RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 CONTENTS PRESIDENT'S REPORT HON. TREASURER'S REPORT HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT OBITUARY: K. M. A. BARNETT TRANSACTIONS: Jean Chesneaux, China in the Eyes of the French Intellectuals Elizabeth Sinn, Kowloon Walled City: Its Origin and Early History ARTICLES: Anthony Sweeting, A Middleman for All Seasons: Snapshots of the Significance of Mok Man Cheung and His English Made Easy Lars Ragvald and Graeme Lang, Confused Gods: Huang Daxian (Wong Tai Sin) and Huang Yeren at Mt. Luofu Graeme Lang and Lars Ragvald, Official and Oral Traditions About Hong Kong's Newest God David W. Mahoney, The British (Protestant) Cemetery at San Pedro, Makati, Manila, Philippines Valery M. Garrett, A Hoklo Wedding Carl Smith, A Sense of History (Part II) The Hong Kong History Project NOTES AND QUERIES: Anthony K. K. Siu, Tam Kung: His Legend and Worship The Cannon in the Kowloon Walled City James Hayes, Hong Kong's Own Boat People Visit to the Iwataya Department Store, Fukuoka, Japan Notes on Temples and Shrines, Hong Kong Island BOOK REVIEWS vii xiii xv 1 11 30 46 74 93 101 112 117 254 278 279 280 283 285 292 Page 15 Page 16 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 46 A MIDDLEMAN FOR ALL SEASONS: SNAPSHOTS OF THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MOK MAN CHEUNG AND HIS ENGLISH MADE EASY ANTHONY SWEETING Introduction On 20th August, 1904, the Editor of the South China Morning Post drew attention to the special features of a book published locally in Hong Kong, particularly to "its usefulness". On the same date, the Registrar General of Hong Kong, A.W. Brewin, wrote: "I have been all through the book and it seems to me that it should be very useful." The second, and final, sentence of Brewin's note offers the clue to the nature of the publication, the objectives of its author, and the precise usefulness of the book, especially when it is remembered that the chief responsibility of a Registrar General of the time was to be "Protector of the Chinese". The sentence reads: “I have tested it on Chinese and I find they get the pronunciation very accurately.” The book was English Made Easy. It appeared in the book shops of Hong Kong in 1904, with the distribution rights accorded to the well-established European bookshop/publishing company of Messrs. Kelly and Walsh, Hong Kong, and also to Kam Fook of 102, Hollywood Road. The actual publisher of English Made Easy was described in the text as "Kwong Hop Yuen, 46, Bonham Strand East, Hong Kong, China”. The author's signature, in English, appears in the book, underneath his photograph. His name was Mok Man Cheung. Modern commentators, with only a perfunctory interest in history but a relish for literary allusions, may attribute a role to him which combines some of the characteristics of Uriah Heep, Pollyanna, and Uncle Tom. The historical reality was even more complex and more interesting. Mok Man Cheung Anthony Sweeting is a Senior Lecturer in the University of Hong Kong's Faculty of Education. His major professional preoccupation is with the teaching of History. He is also involved in research into the history of education in Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 68 Office Records, Series 129 (“Hong Kong: Original Correspondence"), File 404, pp. 359-397. Such references will hereafter appear in the style, CO129/404, pp. 395-397. 12 Gunnar Myrdal, An American Dilemma (New York: Harper, 1944), p. xlviii, 20-42. 13 The expression "country youths" is broad enough to include the Chinese further up-country in Guangdong Province. It is likely, however, that Mok Man Cheung had his eye on the chance of catering to the population of the area then known as "the New Territory", leased from China in 1898. 14 "Feng Shui" is the traditional Chinese concern for geomancy, or the most favourable conjunction of winds and waters which would be taken into consideration when, for example, a tomb or a residence was being sited. See Maurice Freedman, 'Chinese Geomancy: Some Observations in Hong Kong', in The Study of Chinese Society: Essays by Maurice Freedman, selected and introduced by G. William Skinner (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1979), pp. 189-211. 15 In the Cantonese vernacular, "horse-boy" also means “minion”. 14 The various page numbers included in parentheses refer, of course, to the original 1904 edition of English Made Easy. 17 Other examples of simple errors, which have little to do with local knowledge, include "grosery", "Bigonia", "Spinage", "Carret", "Pumpkin", "Thrimp fritters", “Calway seeds”, “Pate foi gras", "Sarsaparilla", “Cut dough or spargetty", etc. 18 A common expression, especially in business circles, for present, treat, "sweetener", close to the conceptual borders of bribe. 19 Anthony Sweeting, 'Hong Kong', in R. Murray Thomas & T. Neville Postlethwaite (eds.) Schooling in East Asia: Forces of Change (Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1983), p. 275. 20 Smith (1985) p. 103f. 21 An expression used by Carl Smith to mean educated through the medium of the English language in one of the leading “Anglo-Chinese" schools in Hong Kong at the time, e.g., the Morrison Education Society School, St. Paul's College, Ying Wah College, the Diocesan Home and Orphanage, the Central School (renamed Victoria College in 1887 and Queen's College in 1894), and St. Saviour's College (renamed St. Joseph's College in 1875). 22 Smith (1985) pp. 143-171. 24 Who's Who in the Far East, (Hong Kong, China Mail, 1906), p. 233. The first Prefects were appointed on Empire Day, 1911, received gilt badges to denote the importance of their office, and were known ironically as "Mr. Ralph's peerage", presumably to signify that this new pupil aristocracy was the brainchild of Mr. Edwin Ralphs, the popular Second Master. See Gwenneth Stokes, Queen's College 1862-1962 (Hong Kong: Queen's College, 1962), p. 282. 25 These included the Morrison Scholarship, donated by the Morrison Education Society in 1873; the Government Scholarship, instituted for pupils at the Central School in 1874; several Belilios Scholarships established by E.R. Belilios in 1882 when his offer to erect a statue in honour of Viscount Beaconsfield, recently Prime Minister of Great Britain, was politely declined; the Stewart Scholarship, estab- ================================================================================