RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n
A JOURNEY TO YENAN 1946

45

Kuomintang controlled areas*. It was therefore natural that the Unit be asked to take this load to Yenan, and I was picked as the Convoy leader. Preparations were made in December 1945, and when the National Military Council finally granted the permit, the convoy was able to leave Chungking for Yenan on Monday, 21st January 1946. The group consisted of the writer, Yu Chin-lung (Henry), another Unit member, two employed drivers (Fong Ah-fu and Lao Lü), a mechanic, and a trainee (Chow Ming-cheng and Hu Jo-han), with three Dodge trucks built to Canadian WD specifications and a trailer. The convoy was self-sufficient in spares and fuel and returned to Chungking on March 9, 1946.

Prospect of the Journey

As far as the operational aspect of the trip was concerned, there was little to worry about. We had new trucks, running on real petrol and a good supply of spares. After three or four years of nursing increasingly aged vehicles, running on charcoal gas, alcohol, and tung oil petrol, over the mountains of West China, we felt some competence in these things. The political aspects were, however, another matter altogether. The Kuomintang command in Sian was known to be somewhat independent of Chungking, and while Chungking might be forced to give us a permit, would there be a message to Sian to disregard it? Or officials be instructed to be very particular about our papers? And having delivered our load, would we be allowed back? And if we failed, or an 'incident' occurred, what would be the repercussion on future deliveries of materials and relief supplies and the political negotiations?

We were sure of one thing: a warm welcome when we reached Yenan. In Chungking on 27th December, members of the Unit (Brandon Cadbury, Chris Barber, Henry Yu, Wong Hsiao-hsin, and the writer) had been entertained to dinner by Tung Pi-wu, Teng Ying-chow (Mrs. Chou En-lai), Miss Kung Pan, Colonel Wang Ping-nan, and Colonel Chien. Quoting from a letter home of 29th December: "They were very interested in what we could tell them about the FAU, what we did, and why we did it. They live a curious sort of existence with spies all round them but, like many things

* Some account of this is given in W. A. Reynolds "Operation and Maintenance of a Road Transport System in West China 1942-46" in the 1976 Journal of this Society (vol. 16).
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978
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192

NOTES AND QUERIES

MUD SKIS OR SCOOTER, DEEP BAY, HONG KONG

(See JHKBRAS 13, 1973:168)

South China Morning Post, 18 June, 1979

“British soldiers flying helicopter patrols over the Mai Po marshes are seeing an increasing number of "mud skiiers" scooting towards Hongkong.

"They can move faster over the mud than a man can run over firm ground," said Sergeant Major Chris Wilson yesterday.

Added Corporal Jan Radford, another Army Air Corps helicopter pilot: "The other day I saw a group of 40 coming across and most of them had mud-skis."

A mud-ski is a piece of five-ply wood about 6 ft long with a curved brow which oyster farmers and crab fishermen usually use to pick up their catch.

They use the simple but sturdy piece of equipment around the shores of Deep Bay to transport themselves over the low-lying mangrove swamps.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593
NOTES AND QUERIES 

193 

But in recent months the mud-skis have been used by illegal immigrants, first to help them float across the bay and then to negotiate the mud flats and swamps of the Mai Po marshes. 

Yesterday Sgt-Major Wilson demonstrated how they were used. "They can move faster over the mud than a man can run over firm ground," said Sergeant Major Chris Wilson yesterday. 

"If it's thick mud the illegals stand on the skis and push with their feet and they can shoot across mud and water at a tremendous speed," he said. 

"If they cross thin mud or water they lay down and put out one leg and make a swimming motion and they can travel very fast.” 

The Army Air Corps has adapted one of its Scout helicopters to play a very special role in rescuing refugees from the deep mud and treacherous swamps in the marshes. 

The small helicopters are now equipped with nets and the crews hover over the swamps and drop out the nets to pluck illegal immigrants trapped in the mud to safety.” 

Reprinted, in part only, from the South China Morning Post, 18 June, 1979 

This item was brought to my notice by our printer and Honorary Life Member Mr. Y. F. Lam (Hon. Ed.) 

THE SAINTLY GUO (Sheng Gong) 

Professor G. E. Guldin doubtless will be delighted to learn that the cult of Sheng Gong is alive and well and thriving in SE Asia. In his interesting article on Little Fujian in the 1977 Journal (JHKBRAS17(1977); 112-129) he surmised that Hong Kong may have the only Sheng Gong temple left functioning in the world. He will be surprised to hear that although there is only the one temple dedicated to Sheng Gong in Hong Kong, there were at least twelve in Singapore, six in Malaysia (1970) and twenty-seven in Taiwan (1969), all dedicated to this deity. This, of course, does not include the hundreds of images of the Saintly Guo seen in secondary positions in temples throughout SE Asia and Taiwan. More than half of the temples dedicated to Sheng Gong in Taiwan (16 out of 27) are within a thirty-mile radius which includes Tainan, and Kaohsiung South-West Taiwan. Only four are in towns and the remainder
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979
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56

REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS

Szeliga and Michael were not tied up, being I supposed considered neutrals. As we were being questioned back and forth—the Japanese being evidently very much puzzled by our motley group—our passports were demanded, and after being examined were thrown on the ground in front of us.

During all this questioning the battle was going on, and now and then we heard the whistle of a rifle bullet just over our heads, probably coming from the British defenders on the hill just below the fort (for the Japanese were now concerned with an assault on this last bastion). Also to our left in front of a Chinese house a Japanese field piece was barking intermittently and we could see soldiers keeping in the lee of the walls as they passed by from position to position. Also, as we were being questioned, we saw Lt. Lawrence and his three brother officers who had been with us led past and down a little declivity towards the Convent wall. As he passed Lt. Lawrence whispered: "I'm sorry for any trouble I've caused you” and disappeared around the corner of the embankment. Shortly after, we heard shouts and screams. The four officers had been untied amid a cordon of fixed bayonets and I distinctly saw one, a young fellow, run toward us, only to have Japanese soldiers point a bayonet at his stomach and the poor fellow turned and ran back, with a look of agony in his eyes. It was all over within a few seconds, and just in front of me I saw a Japanese stoop down, pick up a little grass, and coolly wipe off the point of his bayonet.

Later we learned from Chris Wong, our office clerk, that he and some of our servants had been compelled to dig a trench and bury the bodies of these brave fellows. They also buried other bodies of Canadian and British soldiers who fell on our property. The question in our minds was, were we destined to a like fate? Brother Thaddeus, who knew a little of the Japanese language, heard the soldiers say: "Kill them! Kill them! They are soldiers in disguise!" But he did not convey that knowledge to us at the moment.

Finally, after about a half an hour or so, we were ordered to stand up and were led away, this time retracing our own tracks and ending up in a garage at the rear of a Chinese house just below our own hill. Here we were herded like cattle in a pen and once inside, with the sliding doors closed, I think we felt like a herd of cattle. It was intended for two cars, but for some time apparently it had been used merely as a gardener's storehouse, for scattered around
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x
We are fortunate to have such an able person to look after our finances and I would like to place on record the Society's appreciation for all the work he does. Membership as a whole continues to fluctuate, with many leaving and new members joining and we hope in the long run they will at least be equal if not more for the latter than the former. Last year I reported to you that there were 533 local members (492 in Hong Kong Island, 65 in Kowloon, and 39 in the New Territories) and around 80 overseas members. This year our efficient Assistant Secretary, Mrs. Sharon Bruce tells me that there are 593 local members (241 single, 176 joint, 104 life, 8 student members, 4 institute) and around 102 overseas members. There has therefore on the surface been a decline in local members, but I am reliably informed that this is due to the stronger weeding out of those who have not paid their subscription rather than any other reason. However we do always welcome new members and in these days of uncertainty it is important that we keep up the good publicity we have and obtain new members. For $300 per annum membership is a bargain, particularly when you bear in mind it includes the journal.

Before leaving the subject of membership, however, I would like to report to you that the Governor of Hong Kong, Mr. Chris Patten has graciously agreed to become the Society's patron and thereby continue a tradition of the Society ever since it was re-established in 1959. We naturally hope that when life is calmer for him he will be able to attend one of our functions in an informal way.

And how are we kept together and informed? This is by the newsletter which is very competently produced by Mrs. Anita Wilson and we owe her and Mrs. Sharon Bruce who helps to distribute it a great vote of thanks.

You will notice in this report that I have referred to several aspects of the Society's past, but I would not like you to think that we do not give some thought to the future, something as Gladstone said we cannot fight against. There are some wonderful metaphors going around in Hong Kong at present such as the second stove, the second kitchen, but I believe we are more interested in the through train, or perhaps I should say a stable kitchen. This Society will I hope be able in its own small way contribute to a stable yet enterprising kitchen; but in order to do this we will need the support of all members, and to continue to stimulate an active interest in Hong Kong's history and heritage (a task as Professor

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P'i) mentioned in the main text. Anne Birrell's Chinese Mythology achieves such distinction that we can easily forgive its minor shortcomings. The book is a delight to read and a joy to give to others. I only hope that her editors see fit to issue a paperback version soon. My own hardbound copy is already rather dog-eared.

MICHAEL NYLAN

NOTE

For example, the apocrypha to the Documents give an amusing explanation of the white fish omen that appeared at the end of the Shang dynasty

Frank Welsh, A History of Hong Kong, Harper Collins, 624 + xv pp. Appendices, notes, appendix, maps.

This review has been excerpted from The New York Review of Books (7 April, 1994) by kind permission of the reviewer, Dr Jonathan Mirsky, who is East Asia Editor of The Times.

The entire history of Hong Kong, as Frank Welsh shows in his magnificent, much needed, and compendious history of the colony, is filled with misunderstandings and cultural collisions. One hundred and fifty years of muddle and injured pride are what permits Peking's leaders to call Chris Patten, whom they perceive as the point-man for an international conspiracy to overthrow the entire Communist system in China, 'a whore.'

Welsh, a former Hong Kong banker, starts his dense but wittily written history in the early nineteenth century, and just manages to include the accession of Mr Patten in 1992. He refers to Hong Kong as 'that natural child of Victorian Britain and Ch'ing China... a source of embarrassment and annoyance to its progenitors since it first appeared on the international scene in 1842.' More than an annoyance: for the Chinese, Hong Kong has been a perpetual symbol of national humiliation. There are many instances of mutual disregard, which Welsh understandably enjoys and quotes copiously. In 1831, James Matheson, one of the founders of the 'noble house' of Jardine Matheson, the trading firm whose history
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parallels Hong Kong's, petitioned the British government to acquire 'an insular possession near the coast of China... beyond the reach of future despotism and oppression,' Matheson, who did not have Hong Kong specifically in mind, thought of British merchants as 'princes of the earth,' and despised the Chinese, ‘a people characterized by marvellous degree of imbecility, avarice, conceit and obstinacy... [in] possession of a vast portion of the most desirable parts of the earth.'

Chinese officials were no less culture-bound: Commissioner Lin Zexu, the Emperor's man in Canton, confronted the British just before the 1839-1840 Opium War by burning 2,613,879 pounds of British opium, 'surely the largest drug haul ever collected,' says Welsh. The British had been smuggling opium into China, hoping to balance off the large amounts of money they were spending for tea and other products exported home to Britain. Lin Zexu advised punishing the British traders by withholding exports to them of rhubarb and tea, without which they could not exist. Because 'their legs were too tightly bound to permit them to box or wrestle,' British soldiers, he said, were not suited to fighting on shore. Unfortunately for the Chinese, their confiscation of opium was followed by attacks by British gunboats on their port cities. They were forced to open Shanghai and other coastal cities to the British and cede Hong Kong to them.

Not until Chris Patten was appointed governor in 1992 did Hong Kong become a high British priority. While publicly demanding that the garrison lay down their lives for it, says Welsh, Churchill privately considered the colony not worth defending against the Japanese. During World War II, the Foreign Office regarded Hong Kong as 'something of a thorn in the side' - a view some of its diplomats still hold — and wanted to return it to China; the Americans wanted this too. In 1946, the first postwar governor, Sir Mark Young, drafted a plan for a 'Municipal Council' constituted on a fully representative basis, but this was consistently turned down. Later, the colonial secretary, Oliver Lyttelton, commented, "The electorate of Britain didn't care a brass farthing about Hong Kong.' Welsh says this remains true, but he also reminds us that, in 1992, Chris Patten was proposing a more democratically elected Legislative Council not for the British voters but for the people of Hong Kong. As Welsh suggests, in 1946 China would have been in no position to object. But Hong Kong has since become more valuable than anyone could have dreamed in 1946.

Page 240

Page 241
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994
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David, Sarah, "True Meaning of Life is Made Crystal Clear". Hong Kong Standard, 20 September, 1994

Forsyth, Tim, 'London's Feng Shui Guru', Asia Inc, January, 1994

'Guarding the Bank Across Two Generations

115

the Long, Loyal Vigil of "Stephen"

and "Sutt"', Hong Kong Bank News, December 1985

Huang, Cary, 'Benefactor Highlights a Unique Heritage', Hong Kong Standard, 27 September 1994

Iggulden, Tom, “Blue-Chip Firms are Lining Up for Fung Shui', Eastern Express, 27-28 May 1995

Jasper, Chris, "Bound by Birth. Does a Faith in Fortune-telling condemn you to fulfil its deadly predictions? Window, Hong Kong, June 1995

'Feng Shui, Winds of Change Ancient Chinese Practice Catches on in the UK', Window, Hong Kong, February 10, 1995.

Kahn, Greenstreet, 'Fungshui', Extra Finlay, Hong Kong Standard, 11 October, 1985

Konelus, Tura, 'Feng Shui Gets a Grip in the West', Sunday Standard, 21 April 1991

Leung, Yummy, 'Village to Showcase Lifestyle of Hakkas', South China Morning Post, 1 April, 1986

'The Lions Return Home', Hong Kong Bank News, June 1985

Maitland, Derek, 'Fung Shui', The Asia Magazine, 1 May 1977

Malone, Andrew, 'Top Firms Prosper with Ancient Chinese Force', The Sunday Times, England, 21 May 1995

'A Million to Bury Village Ghosts', Hong Kong Standard, 23 March, 1990

Phillips, David P, Todd L. Ruth and Lisa M. Wagner, 'Psychology and Survival', The Lancet, England, vol 342, November 6, 1993

'Plants that Cure "Sick Building Syndrome"', Hong Kong Standard, 13 December, 1992

Page 135

Page 136
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794
(d) You cannot applaud with one hand.

(e) One's house is best protected by a wasted garden outside and an ugly wife inside.

(f) A one-foot kick (a jack-of-all-trades).

For many of these Chinese sayings (like [(a)], 'Melons and pears,' above), as Shakespeare so aptly wrote, 'Brevity is the soul of wit'.

Although not always easy for foreigners to comprehend, Chinese humour is in some ways similar to western humour in that it includes satire, farce, punning and sudden juxtaposition. But there are of course differences. A one-liner that Nury Vittachi sometimes uses when he entertains a group of Westerners goes like this: 'If a man speaks in a forest where there is no woman to hear him, is he still wrong?' But when he switches audiences, for Asians he says it sometimes works better if you say, 'If a woman says something in a forest where there is no man to hear her, is she still wrong?' Vittachi was sometimes described by Hong Kong's last British Governor, Chris Patten, as ‘the funniest man in Hong Kong.'

Much of the difference would appear to be due to social conditioning. The author agrees with Vittachi that jokes based on word-play or societal conventions only work where the language or society allows them to work even if there are also deeper differences. Vittachi also says that he uses a lot of irony when Westerners are present but little, together with sarcasm or sardonic humour, when the audience is largely Asian. Westerners also, quite naturally if the language is English, guess punchlines much faster allowing them to be abandoned entirely in some cases.

A sample opening of the comedy he uses is:

"Thanks for inviting me to this Women's group. It's not the most mis-directed I've received. Last week I got some junk mail from a sports shoe chain store. The letter began "Dear Basketball Player ... (Westerners chuckle).... I'm 5 feet 4 inches tall (Asians chuckle)....." This may be, because they are more familiar with the concept of stand-up comedy.
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24

'Eat or don't eat!' 

John Moloney, the British comedian, found that playing to a Chinese (partly westernised) audience in Hong Kong required less of a cultural leap than when he took his act to Beijing (Syrett, 1995:4). The itinerant comedian, in fact, soon learns to steer clear of anything remotely embarrassing or linguistically complicated and to resort to the 'language of action.' This is universal and capable of bringing about smiles and even belly laughs.

While all people, no matter the culture, are said to cry at similar incidents, people in London, Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Beijing, or wherever, may not always laugh at the same jokes. In the same way, people in the West and people in China may not always see insults in the same light. For example, Jimmy Lai, the owner of Apple Daily, in the run-up to the 1997 Handover in Hong Kong, called a senior China official a 'turtle's egg,' meaning more or less 'unnatural birth.' Although not too unpleasant, it caused a furore. Yet, as an American Old-China Hand commented to the author, 'Who would get worked up over name-calling like that?'

The last British Governor, Chris Patten, took it as a joke when he was described in catch-phrases by the Beijing Government as 'a serpent' and being 'disgraced in history for a millennium.' In fact, Patten quoted with relish his sobriquet of 'Whore of the East.' Most Britons also saw such 'insults' in much the same light as Patten, and as being faintly despicable, with the rhetoric unworthy of 5,000 years of continuous civilisation (Waters, 1995:168).

In the same way that Chinese and Westerners may see insults differently, so they often see humour differently. A Hong Kong Chinese, of Shanghainese stock, said to the author, 'I'll tell you a typical English joke which the average Chinese cannot really appreciate.

'A publican and a customer were talking in a bar (E) when in came another man. He walked up the wall, walked upside down across the ceiling, and then down the wall the other side. He ordered a pint of beer, which he promptly quaffed. He then walked up the wall, across the ceiling, down the wall the other side, and out of the pub door. "That's
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Yeung, Chris (1998a, March 22), 'Broadcaster stays open to debate,' Sunday Morning Post.

(1998b, March 27), 'Civil servants fail to see joke,' South China Morning Post.

Zeldin, Theodore (1983), The French, Fontana Paperbacks

NOTES

Discussion with Howard Young, Legislative Councillor Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, the People's Republic of China, 1 February 1999.

2 These appear to be mainly Mainland Chinese jokes with some added, in stages, from Hong Kong and Taiwan. Some jokes appear to be 15 or so years behind the times. Many are not really funny. See Internet web page: http://www.sc.cninfo.net/index/new/yml.htm.

3 Carol A. R. Andrews, Assistant Keeper, conducted a 'gallery talk,' April 1997, on Ancient Egyptian Humour.

4 Mr Bean is played by Rowan Atkinson who was said, in 1998, to be Britain's highest paid actor: see South China Morning Post, 15 November 1998.

5 Howard Young, who although himself a Hong Kong Chinese, tells western jokes as he finds Chinese jokes, to use his own words, 'boring;' interviewed by author on 1 February 1999.

6 This is, in other words, the Lun Yu, one of the Chinese Classics which has been the essence of Confucianism for more than 2,500 years.

7 Fok and the author worked together in the Hong Kong Education Department up to 1980.

8 The 'Gang of Four,' which had been centred around Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution, was arrested in October 1976, less than a month after Mao's death. The 'Gang' consisted of Jiang Qing, Mao's widow, Yao Wengyuan, Zhang Chunqiao and the youthful Wang Hongwen.

9 Chinese soldiers too exhausted to march on were taken to the nearest habitation,
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Tsuk Po. of the 132 marriages from the 17th to the 24th generation where the surname of the wife was remembered (the elders in 1902 were mostly of the 23rd generation), 33 were Chans or Lis, probably from within the village (25%). Only 6 were Lams, probably from Po Kong (4.5%). The tendency to marry within the village probably increased over time: 21 of the 77 marriages from the 23rd and 24th generation were probably from within the village (27.3%: there were 4 marriages with Lams probably from Po Kong in these generations - 5.2%), whereas, from the 17th to 20th generation, of the 23 marriages remembered, only 2 were probably from within the village (8.7%). In this early period there was only one marriage with a Lam of, presumably, Po Kong (4.3%).

The villagers claim that they frequently married girls from Sha Tin, and this is very much born out by the Tsuk Po, which records no less than 14 marriages with Wais, and 5 with Chois, of whom the Wais almost certainly, and the Chois probably, came from Sha Tin (the Wais from Tai Wai, Tin Sam, and Keng Hau, the Chois from Siu Lek Yuen, Tin Sam, and Tai Wai). The marriages with these two clans alone represent 14.2% of all the marriages remembered, and there were probably other Sha Tin marriages as well.

The villagers also claim that Nga Tsin Wai boys often married Hakka girls, and this, too, is born out by the Tsuk Po. There are several marriages recorded, for instance, with Laus, and the only local clan of Laus were the Hakka Laus from Ngau Chi Wan. A marriage with a Chu, in the 24th generation, is very probably with a Hakka girl from Tai Hom. The elders today say that, in the past, many of the villagers could understand Hakka, although few could speak it. Hakka girls who married into Nga Tsin Wai were expected to speak Punti, and adjust themselves to the Punti customs of their new village.

The girls who married into Nga Tsin Wai had to learn from the older women the boundaries of the area in which Nga Tsin Wai women could cut fuel. Each village had an area of hillside, which belonged solely to that village to cut fuel in, and inter-village brawls were not uncommon when women trespassed into the woodcutting grounds of another village. Nga Tsin Wai cut its fuel on the Kowloon slopes of Lion Rock (i.e. the area where protection from tigers was the responsibility of the Nga Tsin Wai Tin Hau). They could not cut on the Sha Tin side of the pass (probably to their regret, since the Sha Tin side was
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looked down its nose at these contests, since contestants would pass a hat round, and Ngau Chi Wan thought this was "just like begging". The Hakka villages certainly sang Mountain Songs themselves (Ngau Chi Wan was quite well known for them), but they did not hold formal contests. Sha Po also competed in these contests, as well as Nga Tsin Wai. Mountain Songs were always composed "in the head": it was felt to be rather improper to write them down, as spoiling the spontaneity of the form. Because of this, women were as good at singing these songs as men - probably better (certainly better, according to the villagers). Women who were particularly good at singing Mountain Songs improved their marriageability, as they had demonstrated their intelligence and self-confidence, which were qualities admired by the villagers in this period. Probably some of the Wais and Chois who married into Nga Tsin Wai were drawn to their husband's families' attention by their skill at singing these songs.

Recent History of the Area

The prosperity of Nga Tsin Wai, which was so marked in 1902, slowly dissipated thereafter. From 1912 onwards the village has suffered one disaster after another, until it faded from the early 1940s into today's seedy and run-down condition.

The first disaster came in and after 1912, with the opening of the first phase of the new motor road around the New Territories. Both the road and the Railway (opened in 1910) ran along the western side of the Kowloon Peninsula, far away from Kowloon City. Within a year or two the Railway took almost all the traffic from the eastern New Territories away from Kowloon City. Villagers stopped carrying their goods over the mountain passes to Kowloon City, but instead carried them by rail to Yaumatei. The Sha Tin villagers had always traditionally shopped at Kowloon City; now they often went to Yaumatei. The shops in Kowloon City lost half their business: the Market went into a major depression. At the same time, the vegetable buyers for the City found that it was easier and cheaper to buy vegetables by the truckload from Yuen Long than by the sampan-load from Kowloon City. In Yuen Long there were many large farms which could sell in bulk: in the Nga Tsin Wai area the farmers were all small-scale, the buyers from the City had to buy from intermediate wholesalers in the Kowloon City Market, which raised the costs when compared with buying in Yuen Long. If in
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https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g
Appendix

Date Visits 2001

Sat April 28th: Sam Tung Uk Museum and Hoi Pa led by Valery Garrett

Sat 26th May: Mount Davis and Pinewood Batteries led by Tim Ko.

Sat 18th Aug: Preview of Hong Kong Museum of History led by Dr Joseph Ting.

Sat 15th Sept: Tour of the new Central Library in Causeway Bay led by Julia Chan and Dr Pat Hase (two visits)

Sat Sept 22nd: Private View - Chinese Textiles given by Valery Garrett and Chris Hall.

Fri Sept 28th to Wed Oct 3rd: Korean Palaces in Seoul led by Dr Pat Hase.

2002

Sat 10th Nov: Visit to Dolphins led by Lindsay Porter.

8-19th Feb 2002: Bhutan, led by Dr Brian Shaw.

Sat Feb 23rd: Guided tour of the Cultural Relics of the Great Wall Exhibition at the HKMH led by Dr Joseph Ting

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APPENDIX - THE LAST-NIGHT PARTY IN PARO

Programme:

1. Introduction and limericks - Robert Nield

2. Extract from 'HMS Pinafore' - Jenny Wu and Rupert McCowan

3. Some Welsh songs - Ian and Jean Wilson

4. Amazing conjuring tricks - Charles Slater

5. Extract from 'The Yeomen of the Guard' - Jenny Wu and Robert Nield

6. Some songs from Old Jamaica - Ian Wilson

7. 'McPherson's Lament' - Chris Coghlan

8. 'The Wild Rover' - Ian Edwards

9. Another extract from 'HMS Pinafore' - Jenny Wu and Rupert McCowan

10. 'Albert and the Lion' - Robert Nield

11. Some North Country culture - Marlene Courbert

12. The Police Song - Russell Harding
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002
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1861) is both a tour de force and riveting, to boot. Ch'ëa was the keeper of a temple at Poklo. He was visited in 1856 by two colporteurs from Hong Kong who left him with a bible. On reading it, he was almost immediately converted to Christianity and was later baptised in Hong Kong becoming, essentially, a disciple of James Legge. He returned to Poklo where he pursued his faith with great, if not excessive, zeal, becoming an object of suspicion and hatred in many quarters. In October 1861 he was seized by a local vigilante squad, tortured, ordered to renounce his faith - which he refused to do - and was ultimately beheaded.

Stephen Selby's interesting account of archery in China from the pre-Shang period to the end of the 19th century mirrors the excellent address that he recently gave to the Society.

The indefatigable Keith Stevens takes us on a voyage of discovery into the history of Zhenjiang. As always the illustrations are wonderful.

And Dan Waters reminisces about Hong Kong in the post-War years.

There are a total of 18 NOTES AND QUERIES on a wide variety of subjects. Paul Bolding gives us some insights into the life of the intrepid Belgium aviator, Louis de San - who he ultimately met in 1988 with some interesting photographs. There is an amusing 1905 Christmas card from Arnold Graham - that great benefactor of the HKBRAS Library - and an account of the Library by our Hon. Librarian, Julia Chan. Peter Hansell discusses the famous clock maker Douglas Lapraik. Paul Harrison writes penetratingly on the highly unusual subject of restoring artefacts for display in Hong Kong's museums. Bob Horsnell continues his highly interesting pieces on old military installations. David Mahoney provides further insights into the Chinese Labour Corps in France during World War I. Martin Merz adds another follow up to Solomon's Bard's TEA AND OPIUM advising that Chinese and Indian teas are, essentially, the same (we live and learn!). Robert Nield's beautiful photographs of Bhutan which I messed up in Volume 41 are now reproduced in all their glory. I'll leave you to read The wrestling princes by Keith Stevens (a little suspense will do no harm). Peter Stuckey and Chris Bailey take us to St. John's (Shangchuan) Island to the southwest of Hong Kong where St. Francis Xavier died in 1552 (not, as I originally thought when skimming through the article,

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Peter Stuckey and Chris Bailey - Visiting St. John's Island

Dan Waters - Projects and enquiries ........

435

449

Dan Waters - Yet more thoughts on Han Suyin's A Many Splendoured Thing: Conduit Road and its environs

453

John Wilson - A poem from the HKBRAS visit to East Bhutan, February 2003......

BOOK REVIEWS

459

Peter Halliday - Voices from the past: Hong Kong, 1842-1918 (Solomon Bard)

467

Peter Halliday - The development of education in Hong Kong, 1841-1897 (Gillian Bickley)

468

Patrick Hase - The fall of Hong Kong: Britain, China and the Japanese Occupation (Philip Snow)

472

James Hayes - From rice to riches: A personal journey through a changing China (Jane Hutcheon)....

474

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Keith Stevens is a noted sinophile and an active member of the Friends of HKBRAS in Great Britain (keith.stevens@chgods.freeserve.co.uk).

Peter Stuckey and Chris Bailey are active members of HKBRAS. Peter is the Hon Secretary (peterstuckey@yahoo.com.hk).

Dan Waters is the immediate past-President of HKBRAS and a long-standing member of Council (benefit@netvigator.com).

John Wilson is an active member of HKBRAS.

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VISITING ST JOHN'S ISLAND

PETER STUCKEY AND CHRIS BAILEY

Introduction

St John's Island is about 160 kms WSW of Hong Kong. It is about the size of Lantau Island and is the largest of the Chuan Shan Islands which form part of Tai Shan County. The adoption of the name St John's Island appears to be through anglicisation of the Chinese name for the island, variously spelt as "Shang Chuan Island" on current Chinese maps, or as "Sancian". "Ilhas de San Joao" or "St Jean" Island on older western maps. Our interest in visiting the island was aroused by the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society's visit to Goa in January 2001. There, in the Basilica of Bom Jesus, in Old Goa, we had seen the preserved remains of St Francis Xavier. His corpse is displayed in an elaborate glass-sided, silver ornamented casket that rests high up on a Florentine marble mausoleum. St Francis, we learnt, had died on St John's Island on the night of 2/3 December 1552, aged 46.

In view of the local interest two visits were made by members of the HK Branch, one travelling “independently" and the other through an organised China Travel Services guided tour. Here follow their accounts of the visits.

Independent travel

Two Branch members, Rocky Dang and myself, Peter Stuckey, went to the Island on 20th and 21st October 2001. We took a Chu Kong Shipping (CKS) ferry from the China Hong Kong ferry terminal in Tsim Sha Tsui, to Xin Hui, leaving at 8:45 a.m. The ferry passes between Macau and Taipa and then follows up the river system past the Yamen Fort to Xin Hui for a fare of HKD 188. At Xin Hui we took a short taxi ride to visit the "Bird's Paradise." Here egrets fly over a huge banyan tree. The tree is reputed to be 500 years old. It extends to cover over a hectare with many trunks formed from the aerial roots descending from the branches of the single organism. Similar trees exist in the Botanical Gardens in Calcutta and in Phimai in NE Thailand.
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Association on 3 December 1999. Behind the church over 100 steps led up to a tall statue of St Francis Xavier. Beside the steps were 14 stone posts bearing Chinese numbering and inscription. The pedestal of the statue bears worn inscriptions in Chinese and Portuguese - ‘Aqui foi sepultado S. Fran.co Xavier da Comp.a de Jesus, Alpo do Oriente. Este Padrao se levantou no anno de 1639.'

The current caretaker, Mr Lam, took over in 1996 from a Christian caretaker aged 86, who had cared for the church since 1984. We had the pleasure of meeting this delightful old man in the village beside the church. The current caretaker suggested that for further information we could contact the Religious Affairs Dept. of Tai Shan Municipal Government on Tel 075 552 5980.

We returned to the port for a good seafood lunch. The ferry arrived a little late but took us safely back to Shen Ju in good time for us to hire a taxi to Zhuhai. There we crossed the border to Macau and enjoyed our dinner accompanied by a bottle of good Portuguese wine, and a toast to the memory of St Francis.

A visit assisted by China Travel Service

By chance, in June 2001, I (Chris Bailey) had read an article in HK Magazine about the Jesuit-run Xavier Retreat House on Cheung Chau - dedicated to the missionary Saint Francis-Xavier. The article quoted the resident priest, Father Kane, as follows: "Xavier was one of the founding members of the Jesuits, and came to Asia in 1542. He was a tough guy, a trailblazer and died very near to Hong Kong, on an island about 60 miles west of Macau. His letters describe travelling from Japan and trying to get to Guangzhou, and stopping somewhere nearby to get fresh vegetables and water. There is one historian who theorizes that he stopped at the Old Port in Hong Kong. In any case, he must have passed through Hong Kong waters and seen the islands here. So I stand here (in the Xavier Retreat House) and see what he saw over 400 years ago It's very private, on top of a hill and overlooking the sea. It's a very beautiful sight.”

This information inspired me to speak to Father Kane who said he knew the island well, had been there several times via Macau and that there was a non-active church dedicated to Francis Xavier, built close
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to the spot where he died, by some French missionaries in the 19th Century. Father Kane referred me to Father Antonio Tam in the Macau Jesuit Residence who, despite being elderly, still travelled regularly to St Johns, and was leading a Taiwanese group there the following month. He recommended the services of the Religious Affairs Bureau rather than China Travel to organize our trip, so that we would gain a better insight into the history of Christianity in the area. This proved more difficult than it sounded, but China Travel came to the rescue with a reasonable-sounding itinerary.

Our trip eventually took place in the first weekend of November 2002. China Travel suggested a suitable package tour for five adventurers - Patricia Bierregard, Anna and Michal Niewiadomski, Jenny Wu and myself, Chris Bailey - members of the HK Branch of the RAS. We had planned a varied itinerary including St Francis' Church on the island, Flying Sand beach, Big Buddha and Nine Dragon's cave - with the firm CTS instruction: No missioning! We caught the 8:30 am ferry to Gong Yi from the China Hong Kong Terminal. The sea journey was quite rough until we reached Macau, where a right turn along a Pearl River tributary took us back through time for a pleasant 3 hours viewing village life along the river banks (having upgraded ourselves to the upstairs first-class cabin). The rice-fields at harvest time were particularly splendid and the hamlets looked inviting, with interesting watch towers.

We disembarked at around 1 pm at the small port of Gong Yi and were met by Roger, our excellent CTS guide who escorted us to the town of Tai Shan for an elaborate lunch. We caught the 4 pm boat for another rough trip across the muddy waters, but in less than an hour were rewarded with the splendid sight of our goal - a white church on the hillside - as we arrived at the island, dominated by a large PLA base. Roger could not tell us how many military personnel were stationed at the base and we glimpsed only a few blue and white uniformed sailors walking along the streets.

The day's end was approaching and Roger speedily herded us into another vehicle for the short drive to the church, and the resident caretaker opened the gates - we finally climbed the stairs to the recently redecorated church and entered its large wooden doors. The interior was well-kept and featured a large central "tomb" with paintings along
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