RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 115 cheapest tenements, on the upper floors. Conclusion Following the boom period in the 1970s, the joss stick industry is having a hard time in the 1980s. The failure of the industry to mechanize constitutes the major stumbling block to its future development. Faced with the problems of rising labour costs and labour shortage, the industry is now increasingly left in the hands of an aging labour force which averaged over 60 years of age in 1987. This decrease in overall productivity caused by aging would cope very well with the dwindling market if not for the increased competition from China. Since China's open door policy was announced in 1978, joss sticks were allowed to be produced again and production quickly resumed in Hsin-hui, Tung-kuan and Shao-hsing. The incomparably lower wages demanded in China and the availability of large pieces of cheap land enable the incense products of China to be more competitive. Though only two-grade products are currently being produced there, the potential of the Chinese supply is strongly shown in its dominance of the Hong Kong and South-East Asian markets for low-grade incense. It is generally felt that the aging of the labour force, shortage of capital, failure to mechanize factories and external competition will result in the inevitable decline of the industry in Hong Kong. The general attitude of the industry is pessimistic and a total collapse of the industry in Hong Kong within 20 years is anticipated. Acknowledgements: This paper is based in part on an undergraduate thesis written by the author in the Department of Geography and Geology, University of Hong Kong. The author would like to thank Dr. Richard T.A. Irving for his supervision, and Dr. Elizabeth Y.Y. Sinn and Dr. P.H. Hase for their comments and suggestions. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 year as your President. Have we coped, you may ask? Well, I believe we have, and for this I need to thank my fellow councillors for the very loyal and hard work they have put into ensuring that the Society's affairs run in a smooth and on the whole organised way. In particular mention must be made of Elizabeth Sinn for arranging a varied programme of activities and lectures, Carl Smith, for his loyal and perceptive encouragement, Patrick Hase, for arranging interesting visits and editing the Journal (perhaps the most arduous duty), Robert Nield for keeping us on the right financial track, for our team of ladies, Evelyn Caldwell our Secretary, a post which really holds the Society together, Anita Wilson for doing the newsletter, and our Assistant Secretary, Sharon Bruce, also our Librarian Y.C. Wan, and all those other Council members and helpers who help to make this Society tick and move forward. So what have we done and where do we stand? I will start with the Programme. During the year there were the following talks and visits: Talks: Chang Tsong Zung Peter Leeds Michael Luk Peter Steyn James Hayes Wang Gungwu Miss May Wong Anne and Stephen Selby Sister Beatrice Leung Susanna Hoe Richard Stott Visits Hong Kong Art in the 80s History of Transport in Hong Kong The Origins of Chinese Bolshevism Memories of India The Libraries of the Royal Asiatic Societies in China Western Scholarship, Asian Continuities Changing Lifestyle of Young Japanese Women Pidgin English on the China Coast Sino-Vatican Relations and the Recent Developments of the Chinese Catholic Church Gin and Bridge All Day: Myths about Western Women in Hong Kong 1841-1941 Hong Kong Birds Visits were to Waglan Island, organized by Geoff Roper and Roger Perry, Wo Hang Mid-Autumn Festival visit organized by Dr. Patrick viii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 24 30 Sir George Thomas Staunton, a member of the 1793-94 Macartney Embassy, whose translation of Ch'ing Law was the first published in Britain, had been at pains to emphasize this: Ta Tsing Leu Lee, Being the Fundamental Laws... of the Penal Code of China (London, Cadell and Davies, 1801), p. 185. For its application in practice see the cases translated with commentary in Derk Bodde and Clarence Morris, Law in Imperial China, Exemplified by 190 Ch'ing Dynasty Cases (Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 1967).21 Cited in Corinne K. Hoexter, From Canton to California, The Epic of Chinese Immigration (New York, Four Winds Press, 1976), p. 136. 11 Dr. William Lockhart of the London Missionary Society, writing in 1861, cites the case of the old scholar who so greatly assisted Dr. W.H. Medhurst with his translations and researches. See his The Medical Missionary in China (London, Hurst and Blackett. 2nd edition, 1861), pp. 21-22. "He was a living concordance of the entire range of Chinese literature. He could find any passage without hesitation, repeat page after page of most of the works, and could easily take up any citation which had been begun in his hearing, and finish it without hesitation. This is not an uncommon thing amongst the educated Chinese, but this man possessed the faculty in a remarkable degree". 23 Arthur Evans Moule, The Chinese People, A Handbook on China (London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1941), p. 262. See also his New China and Old, Personal Recollections and Observations of Thirty Years (London, Seeley and Co., 1891), p. 271.24 Some of the literary material to be found in villages of the Hong Kong region is described in Dr. Patrick Hase's most useful paper. "Research Materials for Village Studies", Chapter 4 of Alan Birch, Y.C. Jao and Elizabeth Sinn (eds.) Research Materials for Hong Kong Studies (Hong Kong. Centre of Asian Studies. University of Hong Kong, 1984), pp. 31-46, especially between pp. 32-37. 25 — By great good fortune, some of their libraries have survived and are in safe keeping. One of them came from Hoi Pa Village, Tsuen Wan, and had belonged to the builder of the traditional village house there which is now a listed monument. He lived between 1865 and 1937, and after his return from Jamaica engaged in educational pursuits in a literary club and at the Luen Fong School in Hoi Pa Kwan Mun Hau. When what had survived of his library was presented to the Urban Services Department in 1982, it consisted of some 200 books of various kinds, as well as manuscript essays and poems, including some of the famed "eight-legged essays" written in preparation for the imperial examination; all providing valuable documentation for the educational, social and intellectual activities of their period. South China Morning Post, 26 May 1982. See also the Chinese press of that date. 16 What Francis C.M. Wei calls the operation of the principle of retributive justice" featured prominently in Chinese stories. See his The Spirit of Chinese Culture (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947), p. 151. See also Yao Chin-nung, "The Theme and Structure of the Yuan Drama", in Tien Hsia Monthly, Vol. 1, No. 4 (November 1935), p. 392.27 The Tsuen Wan experience is echoed in the fine description of what it meant to be a village boy in late 19th century Kwangtung, contained in the memoirs of a successful Hawaiian Chinese, born in a village near Macau in 1865. In them, he describes what one might call the "extra-curricular" part of education. This included the telling of traditional stories by the family elders and by itinerant minstrels and story-tellers, and through the plays performed by visiting opera troupes, as well as in literary pastimes: Chung Kun Ai, My Seventy Nine Years in Hawaii (1879-1958) (Hong Kong, Cosmorama Pictorial Publisher, 1960), pp. 6, 26-29. 28 Francis C.M. Wei, The Spirit of Chinese Culture (New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1947) p. 149. 24 For the former, see the chapter "Symbol and Tradition" between pp. 50-75 of Ronald ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 Lectures: 1993 16 April 14 May 11 June 9 July 15 October 30 October 19 November 26 November 9 December 1994 21 January 18 February 11 March 21 March Chinese Opera Di S.Y Chan Growing Up in China Mr Denis Bray New Territories Poetry and Song Di Patrick Hase The Li Family of Hong Kong Mr Frank Ching Chinese Festivals in Hong Kong. Dr Patrick Hase based on video taken by Mr. Peter Lee Mult-culturalism and Asia Asian Arts Society of Australia Dr. James Hayes Emigration from Hong Kong Dr. Elizabeth Sinn Law as a Foreign Language Professor Derek Roebuck Triad Societies in Hong Kong Mr. Ip Pau-fuk William Mesney. Mr Keith Stevens Chinese Clothing An Illustrated Guide Mis Valery Garrett Eternal Serenity Meaning of Architecture of the Chinese Buddhist Monastery Di Puay-peng Ho Ancient Chinese Gold Dr Simon Kwan Crossing the Taklamakan Desert Mr Charles Blackmore Visits: 1993 3 April 2 May 22 May 5 June/September 25 June 3 July 30 September Exhibition of paintings by Nancy Woo - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University Jewish Cemetery Mer Yung Tang Collection of Paintings by Chan Dai Chien Chinese University Art Gallery Marine Police Headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui (two visits) Japanese Tea Ceremony - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University Picnic and outing to Yuen Tun Village Civil Aid Services Camp, Tar Lam Chung Wo Hang Village to see making and letting off of paper balloons (Moon Festival) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT As of 15 March 1998, the library collection had increased to 3,429 volumes. A total of 240 volumes were added during the year. There was a reduction of books purchased by Dr. James Hayes from Australia. However, a large donation was received from the Command Library (British Armed Forces Library), amounting to around 60 books. Most of these books are about Hong Kong, China and Southeast Asia. Donations of books were also received from Dr. Gillian Bickley, Dr. James Hayes, Dr. Li Shu-fan, Mrs. Patricia Lim, Mr. Liang Xi-hua, Dr. Elizabeth Sinn, Dr. Anthony Siu, and The Hong Kong Archaeology Society. Members of the Royal Asiatic Society visited the Hong Kong Collection of the University of Hong Kong Libraries together with the Hong Kong University Museum on 22 November 1997. The comprehensive collection of books, records, newspapers, microfilms and other documents is renowned as the best collection relating to Hong Kong in the territory. The group was given a guided tour by the curator of the Special Collections, Mr Y.C. Wan. Mr. Wan also gave a brief history of the unique collections in the Rare Book Room. Members were particularly interested in the antique maps of Hong Kong and China. To help publicise and promote the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, as part of the University of Hong Kong Libraries' digital project, it was suggested that selected articles of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society could be mounted on the HKU Libraries web server for wider access. The proposal is still under consideration because of copyright concern. Consent of the authors is required to launch the project. As of November 1997, the RAS Collection is available for searching on the Internet (http://www.uc.gov.hk/ucpl) via the On-line Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) of the Provisional Urban Council Public Libraries. Users may search the catalogue by author, title, subject, and/or keywords. The RAS collection is one of the special collections in the City Hall Library. xxxiii ================================================================================