RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author 6 year we had 182 of whom 20 were life members and who included several eminent scholars from overseas. But as Sir Robert Black said in his address last month, "there must be many times 200 people in Hong Kong who are interested both in the cultural life and history of this part of the world which has great riches to offer to anybody interested in research or in studying and enquiring about the inheritance which we all enjoy who live here." While we can feel pride in having in our present membership a substantial nucleus not only of scholars but of members generally representative of the cosmopolitan community of the Colony who are keen and enthusiastic, we need more members and hope to appeal to a wider public. As this is a Royal Society, membership is not a matter of form only, and we do not go out into the highways and byways to recruit members, but we feel that the Society can enlarge its activities and membership if the present members will help by bringing within the fold those of their friends and acquaintances who are interested in its activities. There seems to be no reason why in time the membership should not equal that of the Shanghai Branch, which before the war was about 800. During the year the Society has held eight meetings at which addresses have been given, all of them by persons of outstanding eminence in their respective spheres. Most of them were very well attended. Good lecturers are a gift from heaven but so far we have been truly blessed. We were particularly fortunate in starting the year with two outstanding meetings. For an opening meeting we had an intensely interesting talk by Prince Peter of Greece and Denmark on "The Social and Economic Organisation of Tibet", illustrated by a coloured film taken over a period of seven years during his exploration of Central Asia. The formal inaugural address was given by Professor F. S. Drake of the University of Hong Kong on "The Study of Asia: a Heritage and a Task." It was a memorable address which gave the stamp of learning and authority on the Society's efforts and the text of which is printed in this volume. Of no less interest and merit were the addresses following: by the Professor John K. Fairbank on "Chinese Studies in the United States", Mr. A. C. Scott on "The Chinese Theatre" illustrated by Chinese actors in costumes and makeup, Mr. G. B. Downer of the University of London on "The Yao People of Laos." In the summer months we followed the advice of the first President of the original Hong Kong Branch, Sir John Davis, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 2 May 13th June 17th August 19th Professor C. P. FitzGerald "The Succession Crises in the Manchu Dynasty after the Death of the Tung Chih Emperor" Professor Yao Hsin-nung "K'un Ch'u — The Classical Chinese Drama” (Illustrated with colour slides and a demonstration by Miss Hsiao Fang-fang in full make-up and costume) Mr. Ho Tickon "Method and Technique of Chinese Painting" (Illustrated by the artist/lecturer) September 30th "Conquest of Everest"-film (British Council) October 20th Expedition to Tung Chung, Lantao island to visit the old fort. October 25th Dr. W. Hellmich "Tasks and Results of the Research Scheme Nepal Himalaya” (In co-operation with the Faculty of Science, University of Hong Kong) November 18th Mr. K. M. A. Barnett "Hong Kong before the Chinese — the Puzzle and the Missing Pieces" December 10th Documentary films on Hong Kong:- "This is Hong Kong" "Sea Festivals of Hong Kong" "The Boat People" the Frame, It is no mean tribute to the standing of the Hong Kong Branch of the Society that it has succeeded in attracting as guest speakers such eminent and world-wide authorities as Professor Hansford, Dr. Freedman, Professor Fitzgerald and last month Professor Fairbanks. It is equally a tribute to the rich local talent of the Society that six of the addresses — all of high standard and of great interest — during the year were given by local members, while the more recent address by Mr. Cranmer-Byng proved to be one of the most appreciated of all. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 20th January 9th March 23rd March 27th April 9/10th May 25th May 22nd June 2nd September 27th October Mr. J. L. Cranmer-Byng, M.C., M.A. "The Macartney Embassy Through Chinese Eyes". Professor J. K. Fairbank "The Western Response to China”, Annual General Meeting Professor F. S. Drake, O.B.E., B.A., B.D., "The Jewish Colony at Kaifeng and its Relation to other Monotheistic Faiths in China”. Symposium on Social Organization of Villages in the New Territories, including visits to villages in the New Territories. Mr. Michael Lau, B.A., PID.ED.(H.K.), M.A.(HARV.) "The Fung Ping Shan Museum”. Dr. Marjorie Topley, B.SC.(ECON.), PH.D. "Some of China's Little Known Religious Sects, and Their Migration Overseas”. Mr. Tom Harrisson, D.S.O., O.B.E., "Living Cultures in the Niah Context of Prehistory". Peter Scott, Esq., C.B.E., D.S.C. "The Conservation of the World's Wild Life and Wilderness”. 16th November Professor Chao Mei-pa, B.A. "A Brief Sketch of Chinese Music", with instrumental illustrations by Dr. C. K. Wong and folksongs by Barbara Fei, Winnie Wei and Lee Bing. Of particular interest was the enthusiasm and the spirit of inquiry that were exemplified in the Symposium held on 9th and 10th May on the Social Organization of Villages in the New Territories which was organized and conducted by Dr. Marjorie Topley and Mr. R. E. Lawry with the active participation of two anthropologists from the University of London and District Officers of the New Territories, whose work had brought them ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 186 BOOK REVIEWS (2) to instill elementary knowledge of Confucian classics in the mind of the young; and (3) to familiarize children with the most widely used quotations, proverbs and stories from historical and literary writings. This booklet falls into the first of these categories. Although this type of work had undergone a continuous process of revision and development, some of the early texts had been kept in use since their first appearance in Han period. A few examples of Tang times can still be seen in collections of Tunhuang scrolls preserved in China and abroad. The Sung Neo-Confucian scholars first advocated and worked for a more relevant language teaching method for children and quite a number of standard work in this field were compiled during the Sung and Yuan Periods. But it was only in early Ming Dynasty that illustrations of the kind included in this primer were added. Thus this slim volume will be of special value to those interested in the study of Chinese educational techniques, particularly in regard to the study of basic language teaching. At the same time it is of considerable use as a historical reference work since the characters and illustrations are drawn from everyday life, thus providing us with additional information on physical surroundings of the period. Professor Goodrich has also given us in his notes, romanizations and brief explanations of individual characters and compounds, which further increase the usefulness of the work as a small but comprehensive source book of the times. MA MENG Hong Kong, 1967. CHINA: THE PEOPLE'S MIDDLE KINGDOM AND THE USA John K. Fairbank; Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass, and London, Oxford University Press, 1967, pp. xi, 145. HK$27.50, How refreshing it is to read a volume of essays on China instead of one of the many tomes which issue from the world's presses on this abstruse country. Professor Fairbank is a famous historian, but his book shows him as what many experts at their own subject cannot manage to be, a populariser in the very best sense of the word. He has been able to distill from his many ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r EARLY STEAMSHIPS IN CHINA A. D. BLUE* In East Asia: The Modern Transformation, Professor J. K. Fairbank writes, "This carrying trade on China's waterways was to prove the Westerners' main point of entry into the Chinese economy, for here the introduction of the steamship could alter the inherited technology" As late as 1880 there was still not a single mile of railway in China, nor a single machine-driven loom or spindle. At that date, however, the three leading steamship companies owned forty-two steamships operating on the various routes on the Canton River, the Lower Yangtse, and between the various treaty ports on the coast. As K. C. Liu points out in his Anglo-American Steamship Rivalry in China, 1862-74, the steamship was not only a technological innovation. It was also a business innovation, because it brought with it new methods of capital organisation and management on a scale hitherto unknown in China. Many Chinese of the scholar-official class also recognised the importance of steamships, and of guns, and—by inference—the political system which made these things possible. From the mid 19th century onwards, memorial after memorial to the Throne emphasised this. Sir Charles Snow was not exaggerating so very much when he wrote that the steam engine helped to shape the modern world as much as Adam Smith or Napoleon. Unfortunately for China, officials closer to the Throne discouraged its occupants from pursuing modernisation. Steam navigation in China began in the south, on the Canton River, and—like so many other aspects of the Western invasion—came by way of India. The first steamship in Asia seems to have been the Nawab of Oude's steam yacht, about which little information has survived. According to Prinsep, this was built at Lucknow in 1819, and equipped with an eight horse-power engine sent out from England, so she must have been very small. She is said to have been capable of seven to eight knots, but when the Nawab tired of her was allowed to go to ruin. Apart from this, the first * Mr. Blue is well-known to readers of the Journal. An engineer officer of the British Merchant Marine since 1928, he has now contributed five articles on Eastern marine subjects. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r PERSIANS, ARABS IN T'ANG CHINA 69 should be well-treated.48 The Emperor based his policies on the principle of 't'ien-hsia pai-ch'uan kuei ta-hai' 天下百川歸大海 (all rivers in the empire enter the sea), and accepted everyone from different parts of the world, either to pay tribute to or to trade with China. There is no doubt that Persians, Arabs, Turks, Japanese and others did enjoy their stay in China; and it is also an undeniable fact that T'ang emperors wished to befriend these foreigners. It is equally true that in such a highly Sino-centric society as the T'ang period, nobody felt that such a process of assimilation was untraditional or against the theory of Sino-centrism. In T'ang times, such a social pattern was a reality, not a myth, and its spirit may serve as a model for the future. NOTES * I wish to express my appreciation to Professor Woodbridge Bingham of the University of California, Berkeley (Visiting Professor in Chinese History, Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong 1970-71) for reading an earlier version of this paper, weeding out mistakes and suggesting improvements. Abbreviations used in the footnotes: CTS Chiu T'ang-shu HTS Hsin T'ang-shu TCTC Tzu-chih t'ung-chien 1 In T'ang time, Islamic followers used to call the Chinese Tamghai, Tomghaj, Tonghaj, Tangas, Tubgao or Tapkao. Some historians believe that these were transliterations of T'ao-hua-shih. However, Kuwabara Jitsuzō suggested that these were derived from T'ang-chia-tzu. Cf. J. Kuwabara 'On P'u Shou-keng', Memoirs of the Research Department of the Toyo Bunko 2:1-79 (Tokyo, 1928), 7:1-104 (Tokyo, 1935). See also Chinese translation of this, with additional notes by Ch'en Yü-ching, P'u Shou-keng k'ao (Peking, 1954), pp. 103-109. 2 Edward O. Reischauer and J. K. Fairbank, East Asia: The Great Tradition (London, 1958), p. 155. 3 See Lo Hsiang-lin, T'ang-tai wen-hua shih (Taipei, 1963), pp. 54-87. 4 Hsiang Tai, T'ang-tai Ch'ang-an hsi-yü wen-ming (Peking, 1957), pp. 24-25. 5 Edward H. Schafer, The Golden Peaches of Samarkand: A Study of T'ang Exotics (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1963), pp. 10-11. I must express my thankfulness to Professor Schafer's opus magnum; I have fully made use of Professor Schafer's work. 6 See Chiu Ling-yeong, Superintendents of Customs in Canton during the Tang and Sung Dynasties (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Hong Kong, 1963), Chapters 5 and 6. Page 75 Page 76 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q STUDY OF MODERNIZATION IN CHINA & JAPAN 23 23 See Umetani Noboru, "Foreign Nationals Employed in Japan during the Years of Modernization," East Asian Cultural Studies, 10.1 (March, 1971). 24 Ibid., 5-6. 25 See Roger Hackett, "The Meiji Leaders and Modernization: The Case of Yamagata Aritomo," in Marius Jansen, ed., Changing Japanese Attitudes toward Modernization (Princeton, 1965). 26 Yamagata Aritomo, "The Japanese Army," in Okuma Shigenobu, comp., Fifty Years of New Japan (New York, 1909), 206. 27 Ibid., 206. 28 Ibid., 206-208. 29 Presseisen, vii; also chapters 2 and 4. 30 Ibid., esp. 135-136. As a professor at the Army Staff College and an adviser to the General Staff, Meckel helped to reorganize the Army Ministry, refine the General Staff, improve the system and content of Japanese military education, and develop the Japanese system of logistics and medical services. In addition, he helped restructure the army into divisions and taught the Japanese "the demands of full-scale mobilization, which included a strategic railroad network, a new conscription act, and improved staff exercises." 31 Mary Wright, The Last Stand, 220-221; Rawlinson, 167-204; Presseisen, 139-143; Hsü, The Rise of Modern China (New York, etc., 1975), 418-420; Yamagata Ariyoshi, "The Army," in Albert Stead, ed., Japan by the Japanese (London, 1904), 107-109; etc. 32 Cited in Roger Hackett, "The Military: Japan," in Robert E. Ward and Dankwart Rustow, eds., Political Modernization in Japan and Turkey (Princeton, 1964), 328. 33 Ike Nobutaka, "War and Modernization," in Robert Ward, ed., Political Development in Modern Japan (Princeton, 1968), 209. 34 Hackett, "The Military," 346-348. 35 See, for example, Ike, 196; also Shibusawa Keizo, ed., Japanese Life and Culture in the Meiji Era (translated and adapted by Charles Terry; Tokyo, 1958), 303-309, esp. 308-309. 36 Hackett, "The Military," 335. 37 Ogawa Gotaro, The Conscription System in Japan (New York, 1921), chapter 3. 38 Shibusawa, 306-307. 39 H. Paul Varley, Japanese Culture: A Short History (New York, 1973), 163-164. 40 Donald Keene, "The Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 and Its Cultural Effects in Japan," in Donald Shively, ed., Tradition and Modernization in Japanese Culture (Princeton, 1971). 41 Ogawa, part 2. 42 See Harry T. Oshima, "Meiji Fiscal Policy and Economic Progress," in William Lockwood, ed., The State and Economic Enterprise in Japan (Princeton, 1968), esp. 372. See also Shibusawa, 305, 315; Fairbank, et al., 199-200; Ike, 205. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q CHAN LAI-SUN AND HIS FAMILY: A 19TH CENTURY CHINA COAST FAMILY CARL T. SMITH Professor John K. Fairbank of the Harvard-Yenching Institute in an address to the Society during his visit to Hong Kong in 1976, referred to the importance of the study of what he termed "China Coast Culture", meaning thereby the type of social groups, values, institutions, etc., that emerged from the commingling of diverse traditions in the port cities of China. He suggested that an understanding of the forces that created this social milieu and an analysis of its structure and operation might provide models for life as it is developing in an age of rapid cultural interchange.* This study of one family which was a part of the China Coast culture illustrates some strands in its creation and emergence as a distinct way of life, with its own values and manners. This new life style is seen in such features in the family of Chan Lai-sun as the intermingling of Chinese and foreign home decoration; changed attitudes toward certain Chinese practices, such as the social mingling of sexes, foot binding, dress and the wearing of the queue; the employment in a Chinese setting of language, educational and scientific skills acquired by a Western-style training; and marriage across racial boundaries. Mr. Tin-yuk Char has provided interesting information on the career of Chan Lai-sun. In the light of his suggestion that more information might be forthcoming, I can add a few more facts from material I have collected on the family. The careers of Chan Lai-sun and his children are examples of the role marginal Chinese played in the Westernization of China. Chan's mother was probably Malay. His wife Ruth A-tik was born in Indonesia and was not of pure Chinese ancestry. In a list of members of the Presbyterian Mission Church at Ningpo for 1850, she is described as "Indo-Chinese". Both as children came under the patronage of foreigners and both received an English language education. Miss Aldersey, the patron of Ruth A-tik, first in Batavia * This is my interpretation of his remarks and may not be an altogether accurate assessment. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1977 (Covering the period April 1, 1976 — March 31, 1977) During the past year your Council has endeavoured to arrange a full and varied programme of events and we hope that everybody has found something to interest and enjoy. Altogether there have been 14 lectures, three local excursions and two foreign tours, all events being well attended, although not always by the same people. Let me briefly summarise these events. In May 1976 Professor John Fairbank, a leading authority on modern Chinese history and Asia's relations with the West, visiting from Harvard, came to talk to us about contemporary China studies. He also asked us about studies of Hong Kong and China being conducted from here at that time, and was pleased to find many of our own members active in this field. In June, Dr. James McGough, an anthropologist, at that time with the University of Hong Kong, talked about his own research on Chinese marriage carried out in Taiwan, and in July Professor Robert Bruce, an old friend and former member of the Council, discussed relations between the United States and East Asia. In August Mr. Brian Peacock, Curator of Hong Kong's Museum of History and also a Council member, talked on Hindu-Buddhist Settlement and Trade in Ancient Kedah, Malaya; and in October members visited the Tung Wah Group of Hospitals' museum, under the able guidance of Carl Smith and James Hayes. Carl Smith also provided very comprehensive notes on the Hospital which will be published in a later issue of the Journal. Also in October Dr. Peter Wesley-Smith gave a very thought-provoking talk on the convention for the lease of the New Territories. This stimulated much discussion. In November, in preparation for the Sri Lanka tour, Ms. Minette de Silva gave an introductory talk, illustrated with slides, of the various places tour members would be visiting and things they would be seeing on the tour. Also in November Professor Cheng Te-k'un returned to us again to lecture, this time on Chinese Nature Painting, and in December Dr. Leigh Wright, a member of your Council, gave a lecture in preparation for the other foreign tour, to Borneo, which he led in February. A visit to the Tang family graves was organised by David Liu and James Hayes in December. The Tang lineage is the oldest and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 THE REFORM OF MILITARY EDUCATION IN LATE CH'ING CHINA, 1842-1895 RICHARD J. SMITH* Throughout much of the nineteenth century, Chinese and Westerners alike perceived the need for meaningful reform in Chinese military education. The problem could hardly be ignored, especially after the disastrous Opium War of 1839-1842. But change in this key area of late Ch'ing administration came slowly. Not only did it involve sensitive political issues, such as internal security, civil-military relations, and central versus local government responsibility; it also raised basic questions of educational policy, including the relationship between elite and popular instruction, between Confucian moral cultivation and technical specialization, and ultimately between Chinese and Western forms of civil and military knowledge. Complicating matters were the usual practical problems facing Chinese modernizers in the nineteenth century: widespread and entrenched vested interests, bureaucratic inertia, scarcity of revenue, and foreign pressure. The Ch'ing dynasty's basic approach to military education can be seen clearly in the Ch'ing-ch'ao t'ung-chih, officially compiled during the Ch'ien-lung period: "Our Emperor, succeeding and exalting the sages, treats the selection of talents as most important. In the literary arts, elegance and refinement is the aim. In military examination, familiarity with riding and shooting is [most] important." During the Tao-kuang reign, this emphasis on technical military skills received special stress. In 1833, for example, the emperor issued an edict stating that the education of Bannermen should be in horsemanship and archery, so that they would be kept "simple and straight and not exposed to weakening [literary] influences." Similar statements abound in the dynastic record, * Professor Smith writes: S. A. M. Adshead has recently remarked that while "China's failure to industrialize is well known, her failure to professionalize is less often commented upon." (See his review of John Fairbank et al "The I.G. in Peking" in the Journal of Asian Studies, 36.4 (August, 1977). This paper may be viewed as a brief comment on China's early effort to professionalize in military affairs. The author is Associate Professor of History at Rice University, Houston, Texas. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 BOOK REVIEWS 231 strength (“gunboat diplomacy” and “showing the flag”) that westerners were indeed the equal of Chinese, and that the trade which was mutually beneficial ought to be allowed to flourish in peace and tranquillity. Professor Graham shows quite clearly that, of course, the dominant theme of this whole period was the issues raised by the meeting of traditional sino-centrism and the dynamic of western expansion, a familiar theme from the work of countless China scholars including Fairbank and Waley. The author details much of the theme in episodes in Canton (“a war of nerves between British ‘barbarians’ and Canton ‘imbeciles’”), at Chusan, at Shanghai (in 1841 a “squalid” place “rising from the middle of ‘a low unhealthy marsh’”, but by 1858, a queen of a city “with handsome houses and gardens and busy quays”, pp. 217-218), and finally, close to the imperial seat, at Taku at the mouth of the Peiho. The book pays the usual attention to some of the familiar and hoary myths: on the one hand, the Chinese official belief in “self sufficiency” and on the other the Western traders' belief in the limitless potential of China for international trade (The present interest in China of the international business community sounds all too familiar to the historian!); the “inscrutability” of the Chinese (the author seems to subscribe to this myth even toward present day Chinese!); their “traditional courtesy to the stranger” (For accuracy substitute “curiosity toward” for “courtesy to”!); and the curious belief that Chinese did not (do not?) react to heat and cold and pain and hunger like the rest of mankind (despite which, history shows quite clearly that the Chinese do indeed react to such stimuli as armed force and deprivation, like their fellows.) Graham on occasion overstates and exaggerates his analysis of the character and temperament of oriental races, seemingly succumbing to the now fashionable habit of admiration for anything “oriental” that lately, and again, permeates western attitudes and approaches to the Orient. One also notes a contradiction or so: on page 356 we read, “Whether out of ignorance, natural courage, or despair, they (Chinese) were never cowed by the trappings of military might. The British Commissioner underestimated their determination and tenacity.” ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 320 who acted upon them. By piecing together this information, Bartlett has begun the reconstruction of the inner, secret workings of the Qing government. We can build from this base to explore other crucial issues. MICHAEL IPSON Arthur Power Dudden. The American Pacific: From the Old China Trade to the Present. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. xx + 314 pp. Index. When Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, he was attempting to find an alternative sea route to the exotic trading wealth of Cathay, as Westerners then called China. It is perhaps symbolic that 1992, the quincentenary of his momentous voyage, should finally bring the publication of a work which summarizes between one pair of covers the history of American involvement in the Pacific. Despite a plethora of monographs, many of them excellent, on almost every aspect of this topic, and several fine works on American relations with particular Pacific countries, there has long been a need for such a volume. Both Arthur Power Dudden, the Fairbank Professor of History at Bryn Mawr College, situated in a city with more than two centuries of activity in the China trade, and Oxford University Press, are to be thanked for producing this survey. General readers and college students in search of an introductory survey will unite in welcoming The American Pacific. For more than two centuries, the United States has been active in Pacific affairs. From the late eighteenth century onwards, the Pacific was the major focus for American missionary endeavours and an important venue of United States commercial activities. The Philippines, by far the most substantial American "colony", were acquired in 1898. In the twentieth century, the Pearl Harbour attack would impel the United States into war against both Japan and Germany. Under the pressure of the Cold War, within the next three decades Americans would engage in costly interventions in civil wars in both Korea and Vietnam, in the second case destroying much of their own self-confidence in their imperial mission. Today many Americans see the economic power of Japan as the most serious international threat to their own country, while Asian immigration has dramatically changed the racial mix of the United States. ================================================================================