RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207
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LEWIS M. CHERE

ever nationality. It was this action which the Tsungli Yamen blamed for the troubles in Hong Kong when they refused to order Chang Chih-tung to republish the decree of censure. By October 3 trade was at a standstill and serious damage to the Colony's economy was feared. Newspaper accounts of the strike were at pains to point out that the boatmen really wanted to work but were being prevented by threats made against their family members still living in Kwangtung. A report of October 1 stated that there were three or four wei-yuen from Canton then in Hong Kong to support the boycott.15 The boatmen were supposedly even ready to return to work without a guarantee of their right to boycott French ships, but dared not do so. The theme of the unknown, but influential outside agitator is very common in the official and unofficial accounts of the troubles, just as it is in similar situations around the world in more modern times. It would be surprising if the officials and reporters of 1884 had not believed something of that nature to be true.

On October 3 the boatmen were ready to return to work. Though their reasons were probably economic, the newspapers do not support the claim made later by Charles Norman that the strike was broken by an offer to pay the Chinese double for working the French ships.16 No such offer was recorded, and the accounts quite plainly indicate that the boatmen were not prepared to return to work for the French.

Though the boatmen were ready to return to work, opinion among their fellow Chinese ashore was against anything of the sort. Groups of cargo coolies tried to prevent the boatmen from returning to work. They also spread the strike to the chair-carriers and ricksha men. Violence broke out when the police attempted to stop the cargo coolies from harassing the boatmen. It was at this point that foreigners in general, rather than just Frenchmen, came under attack. A few traditional-style placards were seen denouncing foreigners in general. A very few appeared calling for the torching of the town. Most of the foreigners who were in jeopardy happened to have been unfortunate enough, or ignorant enough, to have gotten themselves into the wrong place at the wrong time and were swept up in the general disturbance,17

In an attempt to prevent further outbreaks the colonial administration banned the annual procession of the Feast of the Lanterns,
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207
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BOOK LISTS

an especially favoured form of literary entertainment but were widely popular, especially at the new year holiday and other relaxing times. Writing in the later nineteenth century, Sir Robert Douglas gives a fascinating picture of the scene in a Chinese city on the evening of the fifteenth day of the first month, the Feast of Lanterns, as he calls it

As the night advances, crowds, among whom are numbers of ladies, who, on no other occasion, venture out after dark, throng the street to gaze at the illuminations and, in some instances, to guess the riddles which are inscribed on lanterns hung at the doorways of houses. Prizes, such as parcels of tea, pencils, fans, etc., are given to the successful solvers of the rebuses, but these have little to do with the interest which is shown in the amusement which, partaking of the nature of a literary exercise, is well suited to the natural taste." Robert K. Douglas, China, (London, Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, Second Edition, Revised, 1887), 264-265. Rhyming games were akin to this genre, and a good example can be found in David Hawkes' translation of the famous eighteen century novel The Story of the Stone (another name for the Red Chamber Dream), Vol. 2 "The Crab-Flower Club" (London, Penguin Books, 1977), 299-303.

(e) Educational texts, including classics, primers and other aids to literacy

I am not including the classics in this list, which have been seen in a wide range of texts and commentaries for all purposes from the elementary school room to the examination hall for the hsiu ts'ai and higher degrees, and in all sizes from large format to tiny "sleeve gems" and "fly-head writing" on slips of rice paper to be smuggled into the cells of the examination place. In lieu of these, I have listed a few of the primers and aids to literacy that I have come across."

*

(f) Guides to letter writing: simple and literary

Like the books on couplets, this is another popular

* See also Evelyn Sakakida Rawski, Education and Popular Literacy in Ching China (Ann Arbor, The University of Michigan Press, 1979), especially the book list at 265-268
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v
55

which a piece of red paper is attached with the characters (*19**) are erected in the shape of a doorway, i.e., two uprights and one crosspiece. No feast or celebration is required.

(e) "Sheung leung" (#) is the more important ceremony and involves the erection of the main ridge-pole of the roof. Several days before the actual ceremony, two unpainted wooden uprights are set up on the building site. On the lucky day chosen, a red painted beam which is traditionally of China fir is placed between two tables or stools. The applicant and his family will worship the centre of the beam, praying for prosperity within the new house. The youths of the village, most of whom will already be assembled, are then invited to hoist the beam up to the uprights and to lash it on. Meanwhile, drums and gongs will be beaten. When the beam is erected, red string will be used to attach the following to it: a piece of red cloth; some small taros (a big taro has many small ones round it), symbolising a mother with many children; two small bags of red cloth, one containing kuk and the other mai* (representing riches in much rice); a red bamboo sieve (the numerous holes represent mouths of a large family); two bundles of red chopsticks (the Cantonese faai chi for chopsticks is punned into faai chi, meaning quick sons); several onions (Cantonese chung is punned into chung meng meaning clever); several garlic bulbs (Cantonese suen tau is punned into, meaning ingenious); one pair of black trousers (Cantonese foo is punned into foo kwai †, meaning rich); two paper lanterns (Cantonese tang is punned into tim ting, meaning getting a son). A feast is then held, to which the applicant invites clansmen, friends and relatives, and specially baked cakes are distributed to children. In due course, the remainder of the house is built round the beam. The various articles attached to it are left hanging, except that for some reason the pair of black trousers is usually detached.

(f) Tin Kei () represents digging the foundations. A small channel is first dug to one side of the building site and a number of stones or bricks are placed on top of each other inside the channel,

(g) When the house is completed, a form of house-warming is held. Two red painted rice measures (tau) are filled, one
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063
269

tions, was the senior military official at Kowloon City. The scroll has been kept by a member of the Wong Wai Chak Tong (**) of Cheung Chau, who has looked after the shrine for the past twenty years or more. He had it from the previous keeper in return for keeping the scroll and other objects — there is a table inscribed lo tang pang and for erecting the matshed. He gets all the oil and incense money given by worshippers during the three days of the first month in the lunar year that the matshed is in position. It is not put up at any other time. A fuller account, with an illustration of the scroll, is at pp 311-318 of the RAS Journal, Vol 15 (1975).

The street associations are interesting. The Pak She Association has office premises, from which it provides services and amenities for residents of the street. It takes part in the procession (chut wui i) for the Bun Festival, the major religious activity of the year in which all the leading associations take part. It also has a recognised annual part in the organisation of the festival. As stated above, the Chung Hing group has no premises, but uses the Tin Hau Temple (AGB) in that street for its meetings. It takes an annual part in the chut wui for the Bun Festival, and forms part of the organizing group like the Pak She Association. The Tai San Street people have no premises and take no part in the procession but have this curious connection with the lo tang pang. The Hing Lung Street people have association premises put up about 1960 when I was D.O. on a piece of vacant ground. They are connected with the procession for the Bun Festival but not the organisation of the festival itself.

Some of the associations celebrate the lantern festival on other days during this period, probably because of the difficulties in securing accommodation in the few restaurants large enough to take the numbers of people involved. I was told that the dates do not vary and have been followed for many years.

Hong Kong, 1987

NOTES

James Hayes

The day of my visit was also the 15th day of the lunar new year (hsin-hai year), the proper date for celebrating the Feast of Lanterns. For information on this festival see Juliet Bredon and Igor Mitrophanow's The Moon Year, A Record of
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q
208 

method of signalling at night: they believe that Chuko Liang used captive hot air balloons to signal at night, to keep armies on the march at night in broken country together, and to facilitate by casting light on the ground intelligence gathering on night movements of enemy troops. Hot air balloons are, in consequence, known as the "lanterns of Chuko Liang". 

The villagers of the New Territories have little interest in Chuko Liang apart from this fathering on him of the hot air balloon. They are, however, very interested in the balloons. Traditionally, and in parts of the New Territories up to the present, making and letting fly a free-flying hot air balloon was a recognised way of celebrating a joyful event. In most of the New Territories villages it was a traditional part of the festivities of the Mid Autumn Festival (usually at the end of September). In Sha Tin and Sha Tau Kok most villages would prepare one, 

and large villages might prepare several at this season, and this was the practice also in the Tuen Mun and Yuen Long areas. Presumably, the flying of a hot air balloon at this feast is an extension of the Lantern Feast element of the Mid Autumn Festival. Villagers have stressed that there was no ritual or apotropaic intention in the flying of these hot air balloons, “it was just done for fun because they look good and everyone enjoys them”. It was normally the wealthier village families that could spare the cash needed to prepare such hot air balloons, and it was traditionally expected that such families would pay for a balloon for their villages at this festival, and families willing to take on the burden gained face and stature within the village in consequence. The manufacture and flight of a balloon, however, required the co-operation of a dozen or more of the village youths. No one family could cope unaided. Flying a balloon, therefore, was yet another traditional practice which required co-operative activity from all the village youths, like holding weddings, funerals, building houses, and mounting feasts, and which were all so important in ensuring the village enjoyed a good communal spirit. The only ritual accompanying the setting off of a hot air balloon was the lighting of a few firecrackers to help the balloon on its way. 

In the Tuen Mun area it was normal for a village family holding a feast to celebrate the birth of a son to set off a hot air balloon during the feast. This presumably is connected with the widespread custom of **hanging a lantern** at the birth of sons, because of the propitious sound
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