RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 131 DRAKEFORD, L. S. DUFF, Miss E. J. - DUNCANSON, J. D.* 124 Miles, Clearwater Bay Road, Kowloon. Kowloon, Sisters' Quarters., Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulum, H.K. c/o The British Advisory Mission, 196 Cong Ly, Saigon, Vietnam. DURANT, LI, Col, R. J. W. Education Branch, HQ. Land Forces, Victoria Barracks, H.K. EDWARDS, O. P. EITZEN, Mrs. J. ELSAESSER, Dr. M. - ENDACOTT, G. B. ENGEL, Dr. D. EUSTACE, Col. F. A. EVANS, P. J. - EVANS, Mrs, P. J. EWING, Miss E.* FABER, Mrs. A. FABER, S. E. FAERBER, M. FAERBER, Mrs. M. FEARON, J. - FESSLER, L. FISHER-SHORT, W. FITZGIBBON, D. J.- FOERSTER, E. J. FOORD, Dr. R. D. FRASER, A. N. FREEDMAN, Dr. M. c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn. H.K. 22 Magazine Gap Road, Hong Kong. c/o German Consulate General, 1 Duddell Street, H.K. Warden, May Hall, The University, H.K. Eitmattstrasse 13, 8820 Wädenwil, Nr. Zurich, Switzerland. c/o Hong Kong Sea School, Stanley, H.K. Ray-O-Vac International Corpn., 604 Chartered Bank Building, H.K. 33 Tung Tau Wan Road, Stanley, H.K. 13, Rodmarton Street, London, W.1. England. 10, Cooper Road, Jardine's Lookout, H.K. 1 Repulse Bay Road, H.K. c/o Paragon Book Gallery, Ltd., 14 East 38th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016, U.S.A. As above. Flat A, 123 Repulse Bay Road, H.K, c/o Time-Life News Service, Room 1719 Prince's Building, H.K. Education Dept. (H.K. Sub-Off.), Fung House, H.K. c/o Haigh Zinn & Associates Consulting Engineers, Inst. of Engineers Building, Ramna, Dacca-2, East Pakistan. c/o P. O. Box 25, H.K. c/o 661 Kenton Road, Harrow, Middx., England. Apt. 6, 88 Pokfulum Road, H.K. 187 Gloucester Place, St. Marylebone, London, N.W.1., England. * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 CHIU, Dr. P. P. CHOA, Dr. Gerald H. CHOW, Edward T. P CLARK, Mrs. A. T. CLARK, Mrs. E. E. COHN, Dr. A. J. COMAN, Miss A. A. COMBER, Leon + COOKE, Miss M. B. - COOPER, Miss M. CORBALLY, E. - COSTANTINI, G* COWPERTHWAITE, Mrs. S. M. CREMA, Mario CUMINE, E. CUMMING, M. S. DAIKO, P. 4 - DANSEY-BROWNING, Lt. Col. G. C. DANSEY-BROWNING, Mrs. S. M. DAVIS, Dr. S. G. - DEANS PEGGS, Dr. A. DING, Samuel DJOU, G. G. DONOHUE, P. DRAKE, Prof. F. S.* DRAKEFORD, L. S. DUFF, Miss E. J. - DUNCANSON, J. D.* L 175 Room, 402, Bank of East Asia Building, H.K. Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulum, H.K. 3, Village Terrace, Happy Valley, H.K. 13, The Albany, Albany Road, H.K. Tytam Villa, 30 Tai Tam Road, H.K. 116, Leighton Road, Lei Shun Court, 6th floor, "F", H.K. 53 Dina House, Duddell Street, H.K. K.P.O. Box 6068, Kowloon. H.K. Medical Rehabilitation Centre, Kwun Tong L254, Kwun Tong, Kowloon, Sisters' Quarters, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Kowloon, c/o Central Magistracy, Albert Road, H.K. c/o Italian Consulate General, Room 705 Chartered Bank Building, H.K. 45 Shouson Hill Road, H.K. c/o Italian Consulate General, Room 705 Chartered Bank Building, H.K. 14, Embassy Court, H.K. c/o Messrs. Butterfield & Swire, Union House, H.K. P. O. Box 201, H.K. Government Ophthalmic Centre, Arran St., Mongkok, Kowloon. c/o P. O. Box 5096, Kowloon. Dept. of Geography & Geology, The University, H.K. c/o Education Department, Battery Path, H.K. c/o U.S. Consulate General, Garden Road, H.K. c/o American International Assnce. Co., Ltd., 12-14 Queen's Road, Central, H.K 31, George St., Mablethorpe, Lincs., England. ‘Lincot', Stoke Road, North Curry, Taunton, Somerset, England. 121 Miles, Clearwater Bay Road, Kowloon. Sisters' Quarters., Queen Mary Hospital, Pokfulum, H.K. 26 Leinster Mews, London W.2, England. E Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 NOTES AND QUERIES 185 Not far from the main Tin Hau Temple, on rocks formerly in the sea but now built around and beyond by boat squatters' huts, is another smaller temple to the same goddess. This is known locally as the Hoi Shum Temple, or 'Temple in the Midst of the Sea'. It has interestingly decorated pillars and altar slabs, and a half-obliterated inscription shows that it was constructed in 1845, four years after the British occupation of Hong Kong Island. However, the tablet states that, like the Tam Kung Temple, (see below) there was an open air altar to Tin Hau for some time before local people subscribed for the temple building. Nowadays this temple seems neglected and little used, perhaps because it may have been patronised mostly by smaller sampan fishermen who have now been forced into land employment by economic factors. Further along the street, is Ah Kung Ngam-Grandfather's (or Ancestor's) Rocky Hill. This used to be a lonely place by the shore. In the 1901 census it had a population of 213 of whom 159 were males-probably mostly quarrymen and land-based fishermen. Here is situated the large temple to Tam Kung. This was built in 1905. At first sight this late date is rather curious, because old residents of Ah Kung Ngam state that Shau Kei Wan people venerate this god above Tin Hau and his festival is the event of the year for local residents, land and sea alike, celebrated both in Shau Kei Wan proper and round the corner in Ah Kung Ngam.* However, this is partly explained by the tablet commemorating the construction of the temple. This states that for an unstated number of years there had been an image of Tam Kung (brought over from Kowloon) but no structure. This temple contains major shrines to two other gods, Wong Tai Sin and Lung Mo, the Dragon Mother. There are models of a sailing junk and a dragon boat inside the building, the former apparently dating back to 1905, and the latter to 1961. At the far end of Ah Kung Ngam, having passed timber and boat yards on the sea front and squatter and ordinary factories of all kinds on the other side of the road we come eventually to * This is equally so at the present day. A night visit to the area at this year's festival showed opera performances on land and sea and many dinner parties in progress, whilst the amount of debris at the temple after the day's worshipping had to be seen to be believed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 The Paper Chase 23 The main function of the P.R.O. is the conservation of all government records of permanent value for official reference and private research. More specifically, this means all documents which possess value for: (i) documenting the constitutional and legal basis of government; (ii) documenting the origin, development, organisation, functions, policies and substantive activities of government departments; (iii) protecting the rights and privileges of private citizens and organisations; and (iv) research into political, social and economic affairs and the history of the community. You will notice from this, by the way, that archives are not preserved solely in the interests of historians. The scope of modern government is wide and there are few aspects of human activity and environment to which official records do not refer. A government's archives, therefore, are potentially of research value to every academic discipline. Archive institutions, like libraries, museums and art galleries, need to be located in places where they are easily accessible to the public. The trouble is that archives, and especially government archives, need a great deal of storage space; so that in cities like Hong Kong, where office accommodation is at a premium, the housing of archives has special problems. Stored archives are immensely heavy and this limits us to ground floor accommodation or to buildings especially constructed to withstand high floor-loadings. Again, if one provides at the outset for long-term space needs this means tying up large building areas which will remain under-utilised for a long period. The alternative, of providing only for short-term requirements, means constant removal to new premises. We have had to compromise. The P.R.O. is housed at present* in temporary premises in Garden Road with accommodation for 5,450 shelf-feet of records. In about April this year we shall be moving to the Murray Road Multi-storey Car Park Building where we shall have room to accommodate about 15,000 shelf-feet of records. The new premises will be equipped with, among other things, a document repair section and bindery, a photographic laboratory and, I * January 1974. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 The monuments of Vientiane and Luang Prabang 103 went to Bangkok and the temple in Vientiane lost its importance. It has been restored many times and is technically no longer a temple but a 'haw' or hall since services are not held and the building has been converted into a museum. At the entrance is a fine Dvaravati Buddha and there are several good examples of bronze Lao Buddhas with characteristic sharp, pointed noses both outside and inside the building. Among those inside is an elegant and extremely attenuated standing Buddha and two walking Buddhas. The restored pediments of the building are good examples of Lao woodcarving and so are the carved window panels. Nearby is Vat Srisaket which is a quiet spot without having any particular artistic merit, though its galleries of Lao-style Buddhas, the carved ceiling of vihara and its naive frescoes of animals are worth seeing. The only other temple of note is Vat Ong Tu, near the market with good carving on the portal only in the Chiengmai style. The primitive wall paintings at Vat Oup Muong are a modern interpretation of the Ramayana but the temple is otherwise without interest; Vat Xieng Yuen and Vat Chantaburi, by the river Mekong, have peaceful and shady courtyards, and the temple of the Sankaraj, or Lao Supreme Patriarch, Vat Dong Mieng is remarkable mostly for its carving and hideous modern paintings. Vientiane boasts the usual ministries of an administrative capital and a small modern royal palace for the occasions when the king comes from Luang Prabang. Modern Vientiane is largely without interest, the only building of note being the Monument to the Dead on the broad avenue leading to the That Luang; it is a top-heavy and as yet still incomplete miniature of the Arc de Triomphe. The teak-lined boulevards running parallel to the Mekong have a tranquillity which few capital cities can boast. The difference between Vientiane and Luang Prabang is striking; the former has on occasions something approaching a bustle of modernity. Luang Prabang, a half-an-hour away by plane, is a century away in time. There are virtually no modern buildings, there is no traffic, and the ring of mountains around seems to keep the world away. The morning market is peopled by Lao villagers and Meo tribesmen, the latter heavy with silver and bright with colour; three soldiers look after a pig and half-a-dozen people watch a kettle boil on the side of the road. Local silk is offered at very low prices and the silverware is unusual. Luang Prabang is the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LIST OF MEMBERS ORDINARY MEMBERS: HOYNINGEN-HUENE, Baron Ture von + 9A, Stanley Beach Road, H.K. HUMPLE, Mr. & Mrs. George D. 17, Conduit Road, Apt. 2A, H.K. HUTSON, Peter 257 HUYSMAN, Mrs, J. c/o The Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp., P.O. Box 64, H.K. HUYSMAN, J. 21, Broadwood Road, H.K. G INGLES, Miss J. M. c/o Banque Belge pour l'Etranger S.A., 81, Sai Yeung Choi Street, Mongkok Branch, Kowloon, JEN, Prof. Yu-Wen + Government House Lodge, Garden Road, H.K. JIN, Mrs. Jane Dong-Fang 2, Stafford Road, Kowloon. JONES, G. W. E. 3, Yun Ping Road, 4th floor, H.K. Govt. Language School, Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K. JONES-PARRY, R. Longman Group (Far East) Ltd., P.O. Box 223, H.K. KESWICK, Simon L. - c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. KEYES, Michael P. · c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. KINGWELL, Mr. & Mrs. A. J.. Flat C/4, Cavendish Heights, 27, Perkins Road, H.K. KINOSHITA, James H. · + c/o Palmer & Turner, Room 1906, Prince's Building, H.K. KINSEY, Miss Margaret J. Department of Social Work, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, H.K. KIRKBRIDE, K. M. G. + c/o The Building Authority, Murray Building, 8th floor, Garden Road, H.K. KIRKWOOD, Mrs. Jean K. Mackenny Court, 1st floor, 65, MacDonnell Road, H.K. KNEEBONE, Mrs. Susan Y. 50, Leighton Hill Flats, 16, Link Road, H.K. KNISELY, Mr. & Mrs. Jay G. 68, Chung Hom Kok Road, Flat A-3, H.K. KNOWLES, Miss Moira G. c/o Public Services Examination Unit, Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Road, H.K. KWOK, Robert Chin-kung + c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. LACK, Alan J. 1, Peak Pavilions, 12, Mt. Kellet Road, The Peak, H.K. LAM, Yung-Fai - c/o Ye Olde Printerie Ltd., 6, Duddell St., H.K. LAMBE, Miss Margaret - 21F, Felix Villa, 10 Happy View Terrace, Broadwood Road, Happy Valley, H.K. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p BOOK REVIEWS 311 from 5 million Shanghai, despite its recent prolific growth to 1 million in recent years straddling along the banks of the Huangpu river is, for the visitor, the oldest Treaty Port of China. The tourist does not see and probably is not particularly interested in seeing the ring of satellite suburbs around the commercial city of the 1930's. Shanghai is, for the traveller, the mile long Bund with the famous landmark of the Hong Kong & Shanghai Bank Building, the former Cathay Hotel (now the Peace Hotel), the British consular gardens and the famous Shanghai Club (now the Dong Feng Hotel whose notorious long bar room is now used for wedding receptions). And, even though the Nanking Road does not exactly convey the excitement of the heady decadent atmosphere of the night club haunts of the champagne-swilling, déraciné White Russian dance hostesses of the Bubbling Well Road of the 1930s; nevertheless, even today, one can still buy the cream cakes and coffee in the cafés and cake shops of the area houses of consumerism among the deserts of the Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 & 5 departmental stores of the socialist regime. The outstanding merit of this book is that it is much more than a guide to the tourist wishing to find the whereabouts of the old landmarks of Shanghai. In fact, it is a very attractive presentation of the well-known (e.g. the life of luxury) and of the lesser-known (e.g. the intellectual and political life) aspects of Shanghai's social history in the modern period. The style is simple and clear and the balance of the treatment of subjects is perfect. (Consider for instance, the account of Shanghai's contributors to the Chinese film industry. This gives an extra dimension to Laida's history of the Chinese cinema and its thesis of the silver screen as the projection of Chinese politics.) Finally, reading this nostalgic and informative re-creation of Old Shanghai makes me, at least, wish that the same kind of thing could be done for Hong Kong. But, probably, we shall have to wait till after 1997 for that suitable opportunity to recapture the essence of a city, when progress and change comes ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 162 THE PEARL RIVER ESTUARY OYSTER INDUSTRY IN AND AROUND DEEP BAY R.A. BOWLER, D.S.C. YANG, A.J.E. SMITH* Introduction An environmental impact assessment (EIA) has recently been made of the dredging and land formation aspects of a proposed reclamation for a new town development at Tin Shui Wai located in the north-west New Territories of Hong Kong as shown in Figure 1 (Binnie & Partners, 1984). Some of the activities considered in the EIA may have an effect on the commercial oyster industry located in nearby Deep Bay (also called Shenzhen Bay) and, accordingly, information was sought as to the structure of the industry, its productivity and the cultivation techniques used. The information was obtained by many interviews with oyster farmers and related organisations both in Hong Kong (HK) and in the People's Republic of China and supplements an earlier review by Morton and Wong in 1975. Figure 1 shows the extent of the oyster beds in Deep Bay and the locations referred to in the paper. The Pearl River estuary The Pearl River system drains a catchment of 450,000 km2 of which 50% is above 500 m elevation and only 5% consists of lowland delta areas. The catchment is drained by three principal rivers: the Bei Jiang (North River), the Dong Jiang (East River) and the Xi Jiang (West River). The Xi Jiang is the largest, having an estimated length of 2200 km. About 54 million tonnes per year of sediment are released into the estuary and about 20% of this is retained by density-induced water circulation. A net northerly movement of sand up the estuary past the mouth of Deep Bay has been suggested (Binnie & Partners, 1984). Deep Bay is a large shallow bay on the eastern side of the Pearl River estuary adjacent to the deep flood channel of Urmston Road. The Bay has a surface * The authors work for Binnie & Partners, Hong Kong. See Plates 4-6. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 265 NOTES AND QUERIES MORE ABOUT THE KOWLOON WALLED CITY The Kowloon Walled City, situated to the north of the present Kai Tak Airport, was the most important military base in the Hong Kong region during the later Ch'ing Dynasty. It was built in the 27th year of Tao Kuang (1847) to strengthen the fortification of Kowloon.1 The first invasion that it faced was not of British troops but of Chinese bandits. On the 26th day of the Seventh Moon in the 4th year of Hsien Feng (1854), bandits under Lo Ah-tim2 took possession of the Walled City. Seven days later, on the 4th day of the leap Seventh Moon of the same year, imperial forces under Cheung Yu-tang recaptured the Walled City. The fighting lasted for only one day, over thirty bandits were killed, and only two soldiers, Liu Tat-bong and Lam Yu-ping*T, died. Since then, the Walled City remained under the rule of the Ch'ing Government. 3 Then in the 24th year of Kuang Hsu (1898), the New Territories was leased to the British. The following terms were stipulated by treaty: "The Chinese officials stationed there (i.e. the Kowloon City) shall continue to exercise jurisdiction, except so far as may be inconsistent with the military requirements for the defence of Hong Kong. Within the remainder of the newly-leased territory, Great Britain shall have sole jurisdiction. Chinese officials and people shall be allowed as heretofore to use the road from Kowloon to Hsinan. It is further agreed that the existing landing place near Kowloon City shall be reserved for the convenience of Chinese men-of-war, merchant and passenger vessels, which may come and go and lie there at their pleasure; and for the convenience of movement of the officials and people within the city.” However, in the 25th year of Kuang Hsu (1899), when the British encountered strong resistance to the occupation of the New Territories," according to Chinese sources, they asked for the help of the Ch'ing Government. Six hundred soldiers were then sent to assist the Brigadier of the Tai Pang Battalion to suppress the upris- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 313 Documents confirm that Sing-Ngok's descendants had a large portion of the more than 160 acres of Kam Tin Dang land-holdings on Hong Kong island. D. Sung-Kok jou and the Gwong-Yu Tong and Lei-Ging Tong I have mentioned before that the second ancestor of the fourth branch, Naam-Kai, had been adopted from the first branch. This connection might be expected to serve to make the two branches feel closer together. However, fung-sheui stories hint at feelings of rivalry between the first and the fourth branches, especially after the rise of the latter during or after Dang Man-Wai's time in the later seventeenth century. However, it was only a few segments of the fourth branch which prospered: a letter from the leaders of the Kam Tin Dangs in 1941 claimed that the ancestral fund for Naam-Kai used to be a broken house in the county town of Xin'an until it was expanded to a farmland holding of over 200 sek in rent value under the management of the youngest son of Dang Kyun-Hin (1755-1822). It was only the families of Dang Man-Wai and of his brothers who enjoyed great prosperity from early in the Qing dynasty. The present descendants of Dang Man-Wai attribute the prosperity of their segment (known as Gwong-Yu Tong) to the jeun-si degree of Man-Wai, which he won in 1685. But from 1657, i.e. almost 20 years earlier, he was already a geui-yan, one of only two or three ever achieved from the Hong Kong region, which should have placed him in a very advantageous position especially in this period. According to a stone inscription, Man-Wai started the Yuen Long Market in 1669, and until it was replaced by the New Market in 1898 this market was run by the ancestral trust of Man-Wai, the Gwong-Yu Tong. Man-Wai was also credited with having compiled a genealogy and having initiated the building of an ancestral hall for the larger Dang clan. His sons and grandsons included many imperial degree/title holders involved in lineage matters. The spirit tablets of two of Dang Man-wai's brothers are housed in the Lei-Ging Tong, an ancestral hall which used to be in the present playground, but which was later moved to near the Sun Ngai Brass factory on Kam Sheung Road. The original building was only a little smaller than the Gwong-Yu Tong. One of the two brothers was Dang Ng-sang, who, according to Sung (1974:185), built the ancestral hall. Some village elders confirmed that he was the same Ng-sang who was the leader of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 321 These accusations were made at the county magistracy. The Kam Tin Dangs got news of the accusation and arranged that all their young men gathered in the various ancestral halls and temples to read, so as to deceive the investigators from the county government. The county magistrate was deceived, and believed that the Kam Tin Dangs were all scholars and would not give any time to the accusation. Therefore he did not pursue the case any further. Some of the Dangs believe that the fighting between the people of Kam Tin and those of Pat Heung was over agricultural resources such as irrigation water. The Dangs of Kam Tin used only one bei reservoir, the one called Fui Sha bei. The water flowed from Pat Heung, near Lin Fa Tei, and the Pat Heung people could stop the water. One recent (about 100 years ago) example of a dispute over agricultural resources was the Ngau Wong Wui association which had been started to organize the cowherds of Kam Tin, to protect them against their Pat Heung counterparts, and to preserve Kam Tin pasture rights. One piece of documentary evidence of the conflict between the Dangs and their Pat Heung tenants has survived. It is a stone inscription dated 1777 found in both the Daai-Wong Temple of Yuen Long Old Market and the Jau and Wong Temple of Kam Tin. It records a rent dispute. Five Dangs are named as the landlords in this inscription. In general terms, the document calls the landlords "the Dang surname", and the land "the land of the clan". It is therefore clear that the landlords were all from the same lineage and the property was considered as linked to the lineage as a whole albeit it was probably individually owned. Four of the five names can be found in various documents from Kam Tin. All four appear in a silk embroidery presented to a Dang of Kam Tin to celebrate his birthday in 1771. We have more specific information about two of them: one, Dang Si-Daan, was a descendant of Yam's second son Gwong-Yu, and the other, Dang Chung, is a descendant of one of the other sons of Hung-Yi, most probably Gyun. It is therefore clear that one of the parties to the dispute were many of the Dangs of Kam Tin, including members of different branches and represented in general terms the Dang lineage. A few names are also given of the tenants. There were about the same number of Dangs and non-Dangs among them. While the landlords were referred to as members of a lineage, the tenants were referred to as ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 342 The festival was estimated to cost a total of more than one million dollars. The opera cost $357,000, paper images $150,000, temporary structures $150,000, and the puppet theatre $110,000. The opera was paid for, as is the tradition, from the funds of two lineage trusts, those of the Naam-Kai jou and Ching-Lok jou. Each contributes $180,000. For the other expenses, each of the villagers paid a subscription of $300, with the no. 1 to no. 15 ritual representatives each paying an extra $500, 50 The main participants were the Dang villagers of Kam Tin. For the purpose of organizing the jiu the villagers were divided into five gu sections. Each section corresponded to a village, except that the Tai Hong gu included, besides Tai Hong Wai, Ko Po, Kam Hing Wai, Tsi Tong Tsuen and Tai Hong Tsuen. Also taking part were the villagers of Ying Lung Wai, the settlement of the second branch of Hung-Yi's lineage outside the heung of Kam Tin. They paid half subscriptions and got the last three places among the 60 ritual representatives. Some of the non-Dang residents in the heung also participated. Those include the Sa Bui Leng villagers and post-War and later immigrants from China who operated farms and shops in Kam Tin. These "outsiders", however, could not become ritual representatives. The ritual representatives were to stand for all the villagers in the Taoist rites and in some of the rites the villagers performed on their own. There were also religious activities conducted by every household. At three points of the festival, i.e. the opening day, the main day, and the concluding day, every household came, family by family, to worship at the various ritual sites, and a priest visited each house on the last day to purify the family altar. In addition, each and every person was named in the ritual memorials which were read aloud and sent by fire to heaven, with a copy posted in the ritual area for all to read and check. Many other villagers in the area were also peripherally involved. They offered their congratulations by having fa-paai banners set up in the festival site, and by paying a formal visit to the site on the main day with their lion/unicorn dances. To wait to receive them the elders of Kam Tin lined up in cheung-saam, B. Ritual Area The festival site was beside the Jau and Wong Temple. A large paang temporary structure was erected. Outside the main structure were three small linked temporary structures for first-aid, the fire services, and the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 349 common to them. Most of them took place at one small space which I shall refer to as the ritual site. In most of the rituals, the ritual site was the Taoist altar in the main hall. Wherever a rite took place, the focus was one or more tables decorated with red embroidery, and covered with offerings of candle-sticks, incense, tea, wine, and sweets and food. In many cases the images of the gods to whom the rite was addressed were placed on the table. In most of the rites that took place at the Taoist altar, a distinction could be made between an "inner table" for the three Pure Ones and an "outer table" for the general gods of heaven. The priests put on their different Taoist robes and hats, which, in the main rites, distinguish the high priest from the others, and performed a series of actions to the accompaniment of music, which was played on cymbal, gong, dong-jiu and sona, and in the cases of scripture chanting and a few other rites which consist mainly of chanting, the "wooden fish" and "chime". The other common objects used in the rites included manuals, charms, charm water, a bushel measure, knife, seal, and the faan flags for the Emperors of the Five Directions. To pay their respects to the gods, in many rites the priests held a chiu-gaan tablet before the breast as officials did when received in audience by the Emperor, or held a small incense burner with handles. At certain stages of the rites, typically when reporting their Taoist title and invoking the gods, the priest instructed the ritual representatives to kneel. The bushel measure was on the ritual table during most of the major rites. It contained, besides the faan flags, the sword and seal which represented the power of the Heavenly Master, Zhang Tianshi. With these two symbols of authority the head priest performed his magic steps to purify the ritual area, often using charm water as well. Besides the charms used with water for purification, there were charms for summoning different spirits in the Taoist cosmology. 62 One of the ritual objects which appeared several times in the series of Taoist rites was the Memorial, which existed in three different forms for different purposes. In all its versions the Memorial contained a general statement about the ritual, and a list of all the participants in the ritual, i.e. all the villagers. One version was bound in the form of a book and was usually carried by the no. 1 ritual representative in a paper "pavilion". This Memorial was read in summary during the first stage of most rites, and in full in a few major rites. Used in most of the major rites were Memorials in the form of scrolls, which were at the end of the rites sent off to the different sections of the supernatural ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 350 world by first fixing them in the arms of a mounted paper horse rider known as gung-chou, who served as a messenger, and then burning the three (horse, rider, and memorial) together. The other form, known as bong, was posted in a rite on the main day of the festival on a wall, and remained there until the conclusion of the ritual. The scripture chanting/Repentance session took place before the Three Pure Ones three times a day. The manual used was the common Jade Emperor's Repentance Scripture. The sessions were very short. The one I timed lasted only fifteen minutes. The other daily rite was the procession of offerings, which started at the Taoist altar with worship of the Three Pure Ones, then visited all the five faan posts, all the temporary altars and the Jau and Wong Temple, the guardian gods of the paang, and the yau-saan. The procession included flags and banners, and was preceded by a man holding a "spirit summoning flag". At each spot it stopped at, the priests briefly chanted and made offerings. The other (and longer) rites involved a lot of chanting and singing, which, in many cases, nobody could hear clearly. The amplified music of the puppet theatre drowned out any other sound. The only exception was a scholar of religion from the Chinese University of Hong Kong who had the high priest carry a wireless microphone for him and who could therefore listen to the priests' words from a headphone radio and compare them with the manual. My descriptions of the Taoist rites, therefore, are often interpretations of what I saw and heard on the basis of past experience and manuals. 63 E. The Participants List in the Taoist Rites Of the elements of the rites, the villagers probably knew most about the Memorials in their different forms. The women villagers in general knew less about the festival (or they pretended to). When I asked some elderly ladies at the ritual site what da-jiu was all about, they explained that it was heui-lok promised to Jau and Wong, to commemorate them. They suggested that I should ask elderly men instead. It was men who knew more about these things. The knowledge was handed down from one generation to another. But I overheard, during the opening rite, the same group of elderly ladies asking themselves how many priests were reading the Memorial (the one to be burnt). They observed that there was too much noise for them to hear the reading. They explained to me that the names of all the villagers (yan-hau) were being read. The priests Page 375 Page 376 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 362 associated with lion dance groups. The ritual representatives held incense burners, but the joss sticks in them were not lighted from the beginning to the end of the procession. Mr. Dang Jik-Wai, an elder of Tai Hong Wai, with an outsider who had lived in Kam Tin since shortly after the war and was employed by the rural committee, led the procession. Mr. Dang had a list on a piece of paper of the gods to worship. The procession left the main ritual area where the participants had been waiting since the end of the rite of posting the Memorial. They first stopped at the Wa-Bou altar for the God of Earth and Grain at Shui Tau. From there they proceeded to the Tin-Hau Temple at Shui Mei and worshipped at the Temple, and two nearby altars for the God of Earth and Grain. The procession then turned south to Ching-Lok Ancestral Hall at Shui Tau, and worshipped at the Ancestral Hall, and at the Hung-Sing Temple. Next they worshipped at another altar for the God of Earth and Grain of Shui Tau, the Yi-Dai School (i.e. Man-Cheung Temple), and the altar for the God of Earth and Grain for the Mui Jai Yun section of the village. They entered Kam Hing Wai and worshipped at the san-teng, the earth god's place at the former village gate, as well as the altar for the God of Earth and Grain. The party proceeded to Kam Tin Shi, where they worshipped at an altar for the God of Earth and Grain. They intended to enter Yau-Leun Tong to worship too. But it was locked and no one in the procession had the key. So they made the offerings at the door. They then entered Sa Bui Leng and worshipped at the ruin of a former san-teng and the god of the well. They continued the procession to Ko Po, where they worshipped the God of the well, the God of the village gate, and an altar for the God of Earth and Grain. The procession turned back and continued towards Kat Hing Wai, where they worshipped at its altar for the God of Earth and Grain outside the village wall, and then entered the village and worshipped at the san-teng. The procession then took Kam Sheung Road to the san-teng (?) of Naam-Teng. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 164 Michael Lau, was to see this problem had been solved, with the difficulty now being how to restrict the visit to a small number of galleries rather than to try and see too much in the limited time available. Accordingly, we visited the most renowned galleries only, those housing Ancient Chinese Bronzes and Ceramics. We were well rewarded by the quality and range of exhibits on display. Our enjoyment and understanding was greatly enhanced by explanations provided by the two senior staff members provided for us as gallery guides by Museum Director Ma Chengyuan. The next day, Saturday, we drove out north-west of Shanghai to the Jiading County Museum, in particular to see the exhibition on the former Jiading Imperial Examination Hall. RAS Council Member Joseph Ting, who also was our guide that day, had arranged this visit. (Prior to the visit, before leaving Hong Kong, Dr Betty Wei3 had given members a talk on the Hall and the imperial examination system, so important in China prior to 1905). Again we were given VIP treatment, with Director Zheng of the Jiading Cultural Bureau and Director Yang Chun of the Museum, addressing us upon arrival and providing us with an enthusiastic and knowledgeable guide, Ms Liu Chuyong. Members were impressed by the graphic quality of the exhibits, especially those on examination cheating methods. The highlight of our Sunday programme was a tour of Old Shanghai, with our guide being Ms. Tess Johnston, author and raconteur extraordinaire, whose assistance had been obtained for us by Council Member Valery Garrett. After a bus tour of treaty port architecture, Tess led us on foot through the city's oldest area, Huangpu. There, one block west of the Friendship Store and two blocks south of the Wusong River (Suzhou Creek), on Huqiu (Museum) Road, near the junction with Dong Road, we found to our delight the old premises of the North China Branch. The building is now used as a bank and share-trading hall, but little has changed in its appearance and structure with RAS still to be seen on the pediment (see Illustration 1, a group photograph outside the building, and Illustration 2, plans of premises after the 1932-34 re-building; provided for us by Ms Johnston). On the Monday morning our exploration of both the past and present ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 170 located. The Seventh Day Adventist Church, which stands at numbers 6-8 on the tree-lined Sun Yat-sen Road (formerly part of Tung Sui Road), was on the site of a building used during the war years as an officers mess (see Plate III). The clinic, which now stands at No. 28 Shui Dong Kai (Water East Street), is on the site where a 'hospital' and the BAAG headquarters were situated during World War Two. Then, Huizhou stood in a kind of ‘no-man's-land'. It was not part of 'Free China' nor was it really in Japanese occupied territory. But the Japanese did make regular incursions into the city which was an undercover centre for Chinese guerillas and the British Army Aid Group. Members of the Allied Forces would occasionally escape from prisoner-of-war camps in Hong Kong and make their way, with the help of Chinese guerillas, to Sai Kung. From there they would sail over to the coast of China and proceed on up to Huizhou to link up with the 'East River Column' of guerillas. After rest and medical attention escapees would make their way to the hinterland and Free China proper. Huizhou was well positioned as an escape route which was provided by a road network, of sorts, and the East River which flows along to the Bocca Tigris in the Pearl River Delta. 5 Men who managed to escape included Colonel Anthony Hewitt (at the time Captain) of the ‘Die-Hards', the Middlesex Regiment, who gave a talk in November 1996, to the RASHKB entitled 'The Defence of Leighton Hill during the 1941 Battle for Hong Kong'. Colonel L.T. Ride also escaped to set up and head the British Army Aid Group. Sir Lindsay, who was Vice Chancellor of the University of Hong Kong from 1949 to 1964, was also a founder member of the RASHKB, in 1960, when it was reestablished. He was President of our Branch from 1969 to 1972. Although members of our RAS Group saw a considerable amount of new building as we drove from Shenzhen to Huizhou on that November day in 1997, one was struck by the number of walled villages and watch towers. This part of China was, obviously, a pretty lawless region at one time, and, to some extent, it still is. One occasionally sees cars plying the roads without number plates and right-hand drive vehicles which have probably been smuggled in, one assumes from Hong Kong. T ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 336 I do not know if a couple of bus-loads of "extras" were sent on in advance of our arrival at the beach, but we were greeted again by the sight of bridal couples - a beachful of them! I have a photograph that clearly shows more than 30 couples, the brides for the most part in western white gowns and the grooms in black suits. The heavily decorated taxis were present here too, but so was a totally different kind of conveyance, one that is rather hard to describe. Bright red in colour, it appeared to be the sort of car that might have been designed by Walt Disney - long and open with running boards and big frog-eye headlights. Our guide explained that the city had commissioned 20 of these wonderful creations. One of our number (the dashing and debonair Philip Bruce) found out that such cars were available for hire (with driver) during the evenings when not being used for weddings - and so off he went later that night for a very special city tour. At the eastern end of the beach is the commanding building that was once the governor's seaside retreat and hunting lodge. Fully open to the public, and containing a souvenir and trinkets shop, it affords a wonderful panorama back across the city and the beach full of brides. The day finished with dinner in a nearby restaurant, where our enthusiasm to support the local beer-making industry easily broke the budget of our unfortunate China Qingdao Overseas Tourist Company guide. Despite the preponderance of good beer in all the places we visited, some of our number preferred to sample the local wine. Chinese wine has been around for some time, during which it has steadily been getting better. A local find worth noting was the excellent Hua Dong, which really took by surprise those who sampled it. Comments were heard such as: "I have never tasted a good Chinese-made wine before." In fact the Hua Dong winery has been made famous by none other than the globe-trotting Michael Palin, who went there in his TV series as well as managing to stay at the German Governor's residence in Qingdao. Chefoo - The Brighton of China The road from Qingdao to Chefoo (or Yantai as it is now known) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 375 BACKSTREETS OF BEIJING NOTES ON THE EASTER, 1998 VISIT TO BEIJING PENNY ROBBINS MEREDITH TONG-DRAPER GEOFFREY ROPER The idea of a visit to Beijing, the Branch's first, came up during the Easter 1997 visit to Shanghai when Council member Dr Joseph Ting offered to lead a trip to aspects of the capital seldom seen by the tourist. Despite a busy work schedule, Dr Ting came true to his promise and on Good Friday, the 10th April led a party of 26 members and guests, including Branch President Dr Dan Waters, to Beijing. Driving in from the Airport we found that spring had already arrived with the highway lined with trees sprouting every shade of green that one could imagine, and blossom in white, pink and deep crimson. Everything, that morning, looked fresh and clean, and to those who had not been there for some years, more prosperous. "Bamboo", the tour guide supplied by the travel agent, soon let us know that Beijing was now sharing in the nation's wealth. Dr Ting soon had us working hard and we went straight from the Airport to the Foreign Missionaries Cemetery in the western suburbs of Beijing, off Chegongzhuang Road, rather ironically tucked away in the grounds of the Beijing Municipal Party Committee Cadre Training School, where a billboard proclaimed Deng Hsiao-ping's pragmatic message “learn from experience". At the Cemetery, for which the Ming Emperor Wanli had given land in 1611, we were met by Professor Liu Shuyong a research fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences and Hon. Secretary of the Hong Kong University Alumni Association in Beijing, who had helped make many of the arrangements for our visit, and Madam Gao Zhiyu, President of the China Association for Matteo Ricci Studies, which had been formed in 1995. Madam Gao gave us a very informative guided tour of the cemetery. [Illustration One]. There are two main sections, one, which has three graves and another with almost fifty more. The principal grave is that of Matteo ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 379 meeting place where candidates from the two provinces could stay while attending imperial examinations. An opera hall was added in 1830 and it became a centre for Beijing opera masters including Mei Lanfang. The hall was restored in 1992 and the site also houses a small opera museum. We watched a very lively performance of excerpts from famous Beijing Operas, the highlight of which was the Monkey King in Journey to the West defeating a rapid succession of opponents through brilliant acrobatics and martial arts. On Monday, our final day, we visited the former Legation Quarter, now called Dong Jiao Min Xiang. This quarter had long been the place where tributary visitors, such as Mongols, Tibetans and Vietnamese stayed, and during late Qing times became a virtual "state within a state". Dr Ting guided us on a walk which began at St Michael's Church, in Taijichang Street (formerly known as Rue Marco Polo) and built by French Vincentians in 1901. Inside the church is simple and modest with some of its services still conducted in Latin. We went on past the sites of the Russian Embassy and the former British Embassy, as well as the present Beijing Municipal Government offices, the Supreme People's Court and the Beijing Public Security Bureau. There still exists one interesting road sign, Rue Hart, named after the famous founder of the Imperial Maritime Customs, Sir Robert Hart. Our visit to Beijing ended with a brief look at the antique market Liulichang (Glazed Tile Factory) an area named after a pottery which, in Ming times, produced tiles for the roofs of the Forbidden City. It had been famous for centuries for its old book shops, pictures, rubbings, jewellery, bronzes and porcelain and for some years now it has been revived as an antique market, (but one has to bargain very hard to get a good price). We returned to Hong Kong on Easter Monday afternoon having visited a capital undergoing both revival and development, with room for both Matteo Ricci and Nina Ricci, for both the study of history and plans for a future based on past experience; and for both the tranquillity of the Fa Hai Temple and the boisterous artistry of the Monkey King. We look forward to further insights in Qingdao during Easter 1999. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x Being chairperson of the Activities Committee is a demanding position and we thank Valery Garrett for her considerable effort and for a job well done. We also thank her Committee comprising the Reverend Carl Smith, Doctors Elizabeth Sinn, Michael Lau, Patrick Hase, Joseph Ting, as well as May Holdsworth, Sarah Parnell, Peter Stuckey and Jason Wordie. Others who have helped with the organising of activities include Stephen Selby, Michael Broom and Arthur Hacker. A vote of thanks is accorded to all of them. Projects and other activities Again our Society has been involved in various ways with projects and other activities which sometimes amount to a form of community service. For instance, over the summer we pieced together information for Mrs Victoria Brown of Australia. She was trying to trace details about her great-grandmother, Mrs Miranda Main (née Mann), who served as a school principal in Hong Kong at the end of the 19th and early in the 20th century. When Mrs Brown visited Hong Kong in October of last year, together with Mr S T Chiu of the Antiquities and Monuments Office, he and I showed Mrs Brown the old school building at 136 Nathan Road where her great-grandmother had been principal. Also, RAS members David Clinton and Dr Gillian Bickley met Mrs Brown and provided her with useful information. With the help of Council member Tim Ko, we also provided information regarding bullet and shrapnel marks on a wall on Lower Stubbs Road where a great deal of fierce fighting took place when the Japanese invaded Hong Kong in December 1941. In another case a lady in England, Frances Howell, was trying to trace details of her relatives who lived in Shan Dong Province and Hong Kong. Again, in response to a letter in the press, information was provided for a relative in England regarding Lieutenant Henry Dallas who died in Hong Kong in 1844. Information was obtained regarding both the grave and a monument on the wall inside Saint John's Cathedral up until World War Two. Also, our Branch was invited to send a representative to make its views known to a government working party which was looking into the subject, 'Conservation and the Natural Environment.' This is the xvi ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 464 you would laugh when I told you the name of the ch'uu. 'Dang me if it isn't a great big white whale got into our river; that sure makes a tale !' & Peter was happy once we'd been inside the Trashigang dzong with its floorboards so wide. But as for the rest of the travelling herd, our Peter was clear - he just gave them the bird. No, that's not quite fair; he's Hon. Sec. of the RAS, and has to make sure that good things come to pass. In the matter of birthdays, a party to make, there's never a doubt that our Pete takes the cake! Marlene came a cropper on the road from Pele La; fell down on the black ice - nearly got hit by a car. But she came up smiling - Marlene's never sad for long. She was right as rain next morning when we visited a dzong. And finally, Kevin and Sarah and Rocky, my time's nearly up - you should count yourselves lucky. ================================================================================