Nu-kwa102 temple on Honam Island154 

opposite Canton, which men are seldom allowed to visit. I am trying to plot the positions of all these stone works and believe that when the list is finished, it will arrange itself into three circuits on Lantao Island, one on Lamma Island, two on Hong Kong Island, two on the Saikung126 Peninsula and three or four in the rest of the New Territories. This work might well be taken in hand by someone younger, but it must be someone who is fond of walking; and walkers have a peculiar blind spot when it comes to the collection of this kind of evidence, for I have often had to draw the attention of my walking companions even to the most obvious systems of stone walls which they have been walking right past, or even over, without noticing. The Lo-A-Tsai grave is situated close by a path and the first time I passed it, in the company of five villagers, I asked them what it was though most of them used that path nearly every day, none had ever before noticed the grave! 

A piece which is of vital importance and may indeed be what holds the rest of our jigsaw puzzle together is the correct identification of occupied sites on the seashore. There are many
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NOTES

1 "Amah Rock” — A more decent title would be the Mother and Child Rock. The Chinese name for this and many similar rocks is mong fhuuh sreak, ★❶. 

2 Baat Xheong, ★❴. 

3 Boo-ghonn, ❵. 

4 Boo-shaann, ❷. 

5 Braak-gok, ★❸. 

6 Braak-mrong, ❹. 

7 Braak-shaah-qou, ❻★. 

8 Braak-xrok-dheonn, ❼. 

9 Brok, ❽. 

C

10 Ceak-traap-gok, ★❾★. 

11 Chaah-xhang, ★➀. also Taai-xhaang, ★ṃ. 

12 Cheng-criw, ★☆ (+1644—+1911). 

13 Cheng-jhih, ❵, name of a local fish. 

14 Cheng-shaann, ❶☛. 

15 Now called Cheng-shaann-whaann, ❶ which formerly applied to a smaller bay at the foot of Castle Peak itself. 

Cirn-whaann, ★★ see 26.

16 Corgwok, approximately +927-+951, but it is doubtful whether a nienhao was adopted. 楚剧

17 Crann, ★. 

18 Crann Gwor, ❸. 

19 Creah, ❹, Hakka eria. 

20 All the other words now pronounced creah having formerly had initial ts, not ch. 

21 Creah-drou, ❺, which however in this territory is always called xrorn-wroh, ★. 

22 Creoy-criw, ★☆ +581 (locally from +589) to +618. 

23 Creoy Crung-sreak, ★❶. 

24 Crih-jrynn, ★❷. 

25 Crih-xoe, ★❸. 

Crinn-whaann, ★★ see 26.

26 Crynn-whaann, (Crinn-whaann) and ★ also written , ★ (Zin-whaann), ★★ (Cirn-whaann),
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the cultivation of all plants whose names are qualified by the prefix faan," used for immigrants such as the tomato, the guava, the rambutan, one kind of melon, and the sweet potato. The peanut is not so qualified and it would appear that the prefix faan is used only for importations from the Pacific. The peanut bears no indication of foreign origin in its name. I do not know what it is called in the various dialects of Fukien, but Chinese books of reference refer to it as lok fa shang. The Cantonese name is fa shang, which is clearly an abbreviation of the former, while the Hakka name is ti tiu, which means earth bean. 

Again it might be of some assistance if there could be recorded the names by which this plant has been known both in Arabia and in other countries of the Middle and Far East to which the Arabs introduced it. Another introduction, perhaps better described as a reintroduction, was the lemon. It would appear that the first Arab traders on their admission to Canton at the end of the sixth century took back with them the seeds of a plant then described in Chinese as yi mo (itself clearly a non-Han name) and from that plant developed and cultivated the now well-known lemon-shaped lemon which they called by the name Al-Laimûn which is the old Chinese name arabized by the common ending -n and the initial slurred with the definite article. The Cantonese then re-borrowed the Arabic name in the form of ning mung12 which we still use. Another Arabic word which was introduced into the language of Canton was the word amah, now familiar in the meaning of a Chinese female servant employed by a foreign family, which has nothing to do with the Cantonese word for grandmother2 but is a word for a female servant common to all the Semitic languages, including Hebrew it will be found in the Books of Exodus, xxiii. 12, Judges xix. 9 and many other places in the Bible. I suspect that many of the other words commonly used in Cantonese to express special relationships between Chinese and foreigners could also be found to have an origin in Arabic, Malay or other languages used by foreign traders in Canton before any Europeans were heard of: for example, sz tsai,16 sz tau,15 (which I think is the Arabic sayyid,1 fa wongł which is clearly the same word as the Urdu malik, originally meaning king and then gardener; kwun-tim," sz-naai14 and taipan3 If this surmise is correct, then these words are likely to have been
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prefix faan in Cantonese, I would like to offer alternative etymologies for some of the words which he discusses and to suggest that it is to Portuguese—often in its Asian dialectal forms that we should look rather than to Arabic for the immediate sources of several loans. The Arabs were certainly present in Canton from early times but so, since the middle sixteenth century, were the Portuguese, and the part played by them from the beginning in introducing the cultivation of new plants to China from other parts of the world has already been demonstrated in various works by Mr. Jack Braga of Hong Kong.

Not only is it possible for certain Portuguese expressions to have entered the southern Chinese dialects through the dialect of Macao but also through the Portuguese lingua franca or pidgin, widely used on the coasts and amongst the islands of Asia during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and through China coast pidgin English which had its hey-day towards the end of the eighteenth and throughout the nineteenth in Canton and Hong Kong as well as in the Treaty Ports and, for that matter, in Macao itself. Pidgin English, originally more Portuguese in aspect than in the period of its decline, bears the marks of Indo-Portuguese influence in forms such as amah (female servant), coolie (labourer), comprador (local agent or grocer), chop (stamp), chit (slip of paper), tiffin (luncheon).

In short, some Indo-Portuguese expressions may have been introduced to the Cantonese by the English and other foreigners rather than by the Portuguese or Macanese. Others, such as derivatives of leilão, (auction), must have entered several Chinese dialects at an earlier date.

While agreeing that it is of importance to establish the date of the introduction to China of the cultivation of all plants whose names are qualified by the prefix faan in Cantonese, I cannot accept the statement that "it would appear that the prefix faan is used only for importations from the Pacific." Three of the four plants with the faan prefix mentioned by the author almost certainly came from the West. They are the tomato, the guava, and the sweet potato. Of these three, the guava and the sweet potato were brought by the Spaniards to the Old World, and their very names in Spanish and English are from the Taino-Arawak dialect of the Greater Antilles. The tomato, a Mexican plant
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NOTES AND QUERIES

and transcribed in a variety of ways by native-speakers of Cantonese.

The origins of words such as amah are hidden in the obscure labyrinths of time but are still as fresh as a new-born babe. Such words contain the elements of English mammy, ma, French maman, Latin mater and so on, for they represent the infant mouth opening to bawl and sometimes the closing of the tiny lips over the mother's teat. Such words exist in all languages even as a rejecting, spitting series for the father: pater (in Latin), English daddy, Cantonese papa mimic the child's rejection of his father's milkless breasts.

It is unnecessary to derive Cantonese amah from an Arab source. Similar forms, demonstrably not of Semitic origin, occur in many languages; in those of the Iberian peninsula, ama may or may not be an Arabism. In India, it was one of the common Indo-Portuguese words for a children's nurse. It is this word which came to Canton either in the Portuguese lingua franca which preceded pidgin English as the jargon of the China coast or in pidgin English itself. The documents of the nineteenth century are rich in derivatives of this word and even today wash-amah and baby-amah are widely used expressions in Hong Kong. Chow-amah (wet-nurse) disappeared at the introduction of patent infant formulae.

The only problem is whether amah, which sounds as exotic in Cantonese as kowtowing once did in English, entered the dialect directly from a Portuguese dialect or was introduced by way of English. My understanding is that amah is seldom used by the Hong Kong Portuguese in the sense of servant and that the word, though Portuguese in origin, is an early English loan to Cantonese, the forerunner of pa-si (bus), mhodhang nreoezir (modern girl), bheazao (beer) and the hundred and one other loans found in the Cantonese spoken in Hong Kong today.

Until more evidence is forthcoming, the derivation of sz tsai and sz tau will seem far-fetched. Nor is there enough proof to convince that fa wong is a calque (translation) of Urdu malik, even though the semantic extensions of wong and malik appear to coincide. I cannot tell which are the foreign words from which we are supposed to derive kwuntim, sz-naai and tai pan and have yet to be convinced that Cantonese natuk is in fact the
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essential; although there was a point beyond which these could be detrimental to the owner.

The rent which the compradore paid to the owners for the deck passenger space depended on the number of passengers usually carried in that particular trade. It was adjusted periodically according to fluctuations in trade and other factors, and was the subject of keen bargaining between owners and compradore — the latter naturally putting a much lower evaluation on the ship's passenger potentiality than the owners. At irregular intervals the owners sent someone to travel on the ship, and check the number of passengers and the amount of cargo carried. These men were known as 'pidgin snatchers' and were very unpopular with the floating staff. If the captain and compradore were good friends and either knew in advance of the 'pidgin snatcher's' movements, the other was warned, and co-operative counter measures instituted in good time.

Most China coasters called at their home port of Hong Kong or Shanghai at least once a month, so that their officers were in much closer touch with life ashore than their contemporaries on overseas ships. During the inter-war period, normal tours of service on the coast were five years, in the course of which officers would serve in several of their company's ships. Many senior officers were married, and had wives and families in Hong Kong or Shanghai, or in a few cases Hankow. Long home leave was granted after a five years tour, but the attractions of life on the coast made many officers and their wives reluctant to go on leave. Captains and mates on ships where 'pidgin' were plentiful, were afraid they might be posted to less profitable ships on their return; while wives were loath to exchange their smoothly-run homes for the doubtful comforts of furnished rooms or boarding houses in Britain. European homes in Hong Kong, Shanghai, or the treaty ports, were sparsely staffed by African or Indian standards, but run much more efficiently. A cook and house boy, sometimes only a cook boy, sufficed for a small house or flat, supplemented by a baby amah or gardener if circumstance warranted this. A similar establishment in India would have been indifferently served by a staff twice as large. Although the taipans of the big foreign companies and senior customs commissioners lived in considerable style, life on the coast was in general much less ostentatious than in India, and much more pleasant.

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followers and would-be subscribers encouraged her then to build a new hall and she was able to purchase a private plot with a small house on it at Ngau Chi Wan, formerly occupied by a Buddhist nun. The house was pulled down and replaced then by the present hall. This hall belongs to the same sect as a group of halls studied by Marjorie Topley in Singapore and the founder of one of these halls, the FEI HA CHING SHE (*), there, was not only well known to the inmates of this hall in Hong Kong, but his photograph was observed by us to hang on its wall in a place of honour. 

3. Man Fat Tong (4) 

This hall was established in the first year of the Chinese Republic (1912-13). The founder was a native of Sai Chiu, Kwangtung and was at some time a domestic servant in Hong Kong. She held the same rank as the founders of the above halls and co-operated in financing the hall with three or four other former domestic servants. They began by building the main shrine room, the rest of the main structure being added some years later (about 1923). Gradually she bought more land and enlarged the structure as funds came in from co-religionists and would-be inmates. 

One of the present inmates of the hall, now 67 years old, was brought here by the founder from Canton when she was 20 and she worked two years in Hong Kong as an amah before returning to the hall, where she has been ever since. Another lady, now 58, was brought here when 14 years old and has never been employed outside the hall, 

Appearance and Lay-out of the Halls, and Deities Worshipped 

The founders of these halls said there was no particular reason why they had chosen Ngau Chi Wan for their halls apart from the fact that the land was cheap and had good fêng-shui (geomantic properties) and the environment quiet. The surroundings of these halls must undoubtedly have been conducive to the contemplative and religious life in those early years. Although they are now bordered by a busy and noisy market and adjacent to the big housing estate of Choi Hung, the noise does not appear to penetrate into the halls and their small gardens in which they grow some of their vegetables even today. 

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words of Chinese origin are almost always anglicized in pronunciation. There may be doubt concerning how the word should be pronounced, but rarely is the Chinese pronunciation retained. For example, take the word cheongsam. The affricate /ts/ is replaced by the English /ch/ and the rounded vowel similar to that in the English "bird", but with lip-rounding, is replaced by a vowel identical to that in the English 'long'. Similarly in fung shui the Cantonese diphthong /oey/ (similar to that in the French 'lui') is substituted by the /u/ + /i/ sequence as in the English 'ruin'. On the graphological level, there is no question of the loans being written in Chinese characters. The letters of English alphabet may however occur in rather unfamiliar combinations, as in the case of e-o-n-g occurring in cheongsam, and u-e-y in chopsuey.

Another requirement for full assimilation is related to the grammatical status of the word. Grammatically, it is assigned to a word class, or may have multiple-class membership. It behaves like other members of the class, so that if it is a countable noun it is inflected for number, and if it is a verb, it can take a past tense ending, and so on. Thus typhoon is inflected for number and kowtow for person and tense. It obeys the syntactical rules of the language in combining with other words to form grammatical sentences. For example, the headline 'Running water for lamas' occurs in The South China Morning Post, (7/82) also in the same paper, someone is described as 'mingling with the rich tai tais'. The word is not restricted in occurrence to limited contexts, but may be found to combine freely with other words to form bigger constructions, so that one can speak of Bruce Li as a 'kung fu superstar' The South China Morning Post (26/4/82), while in Noble House the writer mentions ‘a flood of amah Cantonese' (p. 1017). Cheongsam, in its past participle form, functions as an adjective in ‘cheongsamed girl', as used by Richard Hughes (p. 98) and James Clavell (N.H., p. 9). Derivational affixes may be added, as when ‘ism' or ‘ist' is added to the loans tao, lama, Mao, giving taoist, taoism, lamaism, Maoist and so on. It does not matter that Confucius originally derives from a surname plus a title; now that it has been established in the English language, one can derive Confucian and Confucianism from it. Again, it is of no significance that the model for Shanghai
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which is reserved exclusively for the occasion. The offerings must include red pork and two long stems of bamboo in leaf; these are laid out on special tables placed on small stools so that they do not touch the ground and be defiled.

The Jade Emperor's image has been noted on altars in nine temples in Hong Kong and in two in Macau. It is also to be seen on numerous altars throughout South-East Asia and in Taiwan. In Taiwan his image appears alone or with two or three attendants on a number of secondary altars and even on side altars. In Hong Kong he is the main deity in six of the nine temples and is the major deity on a secondary altar in the other three.

The most fascinating image of the Jade Emperor in Hong Kong is to be seen in the upper level hall of the Monastery of the Ten Thousand Buddhas in Shatin where he is flanked by two of his ministers. In a large number of temples in which he is the main deity the Jade Emperor is supported in this way by the two stellar deities, each in his own secondary altar flanking the main altar with the Jade Emperor. They are the Lord of the Northern Bushel and the Lord of the Southern Bushel, Nanpei Tou (jjdk-1-). There are also a number of images of attendants flanking the image of the Jade Emperor, and on occasions the Civil and Military Judges (Wenwu P'ankuan).

He is the main deity in a tiny temple near Shaukiwan on Hong Kong island, a tiny image in a small single-room temple occupied by one elderly lady, the temple keeper. The original occupants were refugees from Yunnan province in the early fifties, dead these many years. By the mid-seventies the temple was being kept spotlessly clean by the elderly lady who had been an amah to a long-departed English family. She explained that she had to earn her keep somehow, especially as her husband had already 'long time gone topside'.

In Penang people will tell you that the small red shrine outside their shop or house is dedicated to the Jade Emperor even though neither his name nor title is recorded anywhere.

Supporting the Supreme Deity is a Board or Ministry of Thirty-Six Ministers, with duties to supervise junior celestial officials and clerks, whose images are rarely to be seen on altars though on temple murals all thirty-six are frequently portrayed. Their role is to control and run
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members 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.

The 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.

On 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.

Now 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.
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The embarkation took place at midnight. It had begun to rain. There was no street lighting; the night was very dark and the gangway up to the hulk was slippery. These hulks were great steel pontoons, two hundred feet long, with a large deck house, in which were located the shipping company's office and some residential quarters. Wide stairs led down to the holds below, where the inward and outward cargoes were stored pending transfer elsewhere. To approach the ship you had to walk round outside the hulk along a gangway, about three feet wide, left between the deckhouse and the edge. To facilitate the movement of cargo no railings were put along this edge. I was carrying our younger child and I remember the feeling of horror when our other child, at a moment when the amah's attention was attracted elsewhere, toddled along to the edge to look over at the black tide rushing between the steel sides of the ship and hulk. My wife just in time snatched him back from the wet slippery edge.

The steamer was of the usual river design, like any small sea-going merchantman, but with more super-structure and a flatter bottom. There were not berths sufficient for all the refugees, who began to sort themselves out, some in the saloon and others in the smoking room. A wild alcoholic glow added to the sociability induced by the common dangers of the situation and I regret to say bets were taken whether one of the refugees, who was conspicuously expecting a baby, could last out till the ship reached Shanghai. When the Captain decided to start, husbands and bachelors were reluctantly persuaded to go ashore to return to their solitary and darkened houses.

Next day the Consul decided to get in touch with the Chinese general who held the appointment of Garrison Commander at Kiu Kiang. This official was elusive but he eventually agreed to come to the Consulate for a conference. The safety of the foreigners in Kiu Kiang was really his responsibility and after some pressing he undertook to furnish protection. The British guards were consequently withdrawn from the Concession gates to the two hulks.

During times of civil commotion respectable and well-to-do Chinese would bolt their doors or put up the shop shutters, as the case might be, and remain inside; but in any Chinese town there would also be an unruly element of loafers, pickpockets, thieves, and toughs, as indeed in any western city. Now was the opportunity for these hooligans. By midday the streets of the Concession were filled with a seething mob
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ignorance. The cook, on the other hand, a tall northerner from Tientsin, would blanch at the first sound of the siren and bolt like a rabbit to his hole; and our little amah, a timid soul, would stand and weep in a corner. At one time we got quite worried about her, because whenever there was a raid her temperature went up; she, however, recovered her normal poise when she followed her "missy" to the quieter atmosphere of Wuhu.

During all this period the Chinese commercial community watched the attitude of the foreign residents and judged of the progress of the war from what they read into their movements. The war had naturally resulted in a severe restriction of credit and we were all concerned with the collection of outstanding accounts. One foreign business man, who controlled a large upcountry organisation, maintained that his wife's continued residence in Nanking inspired his Chinese agents with such confidence that they continued to remit funds, so that he estimated her presence was worth several lakhs to the firms by whom he was employed. This is one aspect liable to be overlooked by Consuls, who order their nationals at short notice out of a place in the hope of avoiding international complications.

Whether because they grew tired of the discomforts of a bucolic existence, or of the expense, or whether it was because they found that the part of the town in which they used to live had escaped the attention of the enemy bombers, it was a fact that many Chinese, who had left Nanking in August, returned in October, and many of the shops which had closed their doors reopened.

The question of provisions became easier again, and some enterprising compradores even replaced exhausted stocks by railway from Tsingtao, or by motor lorry from Shanghai, though to cover the risk of loss en route they found it necessary to raise their prices from two to three times. Butter was a problem, until we discovered that while the number of milk consumers had fallen off heavily the number of cows had remained static, and the surplus of cream thus available produced excellent fresh butter. The dairies in Nanking existed for the convenience of the foreigners as the Chinese themselves do not consume milk or milk products. In more recent years, however, Chinese have taken to tinned milk, particularly for infants, and by this indirect approach are to a small extent developing a taste for cow's milk.
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sometimes visited by H.M. ships, and further inland Snow Valley, high up in the mountains, was a popular resort for the more enterprising of Shanghai week-enders. Now the motor roads round Ningpo had all been destroyed by the Chinese lest the Japanese advance and make use of them. The roadhead was twenty miles away at Kikow, the Generalissimo's native village, where tourists used to leave their cars to make the ascent to Snow Valley.

I had to get back to Shanghai somehow and decided the best way would be to make for Hongkong overland, a distance not far short of a thousand miles. You reached Kikow partly by boat and partly on foot, and I arrived one evening, to find I should have to wait a couple of days for a seat on the crowded bus service. The next morning I was strolling by myself along the village road when the alert sounded. This was such a common event that I took no notice, and almost before I realised what had happened two Japanese light bombers were circling over the village to locate their targets. The police hustled me into a nearby house, from the courtyard of which I watched the planes fly around and make shallow dives each time they placed a bomb, of which they dropped a dozen. Besides myself there were only women in the house, an old lady, a daughter, and a small child with their amah. They told me that only two houses away was the Generalissimo's ancestral home, at which it was probable that the Japanese were aiming. The daughter was very concerned that I should be standing in the courtyard with my sleeves rolled up displaying my wrist watch to the Japanese pilots. She feared it might attract their attention and asked me to take it off. In my halting Chinese I tried to explain to her that the pilots, who were flying about two thousand feet up, there was, of course, no defence of any kind

could neither see me nor my wrist watch, and each time the aircraft commenced to dive I signalled to the women to crouch down and comforted myself by the realisation that they were going for the other end of the village. The planes flew off after half an hour. When they were satisfied it was all over, the women collected the clothes they had been washing, and made their way, as if quite accustomed to it, across the road, down the steps to the mountain stream to resume their work. Fortunately no buildings caught fire on this occasion, and there was not much damage; the village was burnt out in another raid a week later.

―

Next day I started on my journey. Laboriously, on the overcrowded
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The household was quite large with an amah to look after us children (who many years later also looked after my own children), a cook, who was the husband of the amah, and one or two others to help with the washing and housework. When the time came, I went to the primary school with all the other children of my age, a single very fair head among a sea of black. I can visualise the classroom in which we had our lessons and the playground outside. The textbooks were very thin and had paper covers, so that it was possible for the history master to roll one up and give us a good clip over the head if we were being particularly stupid. English was not taught in the primary school, only to the senior students in the secondary school, so I was sent to sit among the senior girls to learn my English grammar from my mother, who taught the subject.

We had school uniforms of a sort still seen in Hong Kong, but the school only supplied the material to ensure that everybody had the same colour. Ours was a beautiful pale blue, only slightly darker than the Cambridge blue. Quantities of the new material would arrive and then be made up into the smartest of outfits.

Paddy Fields and Dragon Boats

We would walk to school through paddy fields, which for most of the year were flooded for the rice. Small fish abounded in these fields, though I never caught any. The cycle of the rice crops was familiar to everybody. First, a scattering of seeds in a small patch, then, when the seedlings were about six inches above the water, the planting out of the seedlings, and then nothing much till harvest, and there were two harvests a year. Water was supplied to the paddy fields by a complicated irrigation system and involved pumping water up from the creeks. These pumps were an endless chain of paddles, which were pulled up a trough whose lower end was in the creek and which discharged into the fields. Some pumps were small and driven by a man using his arms as extensions of wooden pistons attached to the upper wheel round which the chain of paddles rotated. Others were driven by three or four men treading spokes protruding from the driving wheel. For the winter harvest, the water was drained out, so that the rice could be cut and threshed into large tubs on the spot. Where there had been acres of water, now there were dry fields of stubble and stacks of rice straw drying out. As the fields dried, we would take short cuts across them. We also found that the mud was soft enough to make into the mud equivalent of snowballs. This led to splendid games in which factions would build forts with the straw and
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THE LADY DOCTOR'S “WARM WELCOME": DR ALICE SIBREE AND THE EARLY YEARS OF HONG KONG'S MATERNITY SERVICE 1903-1909

JANET GEORGE

Yesterday the first bricks were carried up to the site of the new midwifery Hosp Commend We are thankful indeed to have really made a beginning. We have hoped so long for this place and will have a very warm welcome for Dr Sibree (Mrs. Stevens, 24 April 1903).1

Maternity services for local women highlight the relationship between colonial governments and people over a matter which is bound up with culture, ritual and privacy. It is of course a matter central to the family and its maintenance. In Hong Kong the development of the maternity service is particularly interesting, because of its paradoxical quality. That is, the traditional midwives, the 'wan p'o', were increasingly regulated and legally excluded from practice by 1936, even though other traditional medical practices remain untouched. Interesting also is the pattern of development, because the lead was taken by the London Missionary Society's (LMS) Alice Memorial Hospital through the support of the Chinese subscribers, although over many years the Colonial Surgeon, Dr. Ayres had urged the Tung Wah Hospital to extend its services in this direction. The outcome was the appointment in 1903 of Hong Kong's first Lady Doctor, Dr. Alice Sibree, to the Alice Memorial Maternity Hospital (AMMH) to provide a maternity service for Chinese women and to train and supervise Chinese midwives employed by the Hong Kong Government. She completed only the first five-year contract, her resignation in 1909 following years of dissatisfaction with her role and conflict with Dr Gibson, the Medical Superintendent.

2

This paper is focused on that conflict as it sheds light on the way women were perceived and their role organised in medical practice, the relationships between the Chinese elite and the LMS District Committee, and the effects of the professionalisation of medicine. The latter generated competition between the Alice and the Tung Wah Hospital for patients, as the Tung Wah gradually moved towards the incorporation of Western medicine. It also generated competition amongst doctors for appointment to the faculty of the emerging University of Hong Kong. It is argued that
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the accuracy of the registration.7

It is consistent with a climate of insufficient funds and a well-established colonial principle of subsidy to voluntary agencies to provide services that fee payment was resisted by government. Mr. May, the Acting Governor, proposed instead that the money should be spent on a maternity charity, viz. the Training School of Chinese Midwives at the newly completed AMMH, which subsequently enrolled the two trainees from the Civil Hospital.

Setting Up: the LMS and the Chinese subscribers.

Dr. Ho Kai is largely credited with the initiative in promoting Western medicine for the Chinese people in Hong Kong, building on the LMS' interest in missionary medicine and funding the Alice Memorial Hospital and the College of Medicine for Chinese. From its inception, the Alice Hospital, by now comprising the Alice Memorial Hospital and the Nethersole Hospital, had been dependent on the wealth and goodwill of the Chinese elite, amongst whom Dr. Ho Kai was a leader. After just six years of operation, the 1893 Annual Report of the Finance Committee noted that subscriptions from the European community were down by $1,000, although the expenses of a growing hospital were higher. At the same time, subscriptions from the Chinese had increased from $1,708 to $3,131 between 1891 and 1892. Indeed, the Report suggested that the example of the Tung Wah should be followed, and representatives of the Chinese guilds be invited to join the hospital finance committee, to increase Chinese participation.

This proposition was not implemented, and in 1908, Dr. Gibson opposed any increase in Chinese membership of the AMMH's Management Committee, because of likely friction and consequent reduction in trust which Chinese people had in the LMS organisation. At the same time he noted that the subscribers gave little to the Alice compared with their donations to Chinese institutions, such as the Tung Wah and District Dispensaries.9 Chinese finance was crucial for the expansion of the hospital; indeed, for the establishment of the maternity hospital proposed in 1901, support from the rich Chinese was essential.

When the Chinese benefactors moved, mobilisation was rapid. To correspondence from Dr. Ho Kai to Dr. Gibson on 3 March, 1902,
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was to promote the responsibility of District Committees, by requiring their 'joint charge and control over the whole range of the labours carried on by their individual members.' The medical mission work in China was already distinguished by local financial support and greater reliance was being placed on the local committee for hospital management and administration. Given these factors, the reply of the LMS Board of Directors is understandable.

The Chinese subscribers, 21 of the richest men in Hong Kong, therefore guaranteed a sum of $2,000 per annum for the lady doctor's salary, but added a condition: that she be available to treat the women of the subscribers' families in their own homes. As well, she would be required to spend her first year learning Cantonese in Hong Kong (rather than in Canton, where LMS language training was established), so that she could mix socially with the Chinese ladies and introduce to them Western hygiene and health care. Negotiations took several months, agreement reached in February, 1903, the delays attributed by the LMS Hong Kong Secretary, Mr. Pearce, to the inability of Dr. Ho to arrange a meeting of the subscribers. More likely, since the subscribers' money was essential, the delay was tactical, Dr. Ho certainly having been able to arrange their support very quickly initially.

For Dr. Gibson, pursuit of the project was important, because he feared that the Tung Wah Hospital, having introduced some Western medicine and by now handling obstetric cases, would threaten the viability of the Alice Hospital and thereby, the mission enterprise in Hong Kong, saying:

·

+

I feel confident that the Directors of the LMS do not wish that our Missionary Institution should be behind a purely heathen Institution in making provision for the relief of suffering.

18

His vision was at all times expansionary, having set up a clinic in Kowloon in 1901, in order to bring Western medicine to a wider public. In the event, he was obliged to accept a lady doctor on terms other than he would have wished. The repercussions of this were to affect the development of the service offered by the new AMMH and lead to the resignation of the lady doctor in 1909. From that point, supervision was fragmented until 1925, when Dr. Annie Sydenham took over the maternity hospital.
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Profession and Gender; controlling the lady doctor.

In March, 1903, Dr. Alice Sibree was appointed the Lady Doctor in charge of the new AMMH. Dr. Sibree was a licentiate of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Surgeons, Edinburgh. 19 She had studied at the London School of Medicine for Women and had received special training in obstetrics and gynecology, particularly at the Rotunda Lying-in Hospital. 2 At the time of her appointment, she was 27 years old and engaged to be married to a Mr. Wright, who was working in Rangoon. Her father was an LMS missionary, stationed in Madagascar, and she appears to have been well connected with the LMS hierarchy in London, regularly, in her correspondence with the LMS Joint Foreign Secretary, Mr. Cousins, including regards to his wife. With her appointment, the Chinese subscribers handed over their money and building proceeded.

The appointment desired by the LMS Hong Kong District Committee was quite specific. The Lady Doctor must.

1 have had a thorough training, specially in Midwifery and Diseases of Women

2 have a good knowledge of Children's Diseases

3 be a Lady willing to do visiting to attend cases in their own homes

4 be a lady willing to teach and train native women in western methods of midwifery

5 be a Lady Doctor to work exclusively among women and children

6 be a Lady who is willing to act under the medical Superintendent 21

These terms clearly limited her sphere of practice and defined her subordinate relationship to Dr. Gibson. They were apparently unacceptable to London. In response to a query from Mr. Cousins, Dr. Gibson declared that he 'did not think of the Lady Doctor either as a subordinate or an assistant and had no other thought than that she should be a member of the DC. & have the full status of a missionary' 22. On exactly what terms Dr. Sibree agreed to the appointment is not indicated, nor is what she knew of Hong Kong and its cultural nuances. In the event, her relationship to Dr. Gibson and her sphere of practice became and remained sources of conflict during her five years' contract.
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ever had for excessive caution to become reprehensible weakness in dealing with Dr. Gibson. He being now I presume in health will be held responsible in the same sense and degree that his colleagues are in the entire committee for his treatment of Dr. Sibree and for all his acts as a missionary." JB

If Dr. Gibson was 'difficult' with a senior male mission colleague, it is likely that his style led the young Dr. Sibree to avoid confrontation and try other measures to gain her objectives, complaining privately to Mr. Cousins, her pastoral support, and to friends in England, who then required answers from LMS on why she was so treated. In late 1904, she indicated that if, and only if, a replacement could be found, she would leave to be married.” In 1906, Mr. Cousins invited her to explore whether she could be released from her contract to take up a larger post in Hankow. Her engagement broken off in 1905, Dr. Sibree was free to move, but the appointment was virtually vetoed by the Chinese subscribers. Dr. Ts'o, whom she found ‘a most kindly little man, indicated that her leaving would be a personal affront, a loss of 'face', and damaging to the hospital, as the subscribers would feel that they had made donations for nothing. Dr. Ho Kai's 'sweetener' was to suggest that she should take over the female side of the Tung Wah Hospital. So Alice Sibree remained, continued her complaints to London, even though the work increased and she denied to her Hong Kong audience that a problem existed. The Minutes of the 1906 Annual Meeting of the District Committee record that 'Dr. Sibree was asked if she is now satisfied and was understood to answer that the opportunities of her special work have much improved'. This reply was elicited in response to a letter from the LMS Board. In 1908, she indicated that she would resign in February, 1909.

In early

To this point, the development of the AMMH and its outreach service was constrained by race and gender, as they affected the definition of the lady doctor's role, and exacerbated by the tensions in the relationship of Dr. Gibson and the LMS Hongkong District Committee. The influence of gender perceptions was far-reaching. Mission doctors were both medical people and missionaries, yet Dr. Gibson's role was restricted to hospital and clinic work, his inability to speak more than a little Cantonese precluding an evangelistic role with patients. However, Dr. Sibree was seen as more 'missionary' than ‘medical'. She was required to learn Cantonese and in her letters to England, she referred to her mission work, every afternoon visiting and teaching, and twice a week teaching hymns.
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on her medical work, the maternity area indeed grew during her incumbency. In 1909, there were 235 hospital and 1381 domiciliary births, babies delivered by the Chinese midwives trained by Dr. Sibree. 57 As well, she had established networks in the medical and Chinese community. She referred in 1906 to a holiday on the Peak, during which she assisted the acting PCMO, Dr. Clark, with work at the Victoria Hospital.58 Her fluency in Cantonese and regular visits to the 'small footed ladies' and poor Chinese women were supported by the Chinese subscribers, including Dr. Ts'o, with whom she appears to have had a friendly relationship. As well, she was acting, at the request of Mr. Brewin, the Registrar-General, as medical officer to the Po Leung Kuk, a Chinese institution for the care and protection of Chinese girls and women, originally those who had been brought forcibly to Hong Kong for prostitution.59 Her main tasks in relation to government were first, her role in training government midwives in the program set up at the AMMH in 1905, and secondly, in acting as supervisor of the government midwives. At the time of her resignation, then, Dr. Alice Sibree had a number of personal connections within Hong Kong, and a credibility with the government which was useful to the mission hospital.

Her foreshadowed resignation served to bring into focus the underlying issues between the subscribers, the District Committee and the medical mission over control of the maternity service. Immediately the Chinese subscribers through Mr. Brewin requested a replacement under tightened conditions:60 The lady doctor was to:

1. be 'on the regular staff' of the hospital and not in an 'exceptional position' as formerly

2. undertake language training,

3. make visits to Chinese women in their homes.

4. act as Visiting Surgeon to the Po Leung Kuk and if necessary take charge of female patients under Western treatment at the Tung Wah Hospital,

An additional condition was the representation of Chinese subscribers on the management committee of the Hospital, specifically, by appointing the Chairman of the Finance Committee (Dr. Ho Kai) and one Chinese person, in order to have an equal voice with other members in the administration and the medical part of the work.

62

62

T
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were well pleased with her qualifications. From 1 January, 1911, Dr. Perkins took over the supervision of government midwives. One can only assume that, although the position had been more or less promised to Dr. Sibree by the government's Medical Officer of Health, Dr. Gibson was able to gain the reinstatement of the AMMH. This was probably supported by the Legislative Councillor and Chairman of the Alice Hospitals, Dr. Ho Kai. Thus, the AMMH was again the provider, through its Lady Doctor, of the supervision of government midwives. That decision was clearly linked with the designation of the Medical Superintendent and Lady Doctor of the AMMH as members of the Midwives Board in the 'Midwives Ordinance', proclaimed in September, 1910.

The resistance of the District Committee and Dr. Gibson to the inclusion of extra Chinese subscribers on the maternity hospital's management subcommittee was overcome shortly after, when a proposal to add two subscribers was linked with a proposal to build a Training Institute for Nurses and Midwives. As well, the right of subscribers to nominate students for training was agreed. Finance was subsequently raised in the Chinese community for the project, which was opened in March, 1914.

Outcomes and Implications of This Development Process.

Between 1903 and 1911, then, the first maternity hospital for Chinese women was built and training for Chinese midwives set up. That it happened at all was due to the convergence of interests of the LMS, the Chinese elite and the Hong Kong Government. The struggle for control in pursuit of sectional interests, Dr. Gibson versus the LMS District Committee, Dr. Gibson and the District Committee versus the Chinese subscribers, and the position of the LMS in relation to medical education, placed difficulties seen to be insuperable in the way of the Lady Doctor and the development of her service, as she was excluded from general medical work.

It is hard to reconcile the picture of Dr. Sibree as portrayed in the correspondence of her detractors as unable to adapt; lacking initiative; reluctant to state her case to the District Committee directly, rather going behind their backs to the LMS; and publicly denying any problem in her relationship with Dr. Gibson, with the strong figure she later appears. Dr. Sibree married Mr. C.C. Hickling, son of the Rev. C.H. Hickling, pastor

I
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that he had been reinstated as a lecturer, but in 1916 he resigned that position, since the Chair of Surgery had been established, and could only be held with clinical rights at the Government Civil Hospital. Why Dr. Gibson was treated as Mr. Pearce said 'shabbily', is not known, although in Dr. Mitchell's eyes, there had been no necessary connection between the LMS and medical education, and he had warned against any expectation of a linkage." The effect, however, was to remove the students from the institution of the Alice, and with it, the main rationale justifying the exclusion of the lady doctor from general medical work. By this time, maternity work had grown and lack of work was no longer an issue. 94

The AMMH was most important in the establishment of Hong Kong's maternity service for several reasons: first, the resources set up were both hospital-based and domiciliary, and therefore set the parameters for subsequent development, which included hospitals, maternity clinics, and government midwives attending home births. Secondly, under the umbrella of the LMS, the place of Western medical practice amongst the Chinese people was strengthened, demand increasing in the post-World War I decades. Thirdly, female doctors acquired a primary role in service provision and thereby a career pathway for Chinese women as doctors and midwives was opened. That pathway was to extend to general nursing, although even until the 1930s at the Alice Hospital, male dressers, supervised by female European nurses, were needed to work in male wards. Fourthly, a service which was accessible to all classes of Chinese women was set in place. That is, poor women were looked after on the basis of need, whereas the wives of the wealthy Chinese subscribers were entitled to care in terms of the Lady Doctor's contract. The outcome was a service that was, as much by default from the power play between Dr. Gibson and Dr. Sibree as by intention, culturally appropriate to the Chinese community. That is, status differentials were recognised, and at the same time, the level of qualification seen as adequate for a public health-oriented service was selected, analogous to the level of training for the Chinese doctors.

The lack of continuity in the service left a gap which, with greater recognition of need, was filled by secular agencies, as the Chinese Public Dispensaries Committee set up a maternity home in Wanchai in 1919, run by Dr. Alice (Sibree) Hickling, followed by the Tsan Yuk Hospital in 1922. The Tung Wah and Kwong Wah Hospitals improved their maternity service, and domiciliary care was the province of the
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government midwives. The Civil Hospital improved its standards as it was required to provide the clinical training facilities for the University. The Chinese subscribers, who had so generously supported the development of the LMS hospitals, gained and strengthened their power on its committees, but were involved also in these secular developments. The death of Dr. Ho Kai in 1914 coincided with staff shortages and restricted finance for the hospital, as war clouds gathered, making it harder to regain the lead. On the resignation of Dr. Sibree, the impetus for leadership and innovation was lost by the AMMH, although demand grew. It was not restored until the arrival in 1925 of Dr. Annie Sydenham, who, as a long term incumbent, was in a position to introduce preventive and outreach programmes. By this time, the initiative and future form of the service had passed into secular hands, those of the Chinese Public Dispensaries and the Hong Kong Government.

NOTES

1LMS Eastern, South China Box 15, 1903, No 274 Mrs Stevens, (Matron of the Alice Memorial Hospital) to Mr Cousins, 24 April 1903

2Hong Kong Sessional Papers 1884 29/84, Par 39-42 Dr Ayres' opinion could be seen as either to support the policy of separation of medical services for the Chinese, or, by suggesting the attendance of Western doctors, to be promoting increased influence over the Tung Wah Hospital. At the same time, the Civil Hospital was a general hospital, with no separate maternity area, and its role was to provide primarily for the non-Chinese community. The relationship between the Tung Wah Hospital and the Hong Kong Government is analysed in Elizabeth Sinn, Power and Charity: The Early History of the Tung Wah Hospital, Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1989)

3Daily Press, 27 April, 1897

4Mrs Steven's Report 1891-99

5LMS South China Box 15, 1901 No 263 Dr Gibson to Mr Cousins, 1 February, 1901

6Mrs Steven's Report 1901 Alice Hospital Archives Copy

7May to Lyttelton, 21 July, 1904, #291 CO129/323

8LMS Box 12, 1892 No 212 Report of the Annual Meeting of the Finance Committee, enclosed with a letter from Dr. Burton, 19 April, 1893

9LMS 1908 Box 17, 1908 Memorandum from Dr Gibson to LMS Directors, 26 March, 1908
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74 See LMS Box 18, 1909 No 311 Minutes of the HKDC Annual Meeting, 2-3 February, 1909, Box 18, 1909 No 314 Minutes of the HKDC Meeting, 22 June, 1909, and LMS Box 18, 1909 No 315 Mi Pearce to Rev G Currie Martin, Joint Foreign Secretary It is not clear why Dr Sibree did not resume her position. An amount of $1600 paid to her as Supervisor of Government Midwives was in dispute as to whether it should be deducted from the guarantors' payment at $10,000 (LMS Box 18, 1909 No 313 Mi Wells to Mr Cousins, 27 May, 1909), as well, the guarantors had declined to pay Dr. Sibree's rent (LMS Box 18, 1909 No 312. Mi Wells to Mr Cousins, 17 March, 1909) Thus, paradoxically, material matters may have been the last straw'

75 LMS Box 18, 1909 No 315 Personal letter from Mr Pearce to Mi Currie Martin, 13 September, 1909

76 The final evidence produced by Dr Sibree was the wording of Clause 4 of the 1910 Midwives Ordinance, which legislated his position that is, the Midwives Board was to comprise the Medical Superintendent of the Alice Memorial Hospital and the Lady Doctor attached to it, (plus three others). This indicates that the lady doctor was not the medical superintendent of the hospital of which she had charge See endnote 79

77 LMS Box 18, 1910 No. 319. Dr Sibree to Dr. Thompson, 26 September, 1910

78 LMS Box 18A, 1911 No 320 Dr Gibson to Mr. Martin, 17 December, 1910

79 ibid, Dr. Gibson to Mr Martin. 7 December, 1910

80 The agreement between the Hong Kong Government and the Alice Memorial Maternity Hospital, 31 December, 1904, stated that, on graduation, the midwives trained at the AMMH would be at the disposal of Government for three years, salaried and providing free services to Chinese women in labour under the supervision of the Lady Doctor The Lady Doctor, at that time the only one, was later taken to refer to the AMMH lady doctor Quoted in LMS Box 17, 1908 'Memorandum to Hongkong DC' from Dr. Gibson, attached to Mr. Pearce to Mr Cousins, 17 August, 1908

With the introduction of the 'Midwives Ordinance' in 1910, the composition of the Midwives Board was specified as 'The Principal Civil Medical Officer, the Superintendent of the Alice Memorial Maternity Hospital and the Lady Doctor attached to the same', plus three persons appointed by the Governor for a three-year term See An Ordinance to secure the better training of Midwives and to regulate their practice' No 22 of 1910, clause 4. Hongkong Government Gazette, September 2, 1910, p 395

81 LMS Box 18A, 1911 No 323 Mr Clayson to Rev Currie Martin, 25 February, 1911

82 The Hong Kong Daily Press, 24 September, 1928

83 Blue Books 1918, 1926 Her title was in 1928 changed to 'Assistant Visiting Medical Officer to Chinese Hospitals and Dispensaries See Blue Book, 1928

84. The China Mail, 22 September, 1928, The Hong Kong Daily Press, 24 September, 1928
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The site of the flat in the case study is not perfect. The hills could surround the home, at the sides, more, thus providing a better 'armchair effect'. The shapes of hills and features on hills, similar to boulders such as Sha Tin's Amah Rock, frequently form the backdrop for wayside shrines. This rock did not ask, some rustics will tell you, to be eroded into the shape of a woman with a baby on her back, and the wind and the rain did not want to sculpt them, it is something that just happened. Such features display the power of nature and the majesty of the cultural landscape. Like the Australian aboriginals, boulders or other objects in Hong Kong can take the forms of beasts, real or imaginary. This is especially so for the Hakka Chinese. There is some resemblance between aspects of Chinese folklore and its Gaelic counterparts. The latter has its mischievous leprechauns.

But whether it be a Chinese village hovel or a palace, the ideals to aim for are similar. With the basic grammar of an ideal site, with us 'armchair of slopes' and 'ring of sunny hills', the spur on the right is known as the 'Azure (green in Cantonese) Dragon'. That on the left is described as the 'White Tiger'. More of an armchair effect would give the building in our case study better protection against calamities. Like typhoons for instance, which rampage in from the south-east.

In the case of a mountain, which should be tranquil but can also signify 'authority and vigour, it may 'overpower' the natural environment. A 'killer breath' (shaar hei), as mentioned earlier, with harmful currents that travel in straight lines, may develop. There, the chi is violent. In some instances these forces can be deflected by screens, fences, water, fountains, mirrors or lucky charms. An eight-sided Baat Kwa, with Trigrams in the centre, may be used. A small, hand-held 'windmill' can be employed to disperse strong chi. With such remedial measures an unfavourable site may later be classified as favourable.

Nevertheless, because of inauspicious circumstances and the anger of the gods, a slope or cliff consisting of partly decomposed rock may turn to mud during a storm. Thus a hill may not provide the intended security to a building. 'Feels as if the mountain top is always watching you,' is how some villagers explain it. To overcome such 'negative influences', trees can be planted to form a 'curtain' in an effort to 'mask' the ridge (Ajmer, 1968:75). But, during the Japanese Occupation in World War II, such trees were sometimes felled because of a fuel shortage.
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In 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.

In 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.

With 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.

Colour 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.

Regarding 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.
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who bring them food. Japs get very strict about buying food at the wire and many Chinese get beaten up, women being stripped naked in full view of everyone. Indians are getting unruly. Several deaths from dysentry.

Eighth. Florrie and her amah arrive with more food. She tries to cross the road but I signal her back. No parcels get through as a General is expected to visit us. My boy also arrives. What a disappointment.

Ninth. Jap General arrives with an escort of twelve cars and troops manning machine guns in lorries. He drives to the gods hut, steps out, has his photograph taken, and drives off without a word. What a farce. Many wild rumours but as usual no truth in them.

Tenth. Bed collapses again during night. Our roof leaks from the effects of a bomb but so far the weather has been perfect. The flies swarm everywhere due to the filthy condition of the camp. All buying at the fence stopped, the Japs torturing any Chinese who come near the fence.

Eleventh. Florrie arrives again and I receive a parcel of bread, butter, milk, and tomatoes. What a treat and the six of us make short work of it. Rumours even wilder: Tokyo reported bombed, Japs suffer severe naval defeat. Hitler committed suicide, and Japs evacuate Malaya. Have grand supper of coffee, bread, butter, and jam.

Twelfth. All buying definitely stopped, many Chinese beaten up.

Thirteenth. Many sick with tummy trouble. One feels fairly fit but completely lacking in energy. Twenty Scots arrive from Fan Ling, amongst them being Potato Jones, who commanded the company at the Shing Mun Redoubt, and Lieut Thompson, who was hit by a grenade and is practically blind. Japs refuse to take him to hospital which will probably cost him his sight. Florrie brings another parcel. I throw a message to her across the road screwed up in a cigarette holder.

Fourteenth. Everyone's stock of food running low. Rumours still wild but always good news and we think are going well.

Fifteenth. Florrie comes again but Japs won't allow parcels
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through. Get some soya beans which help the rice down. Junior falls down and nearly breaks his leg.

Sixteenth. Start Japanese lessons. Florrie arrives again and this time I'm lucky. Whimpey gets a blue mood and refuses to talk to anyone.

Seventeenth. Florrie's amah arrives with more food.

Eighteenth. Sentries wire up streets facing camp and shoot a man and a woman for trying to sell food. Florrie turns up again but can't get her parcel through, what a girl. Two Chinese bodies washed up near fence. Everyone feeling weaker due to lack of proper food. Rumours and counter rumours so contradictory that I don't believe anything. Some real news would make such a difference.

Nineteenth. Now get three meals of rice a day but quantity the same. Rice by itself is awful muck, but we save our small stock of milk and sugar for our evening tea. Over hundred men arrive from Queen Mary's hospital.

Twentieth. More men arrive in lorries, some unable to walk, and dressed only in pyjamas and socks. Troops give a concert including dance band. Cigarettes very scarce.

Twenty first. Fight between Middlesex and Indians. Rice ration very short.

Twenty second. All Indians moved out of camp. Canadians being moved tomorrow, destination unknown.

Twenty third. Disturbed early by troops detailed for work at Kai Tak, a three-mile walk, wonder how they will make out on the diet.

Twenty fourth. Navy are moved from the camp and we are going into Jubilee Buildings. Usual mad scramble for accommodation. Wing gets peeved with Brigadier McCleod and tells him a few things. News is that we have withdrawn in Malaya and that there's a rumpus at home about HK and Malaya, and quite rightly too as both places were very weak in defences, especially aircraft, and men have had to fight against overwhelming odds. We all hope these blunders will soon be rectified.
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Today, globalisation is going full steam ahead. Who could have forecast in the 1960s, that most of the little compradors' shops on street corners, with their delicious kum wah hams hanging from ceilings, would be nudged out by mighty supermarkets?

Who could have guessed that, with globalisation of palate, McDonald's would become 'haute cuisine' for young Chinese many of who are now overweight?

Of course things were cheaper then and, at my Chinese wedding banquet on the Queen's Birthday in 1960, at the old Sun Ya restaurant on Nathan Road, the cost was an exorbitant HK$130 for each circular table of 12 guests. We tipped $10 a table. That was the going rate. On the afternoon of our wedding day my wife and I were invited to the garden party on the lawn at Government House. In those days people were proud to receive an invitation from His Excellency just as, more recently if they care to admit it, they are proud to receive an invite to the reception on China's National Day.

But wages for old one hundred names (the man in the street) were low and there was little in the way of social amenities. My Chinese amah was paid $160 a month with half a day off a week. She was lucky. Many received far less and no time off unless they specially requested it. People did not complain. They knew things were much worse in China where famine raged after the failure of the 'Great Leap Forward.' Hong Kong citizens queued up at the post office, in the early 1960s, to send food parcels to relatives on the Mainland. Later Hong Kong changed and, after the 'Star Ferry Riots' of 1966 and the protracted riots of 1967 (an overspill of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution), Hong Kong became richer and conditions for the man on a tram began to improve.

Corruption was rampant in those early years before the setting up of the ICAC, although, in my over 26 years of government service working in education, I personally was never once solicited. It was more common in departments such as the Police, Public Works and New Territories Administration. The receiving of presents, however, had to be watched. After the riots, a watershed in many ways, Hong Kong became richer with, more recently, a higher GDP than that of Britain. A large Chinese middle-class formed.

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31 Under such conditions temperatures could reach 40 degrees Celsius.

32 Gap Rock is sometimes known as Daam Gon Shan, in Cantonese, meaning "Carrying Pole Hill,"

33 Besides Waglan Island, lighthouse keepers on Green Island (who were also Government Marine Department Staff) carried out weather observations and passed information on to the Royal Observatory Office at Kai Tak Airport.

34 When the author visited Waglan, in 1999, all the buildings, including keepers' and soldiers' quarters and the fog-horn building, were still there although they were generally dilapidated.

35 Author interviewed Tam Cheong-wai, then Superintendent of Aids to Navigation, Government Marine Department, 22 February 1999. Tam has since retired.

37

IX

10

B.P. stands for "Bailey Pegs" the maker's name.

Fare was not spartan if compared to that given to British soldiers during World War Two when, the author recalls, on active service "iron rations" sometimes consisted of a tin of bully beef and a packet of "hard tack" (army biscuits) for each soldier.

Author's interview with Lai Tak-wah, Government Marine Department, 12 February 1999.

38 Sometimes known as the "Rose of China."

39 A number of rocks in Hong Kong are imagined as resembling animals, birds and other objects. There are Lion Rock, Amah Rock and Lovers' Rock ("Marriage Fate Rock"). The last is along Bowen Path and is supposed to symbolise an erect phallus.

40 The author recalls in Britain, between the two World Wars, that there were still a number of pictures of Grace Darling hanging in homes showing her rowing a lifeboat in a storm.

42 The notification of marriage appeared in the South China Morning Post in August 1935.

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Sir Robert had a wonderful funeral procession with 16 bands. In those days popular tunes at Chinese funerals were; Abide with me, Polly Wolly Doodle all the Day, and Yes, we have no Bananas! They were good, rousing tunes and most Chinese did not understand the words anyway. Bamboo ramps were a common sight in the 1950s to bring coffins and corpses down to street level. Ramps disappeared with traffic congestion and with the introduction of high-rise buildings, about 1960. Major Chinese festivals occur in the calendar when there are marked changes of seasons. People are then likely to feel "under the weather." When the body is at a low ebb a sick person is more likely to die. In 1956, it was said that Sir Robert had “passed over" Ching Ming and should be able to carry on at least to Dragon Boat Festival. However, it was not to be.

In March 1955 I had managed to obtain a government quarter at 56 Conduit Road. At the time it resembled a quiet country lane, gay with flowers, where you could occasionally hear barking deer calling from Victoria Peak. A few people were still carried up to Mid-Levels by sedan chairs which, until the end of the fifties, were parked at the bottom of Wyndham Street.

I engaged a Chinese amah to whom I paid $130 a month. She spoke Pidgin English and talked of "going topside” when she meant going upstairs. Indeed some of us old Hong Kong hands still use pidgin expressions. I, for example, still talk of a makee-learn, for someone learning a job, and I say small chow when I mean canapés which are provided at receptions. A Chinese colleague complained that, at $130, I was overpaying my amah. He gave his $70 a month. He also said that his amah had no time off. If she had anything important to do she would request a few hours off work. Several people had gold teeth in those days and the saying was that one should have enough gold in one's mouth to pay for one's funeral. The present-day, gold-coloured building, at Admiralty, is nicknamed the "Amah's Tooth."

When I first lived in Conduit Road there were a number of quite palatial mansions standing in their own grounds, often with tennis courts, in the Mid-levels. One example was the house on the site, at No.41, on which I live today. The old building was demolished in the mid-1960s. From 1951 to '61 it was occupied by the Foreign Correspondents' Club (FCC). The film, Love is a Many Splendored Thing, based on Han
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