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 191 The caretaker, Mr. Liu Wai-tong deserves special mention. Born in the caretaker's quarter, he is the third generation of his family to fill this post, as he says his father and grandfather before him held it also. Old Tai Hang Not much to look at, but the object is to see the old houses. Tai Hang was one of the old villages of Hong Kong Island. There are about 15-20 houses of the former village still standing, mostly in one row with a few others scattered among new buildings, and all built more or less to the same pattern.* They are situated in New Village Street (*†††) although an old resident tells me that this is a misnomer because they represent the old village known as Tai Hang Lo Wai (★★) which has always stood on this spot. The population of Tai Hang at the 1911 Census was already 1,574 persons. Formerly situated not far from the shore, reclamation began there in the 1880s by which time the area was already known as Causeway Bay - and ended with the development of reclaimed land for Victoria Park in the early post-war period. ▬▬ The village was a multi-clan one settled by the Hakka families of Wong (*), Cheung (3), Lee (†), Chu (*) and Ip (#). The first three are said to be the oldest families. A Wong now aged 45 is in the fourth generation which means that these families probably arrived in the area about the time that the British took over Hong Kong in 1841. Old residents say that besides some farming and fishing, the inhabitants kept some of the first dairy farms on the Island, long before the Dairy Farm started in 1886, and also engaged in laundry work. The name of the main street of present day Tai Hang, Wun Sha Street (r), which means 'washing cloth', refers to this early line of business. One of the most interesting aspects of Tai Hang is its fantastic sports record. For unknown reasons, the old Tai Hang families produced a great many star soccer players before the war. I have been told that on five occasions at the pre-war Far East games the China Football Team were the winners, and that 90% of the team came from Tai Hang: again, that nine out of the *See plates 23-24, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 NOTES AND QUERIES 221 Dr. Sun Yat-san. In front of the portrait, there was a long table, on which were installed a shrine of the deity ‘Cheung Wong Yeh' and a statue of Confucius. Each year in pre-war times there were two sacrifices, one dedicated to the 'Cheung Wong Yeh' deity in Spring and the other to Confucius in Autumn. When the sacrifices took place, the Strand was decorated with lanterns and colourful ribbons, with female singers performing in matshed, riddle-games being staged, or Cantonese operas being performed. However, the celebrations were suspended during the Japanese Occupation. They were resumed after the War and carried on until 1953 when the Association building was demolished for reconstruction. At present, our new, magnificent building standing in this busy city has been completed. When we look back to the past, could we not be moved by the old memories still lingering in our mind? In spite of business difficulties and a recession in the market, in which our trade bears the brunt, our predecessors have selflessly devoted much of their time and effort to the reconstruction of our Association building. With the completion of this new building, it is to be hoped that our members will work together for the advancement of the Association's functions, the economic recovery of our trade and the promotion of members' welfare. THE COMMERCIAL WORLD* The District is one of the earliest, if not the earliest, to develop in the history of the Colony. As far as more than a century ago its status was second to none; its town proper was a thriving entrepot, clustering around a few narrow streets in the famed Nam Pak Hong — a legendary name which had been handed down with pride even to the present day, pinpointing the area now occupied by the Bonham Strands East and West and the nearby Wing Lok Street. The title, literally translated as the "South and North Traders", was of great significance as it implies that the long arm of business stretched as far as Peking and Tientsin in North China to the distant countries in Southeast Asia. It was in this tiny plot of land that business tycoons of the last century were fostered, flourished and prospered. The ones in Bonham Strand were experts in Chinese herbs and other precious organic medicine as well as importers and exporters in other popular Chinese commodities, * Translation of an article in the Association's centenary bulletin, also by courtesy of the Director of Home Affairs. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 315 Despite their conflict in the Crimea in 1855 the British and the Russians never turned the Great Game into all-out war: There the risks and horrors were in the local tribal scene — agents unmasked and beheaded or just disappearing, and mobs lynching unwelcome interlopers. A dreadful interlude was the British penetration of Tibet in order to check the rival influence, causing the slaughter with modern weapons of hundreds of ill-armed monks. How did the Great Game end? Officially, when both sides were tired of it, by an Anglo-Russian Convention of 1907. Britain was by then seeing Germany as a more immediate potential enemy, and Great Power attentions were focused more sharply on Europe and less on any Russian ambitions in the East. Today there are no Great Games but rather a series of smaller games in Bosnia, the Gulf, Cambodia by smaller men unaware of any code or rules. Strange to recall far-off days when Russian and British officers, meeting inadvertently somewhere in the wild Pamirs, would ask each other to dinner and apologise for their governments' cussedness. — The Great Game is a long, intricate and absorbing tale and Hopkirk tells it with unflagging enthusiasm, reflected in his lively writing-style. His is not a book garnished with footnotes for the historian (though it has a good index) but for the general reader it provides an excellent introduction to the amazing and still largely unknown and unreported world of Central Asia. ANTHONY LAWRENCE Aleko E. Lilius. I Sailed with Chinese Pirates (Hong Kong Oxford University Press reprint 1991) 245 pp illus. As this is a re-print of a book first published in 1930 its relevance to present-day events is necessarily limited. The author, a United States citizen of Finnish origin, reveals himself as a journalist of extraordinary drive, pertinacity and courage but he is very much a creature of a pre-World War II colonial era when Western attitudes towards Chinese (even dangerous-looking pirates) were condescending and patronising in a way which reads quaintly today. Which is a pity, because with a different approach and greater knowledge of Cantonese and the coastal people of Southern China it might have been possible to produce a valuable study of the motives, pressures ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 61 Besides, these victories would be far from memorable ones. Korolev's set of floor exercise was devoid of any new moves (11 July, 1987). The introduction of a third party disproval was also evident in downplaying these foreign victories. The Korean success in badminton found little coverage in the Korean papers; the People's Daily said. The article suggested that the press might be too ashamed to report it due to the conspiracy of the linesmen and the service judges which promoted the Korean upset against Chinese. Moral behaviour of these foreign winners was often of a negative mode. The Korean archer was arrogant (20 September, 1986); the Korean soccer team "blamed" the weather for poor performance (24 September, 1986); Russian coaches tried to conceal their strength in women's basketball (17 July, 1987); and the Korean reporters were too confident that their country could come first in the final overall standing in the Asian Games. While crowd applause of Chinese and overseas Chinese cheers for Chinese were all positively reported, fans of other countries did not receive the same treatment in the Chinese press. Elsewhere, the American fans produced nothing but noise, affecting the performance of athletes, especially Chinese athletes. The Korean table-tennis spectators were so noisy that the stadium was shaken to the ground (26 September, 1986). Although the American and Korean crowds showed their support to their compatriots and boosted the performance of them, they were viewed as deteriorating the competition environment for fair play. This was in direct contrast to the press's reactions to Chinese fans. There were three obvious cases in which the press kept a low key position towards unfavourable conditions presented to athletes of other countries. In the women's basketball tournament in 1985, China played N. Korea in one of the matches. Chinese players were continuously fouled by their opponents, but this was only mentioned indirectly in a few words (27 August, 1985). East Germany lost in a women's volleyball match to China. The press did not say that the team lost because of poor performance but just excused her for not being the first team and suggested that she might reserve strength for the final (17 July, 1987). In another article in 1987, it was reported that the PRC's women volleyball team defeated Taipei. The focus of the article, however, was not on the loss of Taipei nor the victory of the Communist side, but rather, on the friendship and skills exchanged between the two teams. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 199 Dewey, John and Alice Chapman Dewey, Letters from China and Japan, New York Dutton, 1920 Dictionary of Ming Biography 1368-1644, edited by Carrington Goodrich, et al, New York Columbia University Press, 1976 Dingle, E.J., Across China on Foot, Bristol Arrowsmith, 1918 (Taipei Reprint Ch'eng-wen Publishing) Dobell, Peter, Travels in Kamchatka and Siberia, with a Narrative of Residence in China, London H. Colburn and R. Bentley, 1830 Donne, G.H., Generation of Giants. The Story of the Jesuits in China in the Last Decade of the Ming Dynasty, Notre Dame University of Notre Dame Press, 1962 Donovan, John F., The Pagoda and the Crows, the Life of Bishop Ford of Maryknoll, New York Charles Scribner, 1967 Downing, C. Toogood, The Fan-qui in China in 1836-7, London Henry Colburn, 1838 (Shannon Reprint, Irish University Press) Dyce, Charles M., Personal Reminiscences of 30 Years Residence in the Model Settlement, Shanghai 1870-1900, London Chapman and Hall, 1906 Eames, James Bromley, The English in China, London Curzon Press, 1909 (New York Reprint Barnes and Noble) Earl, Lawrence, One Foreign Devil (on Mary Ball. A Medical Missionary in North China), London Hodder and Stoughton, 1962 Edkins, Jane Rowbotham, Chinese Scenes and People, London Nisbet, 1863 Edwards, Dwight W., Yenching University, New York United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, with a sequel by Y.P. Mei on Yenching in Chengtu, 1959 Elliot, Robert, Views From the East, London I. Fisher, 1835 Ellis, Sir Henry (1777-1855), Journal of the Proceedings of the Late Embassy to China, Comprising a Correct Narrative of the Public Transactions of the Embassy, of the Voyages to and From China, and of the Journey From the Mouth of the Pei-Ho to the Return to Canton, 2nd edition, London J. Murray, 1818 Enders, Elizabeth Crump, Swinging Lanterns, New York Appleton, 1923 — Temple Bells and Silver Sail, New York Appleton, 1923 Englishman in China, The, London Saunders, Otley, 1860 ================================================================================