RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 CONTENTS PRESIDENT'S REPORT HON. TREASURER'S REPORT HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT OBITUARY: K. M. A. BARNETT TRANSACTIONS: Jean Chesneaux, China in the Eyes of the French Intellectuals Elizabeth Sinn, Kowloon Walled City: Its Origin and Early History ARTICLES: Anthony Sweeting, A Middleman for All Seasons: Snapshots of the Significance of Mok Man Cheung and His English Made Easy Lars Ragvald and Graeme Lang, Confused Gods: Huang Daxian (Wong Tai Sin) and Huang Yeren at Mt. Luofu Graeme Lang and Lars Ragvald, Official and Oral Traditions About Hong Kong's Newest God David W. Mahoney, The British (Protestant) Cemetery at San Pedro, Makati, Manila, Philippines Valery M. Garrett, A Hoklo Wedding Carl Smith, A Sense of History (Part II) The Hong Kong History Project NOTES AND QUERIES: Anthony K. K. Siu, Tam Kung: His Legend and Worship The Cannon in the Kowloon Walled City James Hayes, Hong Kong's Own Boat People Visit to the Iwataya Department Store, Fukuoka, Japan Notes on Temples and Shrines, Hong Kong Island BOOK REVIEWS vii xiii xv 1 11 30 46 74 93 101 112 117 254 278 279 280 283 285 292 Page 15 Page 16 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 74 CONFUSED GODS: HUANG DAXIAN (WONG TAI SIN) AND HUANG YEREN Introduction AT MT. LUOFU LARS RAGVALD AND GRAEME LANG* 2 Since 1984, we have been studying the history of the cult of Huang Daxian (Wong Tai Sin)1 in Hong Kong and in South China. Initially, our primary concern was to explain the rapid growth in popularity of this god in Hong Kong, but we have also searched for the roots of this cult in Guangdong, where the first author in 1985 discovered the ruins of several temples to Huang Daxian built earlier this century. In the course of this research, we have encountered some intriguing variations in beliefs about this god. 3 In a separate paper, we describe two cases where oral accounts regarding the god Huang Daxian differ sharply from the official accounts published by the Sese Yuan (Sik Sik Yuen), the organization which manages the god's temple in Kowloon.† Both of these oral accounts seem to have been borrowed from other local traditions, a process familiar to students of folklore. Conditions such as those which can be found in Hong Kong may favour this kind of mixing and mingling of traditions, all the more so as there are few traditions about the god Huang Daxian which are widely known. In more recent research in China, we have observed further instances of the mingling of traditions about the god Huang Daxian.* Many people in Guangdong province are aware of the Lars Ragvald teaches at the Institute of Oriental Languages at the University of Stockholm, Sweden and Graeme Lang at Sir Wilfred Grenfell College, Memorial University, Canada. + Editor's note: "Official and oral traditions about Hong Kong's newest god”, at pp. 93-99 of this issue of the journal, was originally scheduled for earlier publication. The editor regrets any inconvenience to the authors caused by the delay. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 87 NOTES “Wong Tai Sin” is the most common transliteration in Hong Kong of the god's name. The pinyin transliteration is Huang Daxian. For Chinese names with a conventional Hong Kong transliteration which differs from the pinyin form, we will begin with the pinyin forms followed by the Hong Kong forms within brackets. For names and places in China, and for subsequent references to Chinese names and terms used in Hong Kong (except for place names such as Hong Kong and Kowloon), only pinyin system will be used. On the reasons for the growth in popularity of Huang Daxian in Hong Kong, especially since the late 1940's, see Graeme Lang, and Lars Ragvald, “Upward mobility of a refugee god: Hong Kong's Huang Daxian," The Stockholm Journal of East Asian Studies. Vol, 1, 1988. We have called Huang Daxian the “refugee god” both because his cult was imported into Hong Kong early in this century during a period of persecution of traditional religion in China, and also because the god's success can be attributed in part to the refugees who flooded into the area around the temple in the late 1940's. Key decisions made by the management of the temple were also very important. Our discoveries regarding the ruined temples to Huang Daxian in Guangdong, and a second visit to these sites in 1987, will be reported in a forthcoming article. There are undoubtedly many intriguing stories about Huang Daxian which could be collected by researchers in Guangdong province. For instance, one story connecting Huang Daxian to legends about the founding of Guangzhou was related to the first author by the manager of a local company near Guangzhou, who as a child had played in an old Huang Daxian temple in the Fangcun area (on which, see the first author's forthcoming paper). According to this story, Huang Chuping of the Jin dynasty had found the way (Tao) and become a saint at Mt. Luofu. He then, it is said, shouted at five pieces of hard rock turning them into five fairy-sheep and also ordered five fairies dressed in red, yellow, blue, white and black respectively to drive the sheep. This unlikely flock descended in the midst of Guangzhou. Huang Daxian then chanted, "I wish that Guangzhou from now on shall enjoy bumper harvests, timely wind and rain, be prosperous and at peace, and never suffer famine or disaster”. This tale was related as explaining the origin of the old names Wuyang Cheng (City of the five sheep) and Suicheng (Ear of grain city). The story is clearly modeled on the old (documented) tales of the five saints on ram-back who brought the five ears of grain to Guangzhou. It is not clear where the manager got his story, but it may have been stimulated by an obscure phrase on one of the pillars of the main gate of the old Fangcun Huang Daxian temple. In any case, we expect that there are many such tales which remain to be uncovered. The versatile Huang Daxian, with his several incarnations and his ability to absorb stories from other traditions, may continue to surprise students of his cult for years to come. In the present paper, however, we focus only on his merger with another Taoist figure at Mt. Luofu. 5 Several cases of apparently similar confusion or merging of legendary Taoist figures on the basis of similar surnames have been documented in S.H. Wong. “A study of Huang Ta-hsien [Daxian].” The Journal of the Institute of Chinese Studies of the Chinese University of Hong Kong, XVI, 1985, pp. 223-239. Mt. Luofu, some 100 kilometres northeast of Guangzhou, is historically the most important site in the history of Taoist worship and practice in Guangdong province. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 93 OFFICIAL AND ORAL TRADITIONS ABOUT HONG KONG'S NEWEST GOD GRAEME LANG AND LARS RAGVALD Since the 1940's an ancient Taoist immortal now known as 'Wong Tai Sin' has become one of the most popular gods in Hong Kong. In researching the social history of the god's major temple in Kowloon, (see Lang and Ragvald, 1988) we encountered two types of stories about the god and his temple. The first type, the official history published by the group which manages the temple, is grounded in certain obscure classical texts. The second type of story is the oral traditions circulating among believers. We were surprised to discover cases where there was little or no connection between official and oral accounts. Two cases are described to illustrate how motifs of story elements from other sources had been drawn into the oral versions. We will also try to explain the occasional wide disparities between official and oral accounts. 2 In the first case, the authors were interviewing an elderly Cantonese lady to probe her knowledge of the history of the major Wong Tai Sin temple in Kowloon. She had seemed likely to be a good subject. Like the founders of the temple she was formerly in the herbal medicine business, and had operated a shop in Guangzhou (Canton) before moving to Kowloon, where she lived for a time near the Wong Tai Sin temple. She related to us that the original statue of Wong Tai Sin had been miraculously washed into the Pearl River during a natural disaster which severely damaged the temple in Guangdong. The statue was swept down the river to Hong Kong, and then miraculously recovered from the sea and made the object of worship. This oral legend is quite different from the official account published by the organization which has managed the temple since 1921. This official account holds that the original image of the god was a picture, rather than a statue; that it was brought down from Guangdong by the founders of the temple in 1915 and placed in a small shrine on Hong Kong Island, and that it was subsequently transported to Kowloon when the temple was moved there in 1921. There is no statue of the god at the modern temple. This official account was written by persons ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 99 REFERENCES Allen, Barbara, and William L. Montell 1981 From Memory to History: Using Oral Sources in Local Historical Research. Nashville: The American Association For State and Local History. Chin, Margaret, et al. 1977 Religion and Organization: A Study of the Temple of Wong Tai Sin. Department of Sociology, Hong Kong University. Day, Clarence Burton 1969 Chinese Peasant Cults. (2nd edition) Taipei: Ch'eng Wen Publishing Co. Hayes, James 1966 "Chinese Temples in the Local Setting". In Some Traditional Chinese Ideas and Conceptions in Hong Kong Social Life Today, pp. 86-95. Hong Kong: The Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Lang, Graeme, and Lars Ragvald 1988 "Upward Mobility of a Refugee God: Hong Kong's Huang Daxian”. Stockholm Journal of East Asian Studies. vol. 1, 54-87. Loomis, C. Grant 1948 White Magic: An Introduction to the Folklore of Christian Legend. Cambridge, Mass.: The Mediaeval Academy of America. Ogura, Manabu 1980 Drifted Deities in the Noto Peninsula. In Studies in Japanese Folklore, ed. Richard M. Dorson, pp. 133-44. New York: Arno Press. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j would be surprised how many members have actually published a book over the last two or three years or are going to publish in this forthcoming year. We are a society whose members get consulted on a variety of matters from the Urban Council when they set up the Hong Kong Museum of History, to the Hong Kong Government when seeking assistance for the grading of historical buildings for the Government Antiquities Advisory Board, and by the Legislative Council inviting us to make representations on the Council elections and even from abroad by people who want to know for instance about how Chinese junks are constructed; we even have applications from persons who wish to work for the society full-time but unfortunately they wish for remuneration! So although we are inclined to look back, historically, we are a Society whose members consist of people from all walks of life and who take an active forward-looking interest in Hong Kong and events which are likely to affect the future well-being of the Society, All this may sound too self-congratulatory and in some ways it is: there are of course some problems, but before coming up to them I would like to briefly outline what we have actually done to justify our existence over the last year. First and foremost there is the Journal. The 1989 Journal was published recently and if you do not have your copy please see the Assistant Secretary. I think you will agree with me that it is full of interest and is up to the high scholarly standards we have come to expect. For this we have to thank not only all contributors but particularly our Editor Dr. Patrick Hase. He has toiled long with spectacular results: but even so we are asking him to toil even harder to get out the 1990 Journal and we are hopeful this will be published later this year. The next area I wish to highlight is the Programme: the Society has a Programme Committee under the able Chairmanship of Mr. Peter Leeds and arranges a variety of talks and visits: for the last year there have been the following talks: Father Louis Ha Dr. Graeme Lang Ms. J. Bresnihan Mr. Peter Lee & Judy Bonavia Dr. Patrick Hase 150th Anniversary of the Catholic Church in Hong Kong Rise of a Refugee God (Wong Tai Sin) Governor John Pope Hennessy Tibetans and Tus New Territories Poetry and Folk Song viii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j Mr. David Sheil Mr. Michael Kirkbride Mr. Yip Cho-hong Mr. Philip Bruce (twice) and Mr. David Mahoney Dr. James Hayes Mr. K. Leung Mr. Tao Ho Mr. Charles Walker Tibetan Rugs Hong Kong: a Landscape History Preparing for the Future: Our First 15 years in the Antiquities Office Second to None: The Hong Kong Volunteers and the Battle of Hong Kong Tsuen Wan: 1887 to 1987 Civilians Under Japanese Occupation Western Market Eric Lidell There have also been the following trips/tours over the last year since I last reported. Dr. Patrick Hase and Dr. Graeme Lang organised a trip to Wong Tai Sin, and three visits have been organised by Mr. Philip Bruce namely the Bogue Forts in the Pearl river Delta, the Colonial Cemetery and Chek Lap Kok in conjunction with Mr. Bill Meacham (again and probably the last), Mr. John Wilson organised a trip to the Shing Mun Redoubt in keeping again with the Society's sights on the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Hong Kong. Dr Patrick Hase and Mr. Philip Bruce did not also forget to look after our gastronomical and liquid desires since the former organised our annual Chinese dinner at the City Hall, and the latter our resuscitated Christmas cocktail party at the Volunteer Officer's mess at Beaconsfield house. Since the new year we have also been well taken care of by a visit to the South Side of Hong Kong Island organised jointly by Mrs. Rosemary Lee who took us to the war cemetery at Stanley, Mr. Michael Kirkbride who expanded on Keteleeria Trees, and Colonel Douglas Fox who showed us how the South side of the island and Stanley Fort in particular was fortified in the late 1930s and early 1940s. Colonel Douglas Fox also led a very successful trip to Stonecutters Island. This was followed in quick succession by a tour to more of the remote parts of Lamma Island led by our honourary secretary Mr. David St. Maur Sheil. And more recently we had a very successful if rather wet trip to Xiamen, organised by Mrs. Anita Wilson and Mrs. Rosemary Lee, and a very comprehensive tour of Tsuen Wan led by Dr. James Hayes. To all these organisers may I extend our thanks and sincere appreciation. Our local tours are very popular as many members, who were not able to get on some, found: the Council is very conscious of this problem, IX ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 programme. Details are included in the Appendices to this Report. Between 1st April 2002 and 31st March 2003 we mounted (or, in the case of Graeme Lang's lecture next week, will mount) 18 lectures, including one joint lecture. During the same period we ran nine local visits and three overseas tours. This compares with 15 lectures, eight local visits, and two overseas tours during the previous year. During this last year, we mounted a lecture once every 18 days of our year, and had a local visit once every 37 days. I consider this activities programme to be extremely satisfactory. I do not wish to draw attention to any individual lectures or visits here, but I would like to stress two general points. The first is the range and variety of the programme. Both Valery and Janet are to be congratulated on producing a programme with "something for everyone" on it. I have no doubt that this excellent programme will continue for the future. I would, however, remind Members that if they have suggestions for future activities, they should let us know: it is always useful to get such ideas from Members! I would also like to draw attention to something which I consider one of the particular strengths of the Society, and that is our practice of mounting connected lectures and tours. Five times during the year we had a lecture followed (usually on the next day) by a visit. This allows Members to get a more in-depth understanding of the matter under consideration. I have no doubt that this special practice is a source of great strength to the Society, and would hope to see more of the same sort of connected lectures and visits for the future. Work Initiatives Last year I identified certain areas of the Society's work where I felt that initiatives were desirable to improve the services offered to Members and to the Society of Hong Kong at large, and I would like here to indicate how far we have got with these initiatives during the past year. Scholarship Fund The first of these initiatives arose from a desire which has long been felt by Council to undertake a more emphatic role in the xxii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 APPENDIX ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY ACTIVITIES FOR 2002/2003 Date 2002 April 12 May 3 June 7 June 7 June 14 August 10 September 20 October 4 October 18 November 23 November 29 December 6 2003 January 3 January 10 January 24 February 14 February 21 March 28 Lectures Dr Patrick H. Hase on Some Smaller Market Towns of the New Territories Dr Dan Waters & Fr Louis Ha on Hong Kong's Lighthouses and the Men who Manned Them Dr Ian Nish on Anglo-Japanese Relations in the Twentieth Century (Joint Lecture) Dr Lindsay Porter on The Pink Dolphins of Hong Kong. Jason Wordie on Streets; Exploring Hong Kong Island Dr Martin Palmer on Da Qin - An Imperial Christian Site of the Tang Dynasty (with a visit to the exhibition on this subject) Tim Ko on The Development of Cemeteries in Hong Kong; 1841-1941 Christopher Munn on People and Government in Early Colonial Hong Kong Dr Janet Lee Scott on Up in Smoke: Offerings for the Ancestors Stella Ma on Cha Duk Chang: The Appreciation of Chinese Opera William Lindesay on The Great Wall: Research and Impressions Valerie Garrett on Heaven is High, the Emperor Far Away: Merchants and Mandarins in Old Canton Dr Solomon Bard on Voices from the Past: Hong Kong 1842-1918 Dr Christina Miu Bing Cheng on Macau: The Farming of Friendship Dr Lawrence Lai & Dr Daniel Bo on Devil's Peak Ruins: A Glimpse of a British Stronghold Dr Elizabeth Sinn on Ultimate Return: Transhipment of Chinese Migrants' Bones to the Native Village and Hong Kong's Role in the Chinese Diaspora Anthony Lawrence on Hong Kong: Growing Old Dr Graeme Lang on The Return of the Refugee God: Wong Tai Sin in China XXXI ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 APPENDIX ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY ACTIVITIES FOR 2003/2004 Lectures Date Lecture 2003 Friday 25 April Mr Paul Fonaroff: A General History and Overview of Hong Kong Cinema Friday 9 May Mr Tony Banham: The 1941 Hong Kong Garrison - Unabridged Friday 30 May Dr Vicky Lee: Memoirs of Eurasianness Friday 13 June Mr Dave Morgan: Through Spanish Eyes: Two Sixteenth Century Spanish Accounts of the China of the Period Friday 27 June Dr Graeme Lang; The Return of the Refugee God – Wong Tai Sin Friday 29 August Mr Stephen Selby: Chinese Archery -- An Unbroken Tradition Friday 5 September Mr Philip Snow: The Fall of Hong Kong: Britain, China, and the Japanese Occupation Friday 24 October Mr Joop B.M. Litmaath: Forty Years in Hong Kong – Far East of Amsterdam Friday 14 November Dr Louis Ng: Sun Yat-Sen, Hong Kong and the Sam Chau Tin Rebellion Friday 21 November Dr Patrick H. Hase; Sha Tau Kok Market and its Market District Friday 12 December Mr Andrew Tse: Ho Kon-Tong: A Man for all Seasons 2004 Friday 16 January Dr Elizabeth Sina: Power and Charity: The Rise of the Chinese Merchant Elite in 19th Century Hong Kong Friday 30 January Dr Francois Bizot: The Jardine Matheson Correspondence. 1827-1843 Friday 13 February Dr Peter Halliday: A History of Suicides in Hong Kong Friday 27 February Dr Greg Thomas: From Model to Museum: Yuanming Yuan through European Eyes xxvii ================================================================================