RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN MACAO 17 Towards the far end of the terrace a number of children lie buried in a row and this is undoubtedly responsible for the oft repeated comment on the high infant mortality amongst the Europeans living in Macao in those days. The two memorials at the far end of the central avenue are very conspicuous; the first is the altar-tomb of Sandwith Drinker, an American sea captain, business man and consul. The other is built into the wall at the end of the avenue, and carries only these two words: GEORGE CHINNERY. He was Macao's great canvas historian. He is generally referred to as an Irish artist. If this is correct, it is not because of his place of birth. He was born in 1774 in Gough Square, Fleet Street, London, and not in Ireland. He went to Dublin when a young man, probably because a branch of the family had moved there from East Anglia a few generations previously. Nor is it certain that he was, as is usually claimed, a Member of the Royal Hibernian Academy which was not founded till twenty-one years after Chinnery left Dublin. While in Dublin he formed two attachments which were mainly responsible for the pattern of his future life; one had political repercussions which led to his sudden departure from Ireland and eventually from England to India. The other attachment was a wife; after an all too short period of blissful happiness, he spent the rest of his life trying to evade her. In this he was finally successful, but only by eventually settling in Macao with its haven of refuge from females close at hand in nearby Canton. Chinnery came to Macao in 1825 and died there in 1852. During that time he must have painted hundreds of portraits and pictures of local scenes. Practically no foreigner and certainly no ship's captain left Macao without at least one portrait of himself by Chinnery, and the number of these scattered throughout the world must be vast. Yet it used to be said that this part of the world possessed no examples of his art. However true that was, it is certainly not so now, for the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, acting on the expert advice of our President, has built up a most valuable collection of his paintings. Although Chinnery never did like Hong Kong very much, many examples of his art certainly have a permanent home in our midst now. In the Lower Terrace there are 122 memorials and in our experience the most popular one amongst visitors is that of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 138 J. T. COOPER are used mainly as street plans. No contours are shown. Four sheets cover Hong Kong Island and three cover Kowloon and New Kowloon. From these a series at 4" to 1 mile has been produced, one sheet covering Hong Kong Island and another Kowloon and New Kowloon. All the new maps and plans now being produced will, however, quickly lose their value unless they are kept up to date. A continuous revision programme is being put in hand, and it is planned that in the near future the large-scale plans of the built-up areas of the Colony will be revised at least once a year. After each block of large-scale plans is revised on the ground the smaller scale plans will be revised by photographic reduction in the drawing office. After the strenuous efforts of the last few years it can be modestly claimed that by 1972 the Colony may well be the best mapped territory in the Far East and probably in the world. Even in Great Britain, which is probably the best mapped country in Western Europe, the national mapping of large cities is at 1/1250 scale and most of the country is at 1/2500 scale, while the largest scale at which contours are plotted (at 25 ft. vertical intervals) is the 6" to 1 mile series. The plans and maps summarized at A and B below can be obtained from the Crown Lands & Survey Office, Public Works Department. Since several thousand sheets are involved and the demand for any one sheet is very limited outside of Government departments, no stocks of prints are held, but a print of any sheet can usually be supplied within an hour or two at a cost of $3.00.* The negatives of the air-photos are held by the contractor in England. Prints can be supplied by air mail within about 10 days. Cost of a contact print (9″×9″) is $23.10, (including air mail postage). Index diagrams of all plans and air photos can be inspected at Crown Lands and Survey Office, Central Government Offices, Hong Kong. A. HONG KONG ISLAND, KOWLOON, NEW KOWLOON (i) 1/600 scale (50 ft. to 1 inch) with 5 ft. contours† No. of sheets 700 * All costs should be taken to refer only to those operative at the time this Journal goes to press. Ed. † See Plate 11. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 CHINATOWN IN HONG KONG: THE BEGINNINGS OF TAIPINGSHAN DAFYDD Emrys Evans It seems unrealistic to talk of a 'Chinatown' in a place as obviously Chinese as Hong Kong. But for a very long time, there was indeed an area thought of by the Europeans as a part of the city into which they would not normally go. This area has, right from its inception, been known as "Tai Ping Shan' or Mountain of Peace, after the Chinese name for the mountain the Europeans called Victoria Peak. When the British arrived in Hong Kong at the beginning of 1841, the north shore of the island was substantially unoccupied, there being nothing more than scattered huts between the village of Sai Ying Pun in the west and Wong Nei Chung in the east. The principal site for the new city lay in the present Central District of Hong Kong, and the first areas built up by the Europeans (apart from the waterside godowns and houses which extended from the Central Market to Causeway Bay) lay around the present Central Magistracy but rapidly extended within the first three years of the Colony's existence east and west of that spot. Although a small number of Chinese obtained grants of land in this area it is true to say that the town was exclusively European (with, of course, a number of Parsee merchants from British India) from the line of the present Garden road as far as the present Aberdeen Street and up the hill to Hollywood Road. At the time of the Colony's inception there were never more than a few hundred Europeans contrasted with several thousand Chinese who came as tradesmen and artisans. Where, then, did the Chinese live? Apart from the small town that Jardine, Matheson & Co. built out at East Point, there were three principal areas where the incoming Chinese settled at first. It is known that in the early days after June, 1841 a good many matshed huts sprang up on the hillside to the west of the area later to be the site of the main part of the town (and these were destroyed by the great typhoon in August, 1841) and one stretch of the waterfront was 'taken over'. As early as August 1841 the 'Lower Bazaar' was forming in the area of what later became Jervois Street and Bonham ================================================================================ 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-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g THE COLONY OF HONG KONG 175 on from them a little way was the Cemetery, still a small enclosed space, which, it had been thought, would be sufficient for the needs of the Colony. Hardly any one but myself, I suppose, ever thinks now of paying it a visit. Beyond that, hardly any buildings were met with, till we came to Spring Gardens, where two or three English firms had begun to occupy the ground on the left. Then came Hospital Hill, with diminutive buildings on it, devoted to the same purposes as the larger erections that now crown it; and Morrison Hill, where the school of the Morrison Education Society was in vigorous action, with the Hospital of the Medical Society, the foundations of which can hardly be traced now, but where I found hospitable quarters for several months. Arrived at the Happy Valley, there were to be seen only fields of rice and sweet potatoes. At the south end of it was the village of Wong-nei-ch'ung, just as at the present day, and on the heights above it were rising two or three foreign houses, with an imposing one on the east side of the valley, built by a Mr. Mercer of Jardine, Matheson and Co.'s House. All these proved homes of fever or death, and were soon abandoned. Beyond the Valley somewhere was a range of buildings, which had already become tabooed as unhealthy, and then came the offices of the great Firm, with the workmen still busy about them, and far from being what they are at the present day. If I have omitted to mention in this retrospective view of Victoria as I first saw it any of the foreign houses then existing, they can only be a very few. When I contrast the single street, imperfectly lined with hastily raised houses, and a few sporadic buildings on the barren hill-side, with the city into which they have grown, with its praya, its imposing terraces, and many magnificent residences, I think one must travel far to find another spot where human energy and skill have triumphed to such an extent over difficulties of natural position. I sometimes fancy Britannia standing on the Peak, and looking down with an emotion of pride on the great Babylon which her sons have built. Although I was charmed with the general appearance of the place, and the energy that was manifest in laying out the ground and pushing on building, I found many of the residents oppressed with gloom because of its unhealthiness. 1843 was, no doubt, a very sickly year, more so, perhaps, than any one has been since. The left wing of the 55th Regiment lost a hundred men between ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 176 REV. JAMES LEGGE the end of June and the beginning of September, and was then removed from its quarters of which I have spoken on board ship. Many civilians also fell victims to Hongkong fever. The mortality was mainly owing to the want of accommodation for the multitudes who kept pressing into the new colony, and to the miasma set free from the ground which was everywhere being turned up. I remember visiting officers who were living in small huts reared on the hill behind the general's house. It was no wonder that one after another they were seized with fever, and either died, or were invalided home. Then the drains were for the time all open, and an atmosphere of disease, which only the strongest constitutions and prudent living were able to resist, might be said to envelope the inhabitants day and night. I have intimated my opinion that there was no subsequent year of sickness and mortality so great as that of 1843; and nothing can be more delightful than the change in the colony in this respect. I do not think there is now a healthier residence on this side of Africa. This has been very gradually arrived at, by the increase of good houses, effectual drainage, the better supply of water, and the growth of trees and vegetation in general. There were other unhealthy years, and it came to be said that we might expect one of that character every seven years; but we have ceased to be troubled with the apprehension of such a periodic visitation. As to the healthiness from increased vegetation, I may mention that Dr. William Morrison, the colonial surgeon, who himself died from abscess of the liver, in October, 1883,* told me, some years before that event, that he had advised planting the ground on the south of the street behind the Murray Barracks with bamboos, as being of speedy growth. It was done, and soon the grove which every one of you knows, began to wave, and there was from that time a marked improvement in the health of the soldiers in those barracks. The Colony, I have said, is now one of the healthiest residences, if not the very healthiest, in the East. The average of 14 years, reckoning back from the present, gives a rate of mortality for the foreign residents, not including the military, of a very little over 4 per cent; and in 1868, the rate was a trifle under 2 per cent, rather lower than the rate of mortality in Great Britain. * SIC: Morrison died later than the date given, but I have no reference books available at the time of writing. Ed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 ADVENTURERS IN HONG KONG 55 not serve his full sentence because he was released on grounds of ill-health. But, as Des Voeux notes, the day after his release from Victoria Gaol he was seen avidly betting at the Happy Valley Race Course. He was, clearly a great card and popular with drinking circles in Hong Kong. The Telegraph was an evening newspaper. After Fraser-Smith's death, J. J. Francis became publisher and Chesney Duncan its editor. 28 John Joseph Francis (1839-1901) was educated in Dublin and intended for the Catholic priesthood. But instead of entering the Church he enlisted in the Army, coming out to China in the Royal Artillery during the Second China War. He took his discharge in Hong Kong and commenced the study of law in the office of a Mr. Owens, solicitor. He was admitted to practise as an attorney in 1869 and entered into partnership with another solicitor and soon acquired a lucrative practice. Ambitious, he gained admission to Gray's Inn and was called to the Bar of the Supreme Court of Hong Kong in 1877. By 1888 he was the Colony's leading barrister. Francis was extremely touchy and truculent: in 1895 he returned to the Governor a silver inkstand, given to him in recognition of his work during the plague, on the grounds that the gift did not sufficiently acknowledge his services. He died of apoplexy at Yokohama's Grand Hotel in 1901. A fitting end: he was an apoplectic soul. Francis lived at 'Shirley House' in Bonham Road, a commodious residence with extensive grounds. 29 A. Macmillan, Seaports of the Far East, London, 1923, p. 366. 30 22 November, 1888. The Hong Kong Hotel, situated in Pedder Street, was originally managed by Parsees; in 1866 it came under European management and soon became a first-class hotel with all the facilities of a good West End hotel. 31 7 January, 1889. 32 Soulié states that Mayréna on his way to Hong Kong marooned Afong on Hainan Island but that the intrepid Chinese took passage on a junk and appeared in Hong Kong to haunt the King of the Sedangs. 33 China Mail, 7 January, 1889. 34 George Murray Bain (1842-1909) was born and educated at Montrose, Scotland. He joined the China Mail as a sub-editor and reporter (some say printer) in 1864. In 1875 he became sole proprietor of the China Mail and in 1879 took over the editorship of the paper himself. With N. B. Dennys he started the China Review in 1872. The China Mail was edited from Wyndham Street, a short distance away from the Hong Kong Telegraph on Pedder's Hill. Bain, unlike Fraser-Smith, appears to have been pious, temperate, and acutely respectable. 35 Hong Kong Telegraph, 27 December, 1888. 36 'Drey' was the name of a Sedang locality. 37 China Mail, 24 January, 1889. 38 Hong Kong Telegraph, 25 January, 1889. 39 7 January, 1889. 40 Sir Hugh Clifford, Heroes of Exile, London, 1906, pp. 69-70. Clifford states that it was the Hong Kong merchants 'who had paid his (Mayréna's) passage and had supplied his Majesty with a little ready money' and that they had been actuated partly by a desire to remunerate one from whom they had derived so much entertainment'. Sir Hugh Clifford (1866-1941), a colonial administrator, who served in Pahang from 1887 to 1899, was, apparently, in Hong Kong in late 1888; it is possible that he had taken local leave but I have been unable to confirm the fact. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 206 NOTES AND QUERIES large dwellings and godowns. It was a pleasant area. Two of the properties were especially noted for their gardens. A Parsee merchant, Framjee Jamsetjee, in advertising his property for sale in 1845, stated that it was "beautifully situated by the water side with a fine view of the Bay, surrounded by a garden, stocked with the choicest plants which have been imported at great expense, and now is in a flourishing condition." The other gardened property was called Spring Gardens, and for a number of the years the name was applied to the area. The name is preserved today by Spring Gardens Lane which marks the eastern boundary of the original property. The dwelling was also known as "Old Government House" for at one time it had been the residence of Governor Bonham [1848-1854]. Advertisements mention its "ornamental grounds" and "fine well of spring water with powerful iron pump". When the military gradually bought up and occupied the area between Central District and Wanchai in the 1840s and 1850s, the two sections were separated and Spring Gardens area lost most of its commercial activity. Decline set in, reinforced by a business depression, and a number of godowns and dwellings stood empty. Several of the properties reverted to Government through non-payment of Crown rents. Others were foreclosed by mortgagees. The military took advantage of the empty premises to use them as barracks and officers' quarters. Poor Chinese settled as squatters both on the west and east fringes of Victoria. To accommodate these on the east the Government put up for sale in 1847 a range of lots at the foot of Hospital Hill along the present Wanchai Road. These were used for small shops, trades, and family residences. The population, however, tended to remain poor and unruly. With the influx of displaced people during the Tai Ping Rebellion in the 1850s several of the European properties were redeveloped with Chinese housing. The area near Queen's Road East and Ship Street was probably the site of a small settlement before the British occupation of the Island. Eitel in his history of Hong Kong states that the Hung Shing Temple on Queen's Road East existed before the cession. The pattern of the lots also suggests that there may have been previous occupants. When the military rented some vacant properties nearby for barracks, several brothels were established on Ship Street north of Queen's Road East. To the south, up the hill on Ship Street, there were several small dairies operated by Chinese. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 NOTES AND QUERIES 211 Note the offices of the Nam-pak Hong Association on the left-hand side of Bonham Strand; the divided shops of the Chun Lung Sang porcelain business (1878) and the bamboo and rattan ware dealers further along, also the frontage of the Ping Heung Tea-house next to Ching Wah Kok. During this visit Members are advised to look around them, up as well as down, because there are all sorts of interesting little vistas to have had, often revealed by the removal of a house for redevelopment. Footnote: 1) We will not be going to the Shun Tak District Commercial Association at 67, Queen's Road, West, as hoped, because a terrible blow; the furniture and fittings have already been cleared out prior to demolition of the building. 2) The Tung Kwun District Commercial Association was founded as the Tung Yee Hop Tong in 1893 for charitable, including educational, work among persons of that district resident in Hong Kong. The present premises were purchased about 40 years ago. There is an interesting commemorative board above the window in the main hall presented by four shops in Liu Po New Market, Tung Kwun in 1912 in appreciation of flood relief work and settlement of disputes and of a defamation case by the Hong Kong Chamber. This shows that its influence extended beyond Hong Kong. 3) The Nam-pak Hong Association in Bonham Strand, though in new premises that are of no appeal, is of great interest. This powerful commercial association was established in 1868 by merchants from different parts of China together with Chinese merchants from South-east Asia. This explains the name of the association which, in Chinese, means South-North Firms' Public Office. Additional Notes for the Visit to Old Western District Carl T. Smith (a) The Development of West Point The area we are visiting today was formerly dominated by two points of land. After the British occupation of Hong Kong they became known as Possession Point and West Point. Between the two was a steep hillside with a bay at its foot. The present Ko Shing Street approximates the original beach. Dr. Eitel in his history of Hong Kong, Europe in China, pp. 123-124, gives an account of the event which gave Possession Point its name: On January 24, 1841, Commodore Bremer, having arrived at Lantao, directed Captain Belcher, in command of H.M.S. Sulphur, to proceed forthwith to Hongkong and commence its occupation. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 220 NOTES AND QUERIES large paper bag. This cost 10 cents and the number of dim sum was 18 pieces, usually sufficient for 8-9 persons. The article made picturesque comparisons between the sizes of different foods, then and now, with much larger pieces being supplied in the past. Prices too came in for odious comparison. "The difference in price in the old days and now is too great: people have said that it may be compared to the difference between the legs of mosquitoes and cows”. Tea house business begins at dawn. Those in Western open between 5-6 a.m, and close about 9 p.m. nowadays. According to the article, the tea houses of 50 and more years ago started business before dawn and closed at 10 a.m., and opened again between 11-12 to 3 without doing business at night time. The interior of tea houses was very colourful. The waiters used slang to report, usually in a loud voice, the consumption of patrons for making up their bills. The customers lolled about and took things at their ease, putting their legs on their own or another stool, often dressed only in a singlet and shorts in the summer months. This sort of thing can still be seen in one of the tea houses that we will visit (the Foo Lung Tea-house, 382-386, Queen's Road, Central) and at lunch time many of the patrons bring their singbirds in cages which they hang around the walls. 50 years ago and more no women were present in the tea houses because at that time it was not the practice for them to appear in public places; and no doubt this added to the informality noted above. Tea houses were also the scene of musical entertainment of a special Cantonese type known generally by the name of nam yam (✯✯) or "Southern tunes". Like Cantonese opera, the themes were often concerned with historical stories, handed down from one generation of entertainers to another. Blind musicians and singers often performed these roles. Until this year, this type of entertainment was given in the Tim Nam Tea House in Wing Lok Street, now under demolition. According to the former manager, the majority of the audience were boat people from the cargo boats plying in the harbour. In recent years this traditional type of entertainment has declined in popularity and both singers and audience were confined to a small group of devotees. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d EUROPEAN WORKING CLASS IN 19TH CENTURY 99 adjacent to the European business centre, the so-called Central District (Chung Wan), or, eastwards along Queen's Road, in the district of Wan Chai." Once Kowloon was acquired, pong-paân were attracted to this new area of settlement because of low rents and the propinquity of the docks, wharves and godowns soon established there, which in time gave employment to numerous European overseers. At the end of the century, Kowloon had become the principal habitat of lower class Europeans. There were terraces of houses occupied solely by them. A witness wrote: These are generally employees in the dockyards, or clerks, or the families of engineers and mates of the small steamers that have their headquarters in Hong Kong... Hong Kong looks down on Kowloon with all the well-bred contempt of Belgravia for Brixton. And even in the despised suburb on the mainland these social differences are not wanting. The wives of the superior dock employees are the leaders of Kowloon society; and the better half of a ship captain or marine engineer is only admitted on sufferance to their exclusive circle.18 But the part of Victoria most frequented, especially at night, by the European lower orders—soldiers, sailors, merchant seamen, beach-combers and others—was Tai Ping Shan, a densely populated Chinese residential area west of the Central District. In 1875 a visitor to Hong Kong wrote: Passing westward along Queen's Road, we come upon a quarter of the town much frequented by seamen of all nations. Here spirits are sold in nearly every second shop, and bands of common sailors may be seen spending their time and money on questionable drink in more questionable company, roaring out some rough sea-song in drunken chorus, or dancing to the time of a drum and flute, accordion or cornopean. The piles of Chinese houses which rise above this locality embrace Tai-Ping-Shan, or the hill of great peace. The name is a fine one, but a fine name will not hide the sins of the place. Tai-Ping-Shan is inhabited, for the most part, by Chinamen; but men are found there belonging to all the nations of the East. As for women, these are principally Chinese; they are numerous enough, but of the lowest type. There are strange hotels in this quarter, * There are a number of 19th century street maps available for early Hong Kong, held in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 320 NOTES AND QUERIES Foo Akow. In 1877 some of the premises were listed by streets; viz Main Street with forty houses and shops, Back Street with twenty small family residences, the Praya with five substantial buildings recently built, and six wooden houses near the Dock. In 1880 the use of the premises are again given, though not all premises used for business purposes may be so recorded. The following summary, however, gives some indication of the business development of the settlement. There were seven chandlers, two eating houses, three barbers, and one each of druggist, rice shop, fruit dealer, and painter. By this date there were four more buildings on the Praya, and a fairly new group of houses opposite the entrance to the Dock premises. It might also be of interest to list the buildings contained within the Dock company's compound: the West Dock, ‘sheer legs', caisson, timber sheds on stone pillars and tiled offices, boiler maker's engine shop, moulder's shop and smith, the East Dock, pumping house, coal sheds, work shop, dwelling house, mat sheds, saw mill, boat building sheds, a new house with stores and new shops. The business of the village in 1884 consisted of thirteen grocers, three eating houses, six barbers, two opium shops, two druggists, and on the beach to the west of the village four boat-building establishments. In addition there were single individuals listed as carpenter, fishmonger, shoe dealer, fruiterer, vegetable seller, and painter. This is probably not an exhaustive list of business and trades carried on, but it gives a fair picture of the local tradesmen at that time. This year 1884 was a turning point in the physical development of the village, for in December of that year two fires within five days destroyed the major part of the settlement. The first fire broke out in a mat shed on December 11, and twenty-two timber houses with tile roofs for the temporary occupation of workers at the dock were consumed, whilst some dozen other buildings were pulled down to stop the progress of the fire. The newspaper notice (Daily Press, Dec. 12, 1884) remarks that "the loss of property sustained was not very great, but a number of pigs were burned to death." The more serious fire was on December 16th, "among the matsheds and shanties of a swarm of squatters who have settled down there.” The sight of the flames leaping into the sky seen from the Hong Kong side caused “a decidedly uncomfortable time to some of the shareholders of the Dock Company by the doubt as to whether the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 322 NOTES AND QUERIES great blaze they saw was not being fed by the engine sheds and the numerous and extensive buildings of the Company there." (Daily Press, Dec. 17, 1884). After the fire, the area was laid out into regular lots and the government began disposing of them at public auction. It was at this time that the building sites were regularized and the streets were officially named. Fronting the Dock Company's property and the sea was Bulkely Street, with buildings only on the north side. Behind it was Market Street (now Wuhu Street). The Public Market built in 1886 occupied a block on the north side of this street in the centre of the laid out portion of the village. These were the two main streets running east and west. At the east end of the village was Hill Street, (now Tientsin Street) running north and south, next to the west was Dock Street, then Station Street leading up to the Police Station situated on a hill behind the village, then an unnamed street (now Marsh Street) and finally Temple Street leading up to the Kun Yam Temple nestled under the hill behind Market Street. Also behind Market Street both on the east and west side of the village were rows of small family houses.* In the 1890's the area of Hung Hom near the present Chatham Road was being developed for industrial establishments. The area was known as West Hung Hom. At the turn of the century, there was at Hung Hom a match factory, a sugar candy factory, a glass factory, and a dozen or so boat building yards. There was also a Hotel and Tavern, owned by an Indian who left a will. Various Hong Kong capitalists invested in Hung Hom lots. The partners of Lapraik and Company owned several blocks in front of the Market House. These were later sold to the Hong Kong Land Company. When new lots were laid out to the west in the 1890's, Ho Tung and later Lau Chu Pak, of the Yaumati Ferry Company, bought several of the blocks. Li Kwong also owned valuable lots at Yaumati. (b) Some local institutions: Schools A Government-subsidized village school was established under the direction of the local community, and several Christian schools were opened. The Church Missionary Society had lots at the east end of the village, the London Missionary Society in 1883 applied * Two maps showing Hung Hom in 1892 and 1901 are printed respectively at p. 321 and between pp. 322 and 323. Page 330 Page 331 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 142 W. J. HINTON sails have been lowered and stowed, white awnings cover the decks, there is a gilded bamboo "whip" at the foremast of each junk and the bay is alive with small boats. Once past the police searchers, the crowd disperses into the town to buy food at the stalls which line the thoroughfares. Evidently this is fair day. All the shops are doing a roaring trade, and the streets are full of visitors from Hongkong, and even from Canton, and places a hundred miles away. Presently we notice that the crowd is drifting in one direction; going with it, we find ourselves off the main street. Passing the gates we enter a field covered with booths and resounding with the clash of cymbals and the shrill note of the pipe. Here is all the fun of the fair. A matshed has been erected, part theatre and part temple. At the far end a theatrical performance is now being given. The clang of cymbals marks the warlike gyrations of the actors, but now and then gives way to the shrill tones of the two-stringed violin in moments of pathos. And all the time the priests on either side of the open end of the theatre chant their services at two altars. A Chinese who is near me either cannot or will not tell me what gods are served at these altars. To me they seem to present an aspect of amicable rivalry. On either side of the entrance, but without, stand two large conical frameworks of bamboo, stuck all over with small white rice cakes, and looking each like an ear of Indian corn. These are about twenty feet high. There are small replicas on portable platforms. We leave the grounds and walk to the Pak Tai Temple where a procession is forming. It is one of several, for each village street provides a procession, and there is great emulation between the teams. The procession starts. At its head is a Dragon, at least it is a dragon for all practical ceremonial purposes though to the carnal eye it seems a large mask completely covering the head of a boy. He prances and sidles along, mopping and mowing most realistically, the formidable but apparently benevolent monster rolling his head and his eyes, and shaking his sinuous body; for which purpose a second lad under a red streamer of thin cloth goes through all the motions that can reasonably be expected of a Dragon's hind legs. The beast is followed by bearers, carrying a platform covered with a canopy, and on the platform two small girls, powdered and ================================================================================ 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-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 CHINESE MONASTERIES, TEMPLES, SHRINES, ALTARS 7 A shrine and two Chaozhou squatter temples on a hillside at Wong Chuk Hang on Hong Kong Island were removed during 1979 to permit road widening and the building of new housing estates. Temples, seemingly built to last forever, also disappear. A long destroyed and unidentified Cantonese traditional temple depicted in an old photograph in a published collection of photographs of old Hong Kong, may well be the temple which used to stand in Wong Nei Chong village approximately in the area of the present day King Kwong Street.13 The population explosion in Hong Kong has surrounded on all sides some of the originally relatively isolated temples by high-rise blocks of flats. Some recently opened temples have even been established in shop houses, in ordinary flats in the high-rise blocks, and in flats and huts in resettlement areas.14 Geomantically such accommodation may be adequate for their purpose, but for ideal conditions the exact orientation of all temple buildings should be determined by geomancy and the feng shui expert's calculations. Traditional temples are often on the best feng shui sites in the vicinity. According to Chinese laymen, temples should, as far as possible, face south. This south-facing orientation would mean that the main god or gods on the altar would also face the "geomantic South" which approximates to due south, and thus places the auspicious Yang on the east, and Yin on the west. However, even a casual examination of the temples in both Hong Kong and Macau shows that they can and do face in all directions. The two immediately obvious criteria in the siting of traditional temples, as can be seen from any large-scale map, are that either they back onto a hill (presumably having a powerful and beneficial geomantic influence), or face the sea. Many, of course, do both. Temples and monasteries are open from around 8 am to 8 pm, the exception being for those individuals whose need is great, and they may call at a monastery at any hour. Buddhist temples There are some one hundred and thirty-five Buddhist temples or monasteries in Hong Kong built or funded by individual monks or nuns, or by individual devotees or groups. In addition to Buddhist temples, there are organizations and services in Hong Kong which ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 127 the 18th to 20th days of the 1st moon, the birthday of the earth god. To celebrate the occasion, a Committee of twelve members was formed. One of these was the Chairman (Chung Li), one the Vice-chairman (Hip Li) and the rest were ordinary Committee members (Chik Li). All the Committee members were chosen from among those interested in taking up the post by casting divining blocks before the gods on the altar, as at Ap Lei Chau; thus, as we have seen, in a different way from the nearer Sheung Fung and Tai Ping Shan shrines. The Committee was also responsible for subsidizing the function in case there was a deficit. The annual celebrations took place, not at the shrine, but in Hau Wo Street, a few hundred yards away. A temporary metal structure of about 12' X 8' was erected for the purpose of staging a puppet show. Sacrifice was offered and joss papers and candles were burnt. To conclude the ceremony, there was a distribution of gifts, mainly rice and other foodstuffs, to the poor of the district. According to Mr. Chow, local residents were generally very interested in this event. They believed that by celebrating the festival they would be more fortunate and prosperous throughout the whole year."4 The Earth God Shrines at Nam On Fong and Sai Wan Ho, Shau Kei Wan I turn now to other shrines of this kind at Shau Kei Wan, in the eastern part of Hong Kong Island. Shau Kei Wan has a good harbour and was a fishing port and boat people's anchorage long before 1841. Its land population was given as 1,200 persons in the first Hong Kong census of May 1841. By 1860 it was listed as having 2,561 land dwellers and 4,338 boat people. In the mid 1860s it was said to have had 307 houses and shops, and 603 boats. In the 1871 census it had 2,360 land inhabitants. At the 1911 census the land population had risen to 11,727 and the number of persons on boats was given as 6,440.5 These figures include not only the town section of Shau Kei Wan, long known as Tung Tai Kai (東大街) or Great East Street, but a number of villages, and stone quarries with their attached ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 33 save it from defilement, they often built incinerators to burn paper with words written on it. In 1859, the Commodore, Chang Yu-tang ski, erected a fine pavilion over an incinerator and old men were hired to gather abandoned paper for burning. On the plaque over the entrance were engraved the characters “Ching-hsi tzu-chih-ch'u”**(A pavilion for revering word-bearing paper) in Chang's calligraphy. Though a military man, Chang had pretensions to being a scholar and calligrapher, and his inscriptions found in the pavilion were reportedly much copied in the region.' 16 Up to 1898 there were no shops of any kind within the City.1 In fact, the word "ch’eng” is rather arbitrarily translated as "city", which to a modern person, immediately conjures up visions of shops and other commercial facilities. This is misleading since traditionally, a Chinese ch'eng was simply an area enclosed for defence, and where officials resided. However, a cluster of shops lined the street Kowloon Street — which stretched for about a quarter of a mile from the East Gate to the water front. This became an increasingly prosperous market town, serving not only the Walled City but more distant areas such as Saikung and Shatin. From a fairly early date, a kaifong (chieh-fang i.e. neighbourhood) association, which organized such public functions as health, safety and good order, had existed.ii By 1880, the Lok Sin Tong (Luo-shan-t'ang; lit. Hall of Willing Charity) was founded. Like many Chinese "charitable societies”, it exercised great social and economic influence, and its contribution was most strongly manifested in providing free education and free medicine in the area. 18 As trade grew in the area, a Kwangtung Provincial Customs station was set up in 1871 to prevent smuggling, especially opium from Hong Kong. In 1886, it was replaced by a Chinese Maritime Customs station.iii A pier, the Lung-chin jetty, completed in 1875 after two years of construction, extended some 700 ft. into the sea. As the beach silted up and the jetty became worse for wear, it was repaired in 1892 and extended for another 260 ft. with a subscription of $1,700 raised by more than a hundred shops and individuals, 20 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 118 In May 1903, he wrote that he had been ill since the 7th of April, three weeks before the examinations. He said that he had 'walking typhoid fever' but felt he had been cured since he no longer suffered from fever or numbness of his legs, although he was still thin and weak. His doctor had assured him he would be perfectly well by the end of the month. Subsequently, in July, he went to San Jose for a short vacation with plans to transfer to Stanford University the coming year in order to benefit from the more hospitable climate of Palo Alto. Due to increased responsibilities with the arrival of his concubine in San Francisco a few weeks before, First Uncle could not help Ping Lim much except to pay the doctor's bill of 50 dollars, and to advise him to return to Hawaii in view of the fact that First Uncle could not continue supporting him. Grandfather sent him 20 dollars, but he still had to borrow 200 dollars from a friend. He also asked Father to send him 30 dollars to buy himself a new suit. He must have left California for Honolulu soon after that, because a letter from a friend, Otis S. Lee, dated 18 August 1903, expresses surprise to learn of his departure and said that all his friends missed him. Although it was hoped that convalescence in Manoa would restore his health, Ping Lim died on 2 October 1903. It was a great blow to the family, especially to Grandfather. There was a eulogy to him in the San Francisco Chinese newspaper, for he had cultivated the friendship of a group of students from China and of other intellectuals exposed to Western thinking who would later participate in the political changes in China. It was an annual ritual in early spring for Father to take Ruth and me with him to the Lin Yee Cemetery in East Manoa (established 7 June 1889) to pay respects to Uncle Ping Lim and his mother. We would take the Manoa street car to the end of the line, walk some distance along a country road to reach the cemetery and place a bunch of asters, Father's favourite offering, on each grave, located only after a long search among unkempt plots. Fourteen years after Uncle's death, Father hired a man to exhume the remains of Uncle and his mother in order to return them to their native land for permanent burial. I remember watching with fascination, after the earth was removed, the man lifting the lid from the wooden coffin and seeing a fully-clothed shape of a body that quickly deflated as air got to it. Taking mouthfuls ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 163 Groven Ballen. There was some excitement when Mrs. Lam thought the infant was a boy and announced this to Father. Although having no sons was a disappointment to my parents, this infant daughter was no less precious. With his usual sense of humour, Father named her Dora Me Sun, explaining that Dora sounds like the Chinese words for "too many", that is, “too many" girls. He ordered milk, especially rich for babies, delivered daily for Dora, but she could not tolerate it and became very colicky and fussy. I tried to help by carrying her, swinging her back and forth in my arms or in the hammock, hoping to soothe her with songs like “Rock-a-bye Baby”. Upon the advice of Mrs. Lam, fresh milk was replaced by malted milk, but this probably did not fill Dora's need for adequate nourishment and she continued to cry a great deal. The very strict 4-hour feeding schedule that the doctor recommended added to the problem. Soon the First World War cast a shadow of uneasiness over our lives and we felt the sadness of mothers who saw their sons drafted and sent to Europe. It came close to home when William Kam, our neighbour, and a few of our schoolmates left. War songs, rallies, victory bonds, first aid packages, etc. in school whipped up our patriotism. I had my first sight of an airplane then. It was a day of great rejoicing when the end of hostilities was announced. But soon the world-wide epidemic of influenza reached our islands and we would hear the sounds of sorrow in our community over the death of loved ones. We were anxious and frightened about an illness that struck so swiftly and with such deadliness. In spite of this, we were a happy family until in April, 1919, we received word that Father had come down with influenza on board ship bound for China. This was our last home in which we had all been so happy together, because Father died on his way back to Honolulu. His death left Mother widowed at age 32 with four young children, and gave me my first real loss, which had on me a sobering and maturing effect. Support and advice from friends helped Mother, sheltered from the world before this, to cope with her new responsibilities. Ruth's education outside the home began in a small school for Chinese girls run by Mrs. Chang in a building behind the Fort Street Chinese Church. The following year Mother tried to enrol Ruth and me in Central Grammar School, but the principal, Mrs. Carter, reputed to be very selective of minorities and called by the Chinese "pigeon eye" ÉIR ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 234 in 1846 and kept by the London Missionary Society. (NCH 25.11.1865; SCR 24.11.1865). 14.12.1865 (Thur) J.M. MORTON: "Woodcock's Little Game” (1864) T: Farce (1 act) J.P. PLANCHE: "Faint Heart never won Fair Lady" (1839) T: Comedy (1 act) C. SELBY: "The Boots at the Swan" (1842) T: Comedy (1 act) C: Amateurs of the Shanghai Volunteer Corps F: Prologue spoken by Edward Lawrance and Mr. Groom Th: Lyceum Theatre (1) N: First performance of the season by the S.V.C. R: Again only stage names were used in the review. In Morton's piece, Woodcock's Little Game, Woodcock was played by Mr. DOLEFUL who had "evidently elaborated the part with great care." His only drawback was "a certain monotony in gesture". Another central character was Mrs. Colonel Carver, "inimitably performed by Mrs. St. CHAWLES. The majestic lady's make-up was characteristic and costly and many of her attitudes and tones reminded us of Miss Snowdon [Mary Jane Chippendale, 1837-1888; but she made her debut only in 1863 JH] whose imposing personation of similar female parts has assisted so many Haymarket triumphs". Exceptionally some slight attention was also paid to the staging when the critic wrote about the second scene that the "occasional glimpses of the whirling waltzers and partners-seeking promenaders were skilfully managed". In Faint Heart never won Fair Lady Mr. DOLEFUL again took a leading part, that of Ruy Gomez. However, the Herald was not inclined to accept this gentleman's reading of the character without some exception, as a greater prominence might have been given to the comic element. Lightness, vivacity and élan are indispensable in all characters written, as this one was, for Charles Mathews. However, as he had appeared in a humorous part before, Mr. DOLEFUL was perhaps anxious to show his versatility". Travesty abounded: "The most difficult part was essayed by Miss SOFTLY [as Charles, the King of Spain, a role cast for an actress JH]. For a man to play a lady's part is hard, for a lady to play a man's part is not easy, but for a man to play a man's part as a lady would play it is hardest of all. Charles II, the mischievous, frolicsome schoolboy at large, newly awaking to a sense of royal responsibility, has been a favourite part with some of our cleverest and prettiest actresses and Miss SOFTLY held her own when compared with these formidable competitors" About the Boots at the Swan the reporter confessed that "we are inclined to think this piece has been acted enough" (but hardly in Shanghai where it was on the boards for the first time). "The elaborate mimicry of the inimitable ROBSON made the deaf Boots as popular with the London public as Sam Weller had been before him, but a peculiar talent alone can render Jacob Earwig interesting to an audience ten thousand miles away from the little theatre in Wych Street* (i.e. the Olympic Theatre in London). (Henry Morley wrote about Robson in this part, 1857: "Mr. Robson, although deaf, is humorously wide awake. He is the Boots who is brisk and alive to all the humour of the street, who would be preternaturally knowing if he could but hear what people say. In word and look and action he is more the gamin than the simpleton. The extravagance of a most laughable farce is heightened by him to the utmost and there is not a long face to be seen while he is busy on the stage" *** 136) But, to continue with the Herald: "FUNNYDOG, the new low comedian, is a valuable accession to the company. His stable yard dress, wooden attitude and imperturbable face formed a perfect study for Leech and Cruikshank, and the finish with which he played the long, and we confess to us tiresome, drunken scene shows ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 247 ― and Godown Company. 'Monuments' still standing include the Helena May Institute (completed 1916), Saint Andrew's Church (foundation stone laid 1904) and Church Hall, and the Peninsula Hotel (official opening 1928) which — along with the Taj Mahal in Bombay, Raffles in Singapore and a few others was classified, before World War II, as one of the 'great hotels of the East'. Another of Leigh and Orange's edifices is the main, 'Renaissance' style, building at Hong Kong University which was completed in 1912 and extended in 1952. It has been gazetted as an historical monument. The now demolished Sir Paul Chater's 'Marble Hall', generally accepted as the most luxurious residence in Hong Kong before World War II, was another example. The Colony's first, full-time, chartered accountant was Arthur Lowe, who came to Hong Kong in 1902. Joseph Bingham became his partner in 1905, and Frederick Mathews (Lowe, Bingham and Mathews) in 1909. There were other accountants in the Territory before 1902, but few had professional qualifications and auditing was usually a subsidiary activity to their main lines of business. For instance, Linstead and Davis were mainly property agents, but they also sold bicycles, and, up to 1926, they had an agency for Manila cigars. The partners audited the accounts of various companies. The senior partner of Gibb Livingston was one of the two Hong Kong Bank auditors, and so on. Lowe Bingham (Lo Bing Ham in Chinese) became part of the international firm of Price Waterhouse in 1974, Hong Kong and China Gas Company William Glen, who had no knowledge of the gas industry in 1861, obtained from the then Governor, Sir Hercules Robinson (when the population was 123,281), a concession to supply gas to the city of Victoria. The company was incorporated on May 31st 1862: most of the shareholders lived in the United Kingdom, although 500 shares were offered locally. Then, on December 3rd 1864, Hong Kong was lit with gas for the first time by about 15 miles of mains and 500 lamps, in Queen's Road extending up the hill to Upper Albert Road. Previously, the only street lights had been installed voluntarily by residents, and burned peanut oil. The residents of Caine Road complained that they --- Page 270 Page 271 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j BULLETIN SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES Postal and African Studies EDITORIAL BOARD JC Wright, Chairman, S K M Allan, D L Appleyard, TH Barrett, G R Hawting, K Hayward, MJ Hutt, S Kaviraj, DO Morgan, A H Morton, N G Phillips The Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies has been published for nearly 60 years, and is unique in its breadth of coverage. The Bulletin spans the cultures and civilizations of the Near and Middle East, South and Central Asia, the Far East, South-East Asia, and the continent of Africa, from the pre-biblical era to the present day. Since its foundation in 1917, the Bulletin has contributed scholarly articles on the history, religions, languages and literatures, art, and archaeology of these regions. In addition, over a third of each issue is devoted to reviews and book notices. These provide a reliable guide to new publications, and are used by academic institutions and libraries worldwide for book selection and acquisition. 1995 ORDER FORM Please enter my subscription to BULLETIN OF THE SCHOOL OF ORIENTAL AND AFRICAN STUDIES | Volume 58 (3 issues): £62/US$114 Please note: £ sterling rates apply in UK and Europe, US$ rates elsewhere. Customers in the EC and in Canada are subject to their local sales tax Name...... Address.... City/County... Postcode. Please debit my Mastercard/ American Express / Diners / Visa Card Number: Exp. date: For further subscriptions information please contact: Recent & Forthcoming articles include: ADH Bivar The Portraits and career of Mohammed Ali, son of Kazzem-Beg: Scottish missionaries and Russian orientalism OXFORD Journals Marketing (X95) JOURNALS Oxford University Press Walton Street Oxford OX2 6DP United Kingdom Fax: +44 0 1865 267773 Pei Huang The confidential memorial system of the Ch'ing dynasty reconsidered Mehrdad Shokoohy and Natalie H Shokoohy Tughlugabad, the earliest surviving town of the Delhi sultanate. Paul Thieme On M Mayrhofer's Etymologisches Wörterbuch des Altindoarischen ME Yapp Two great historians of the modern Middle East Nicholas Sims-Williams Christian Sogdian texts from the Nachlass of Olaf Hansen Michael Brett The way of the nomad Clive Holes Community, dialect and urbanization in the Arabic-speaking Middle East Vassili Kryukov Symbols of power and communication in pre-Confucian China Padmanabh S Jaini Jaina monks from Mathura: literary evidence for their identification of Kusana sculptures Colin F Baker Judaeo-Arabic material in the Cambridge Genizah Collections ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 153 sation to the Released British Prisoners and to the Families of those who were Murdered."36 The 16 February issue had a full page illustration, "Curiosity-Street, Pekin."37 The brief accompanying narrative explains that "Curiosity Street" was where "the British officers got rid of much of their superfluous cash in the purchase of doubtful antiquities and modern enamels. ... The street is densely crowded. Carts, horses, ponies, and wheelbarrows obstruct one's movements at every step, and the confusion is increased by the number of British officers, most of them in Chinese fur coats. Boys, sharp as those of London or Paris, are always at hand ready to carry any possible amount of one's purchases to any distance."38 Genre subjects such as this also appeared in following issues. "Sketches of a Peking Cab,”39 “Amusements on the Ice,"40 “Teahouse in Peking"41 and an illustration of "what I had to sketch throught"42 ("A Group of Chinese" who crowded round the artist, impeding his work).43 41 More formal general subjects also continued to appear: "The Russian Mission Church in Pekin,”44 “the Chinese General Prince San-Ko-Lin-Sin,"45 "a Portion of the Emperor of China's Summer Palace Near Pekin,"46 “Part of the Imperial Palace, Pekin,”47 and “View of the Gardens and the Buddhist Temple in the Imperial City, Pekin”.48 49 Even the potentially hostile subject of "Chinese guns" is presented in a way that includes a complimentary bow to the Chinese, demonstrating that they had mastered a particular technology earlier than European ordnance-makers. The Illustrated London News published a letter from a Royal Navy surgeon, who wrote, “There has been a great noise made of late years through what has been looked upon by scientific men as a new and grand discovery in the manufacture of iron ordnance... Judge, then, my astonishment when, as I was walking through the Taku Forts, at the entrance to the Peiho, I came upon a lot of cast-off Chinese guns evidently very old, but made almost upon these principles and rejected about the end of the seventeenth century, when the famous Ferdinand Verbrist [sic for Verbiest] taught them to manufacture cast guns of brass and iron.50 ** 50 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 332 Downtown - the west of the city The first port of call in the morning was the former German governor's residence, used as such from 1903 to 1914. This was reached by driving down the newly named Xiang Gang Lu (Hong Kong Road) from the hotel and penetrating the centre of the city. Until recently the governor's residence had been a government-run guesthouse - The Qingdao Yingbin Hotel; it was such when I visited it in 1996, and at least in theory a possibility as a place to stay or at least have dinner in surroundings of baronial splendour. Now, however, it has become the much more humble No 26 Long Shan Road and is kept as a museum, with original furniture (including “German table", "German chair”, “German piano") and artifacts on display in the rooms, all of which are accessible. Also on display, although not officially, was the original German electric wiring system, complete with enormous switches, connection boxes and fuses. The main interest for most, however, was the outside of the building - which immediately impresses upon the onlooker the purpose for which it was built. Almost castle-like in its appearance, the governor's residence would have given the great man a clear view over most of the city over which he ruled to the south and west, and of the military establishments to the east. Having set the scene for the morning by visiting first the seat of power, next was a visit to the centre from which that power was exercised - the Town Hall. Still operating as such, the Town Hall, found in Yi Shui Road, is another commanding building whose intended purpose is clear at first glance. Access is denied, of course, but the outside of the building is worth a few moments contemplation. When first constructed, the Town Hall was the place from where a community of 30,000 was governed. The population of present day Qingdao is in the order of 20 times this figure, and so the original building has been long outgrown. However, interestingly enough, an extension was built in the early 1980s in exactly the same design. The result is most impressive in that it is very hard to differentiate the old from the new, even down to the fine architectural details such as the fine wrought iron work on the roof. Visitors should take a minute to walk down the small street to the left of the main building to see the new building through the gates, and see if they can spot the difference. Also worth a little inspection is the old Court House, just over the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 334 therefore to the outside of the building, which is of neo-gothic design. Although built in the 1930s, long after Germany ceased to hold sway over Tsingtao, the cathedral was built largely with German money. However, before it was completed the money supply was drastically reduced by the incoming Nazi government. Hence the inside, had we been able to see it, would have shown such incongruous features as flat ceilings instead of the vaulted and beamed roof that the outside would suggest. Legend has it that during the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, two over-zealous Red Guards climbed the towers with the intention of removing the crosses from the top, but they fell to their respective deaths before completing their mission. As the cathedral is in a very narrow street, it is not possible to get a good camera angle unless one walks somewhat away from the front, down to the street to the left, where a lively street-market gives interesting and contrasting foreground possibilities - the whole looking rather medieval. In fact, the street market is worth a visit in its own right, being very extensive and lively. A chopper seller (as used in Chinese cooking and violent crime) was being very vocal at the time we were there. Hills and beaches - the east of the city We had organised a picnic lunch from the hotel. Given that time was tight we did not want to spend an hour or so hidden away in a restaurant. Instead, we took our picnic lunch up Qingdaoshan Hill, formerly Bismarck Berg. Access to the hill was somewhat unusual, being through a small museum on Jing Shan Road. The museum was in fact closed, but our guide managed to navigate us through and out of the back door, whence up the hill. A look-out post at the top gives good panoramas of the city and out to sea. The picnic lunch was adequate, but Philip Bruce appeared to be very pleased that he had brought his tin of sardines from the Co-op in Worthing. Fortified and refreshed, our next mission was to find any remains of the German cemetery. Its location was clear enough from the many old maps that we had between us, but the guide was not hopeful of finding anything of interest. And so it turned out, or almost. The cemetery is now Baihua Park, and is remarkable for a reason that cannot be much further removed from cemeteries. On entering the park we noticed a wedding couple, and another - and another. There must have been upwards of 30 or more newly married couples wandering around ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 345 It immediately became clear, however, that although very similar to the building in the picture taken by Tess Johnston, the present building was somewhat different. On enquiry, we were told that the old building had been demolished and rebuilt as an almost exact replica. This appeared to be true. Beyond this, along the road, were a line of impressive European-style residences, with delightfully contrasting back streets leading left and right. The far end of this street opened into a cobbled square with six or eight storey apartment buildings, reminding me of the suburbs of Milan. In fact the whole city has a very European feel to it. Compared to many Chinese cities, Dalian is very neat and tidy, and organised. It is proud of being the first (or only?) city in China to rid itself of rats. (I witnessed some public garden workers in a state of great excitement when they thought they saw a rat in the garden they were working in - it turned out to be a squirrel when the four of them flushed the unfortunate beast out of the bushes.) The streets are clean. There are trees everywhere. The roads leading out of the city are marked with white bollards at the roadside. One finds oneself wondering how come this particular part of China can stand out so much as being - well, rather nice. The answer is quickly offered by anybody to whom you ask this question, and that is that it is the Mayor of Dalian who is responsible for the city's progress. He has travelled extensively overseas, and when he comes home he tells his officials that he wants to see in Dalian the sort of facilities that he has seen abroad. And he is getting his way. The man deserves a medal. It would not be surprising for Dalian to be giving Shanghai a good run for its money some time in the new century. Another feature of Dalian is that there is very little in the way of graffiti, although our guide spoiled the illusion somewhat by explaining that "nobody can afford the paint". Lunch was in an enormous restaurant where our party were the only customers. The city tour continued with a visit to the Nanshan suburb, the former Japanese residential area. Here are a number of quiet leafy streets containing very smart houses that would be at home in Surrey or Kent or a London suburb. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x descent from an Imperial clansman who was abandoned here in 1277 (their surname is the same as that of the Sung Imperial house), - the clan subsequently left the area'. Certainly the villagers remembered the Sung Court with reverence. Many folk-tales grew up in the nearby villages about the boy-Emperors and their actions. The villagers down to the nineteenth century revered the grave of the sister of the two boy-Emperors, which stood just outside Kowloon City. The major temple of the area, the Hau Wong Temple outside the Walled City, was dedicated to the uncle of the boy-Emperors, the Prince-Marquis Yeung Leung-tsit. The villagers say that they worshipped this man in secret during the Yuan dynasty, and built him a temple as soon as the coming of the Ming made this possible. The villagers greatly reverenced Yeung Leung-tsit's benevolence and selflessness, but his deification is clearly one that was intended to reflect the local people's reverence for the Sung Court as a whole. At some date, an important Market grew up in front of the yamen at Kowloon City. In the later nineteenth century this stretched from the south-east gate of the Walled City (the most important entrance to the City) down to the great stone pier that stretched out into the waters of Kowloon Bay. There was one long main street, with a number of side streets10. Around the Market there were a whole string of small suburban communities, mostly market gardening communities or else places doing business in offensive trades that were too unpleasant to occupy space within the Market area proper. The largest of these suburban communities was Sha Po Village, immediately east of the Market. This was mostly a market gardening village. Branches of the Nga Tsin Wai clans (among many others) were settled here, and it came to be regarded as a settled village with permanently resident clans. The Lok Sin Tong (founded in 1880), the most important local charitable organisation, was also here: the Tong occupied a large area (it had a major Meeting Hall and a dispensary for issue of free medicines, which, with its offices, were arranged around a courtyard with a garden, opening off Blacksmith Street through a substantial gateway, with a second courtyard behind with a school, which used the second courtyard as a playground). The Tong doubtless found land in Sha Po cheaper than in the Market itself. The other suburban villages - Sai Tau, Tung Tau, Hau Wong, and Hoklo Villages - were more transient. There were a few families in each, which were permanently settled, but most residents here were resident only temporarily. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 137 Some of the aspects of Christianity introduced by the religious orders, including the Jesuits, are rather disturbing as they harked back to the Dark Ages, with street spectacles of burning heretics and bleeding flagellants. But in all fairness it should be pointed out that the gruesomeness of these spectacles was nothing new to the East. Moreover, there was also a much more positive, Renaissance side to Iberian colonisation, as seen in the unique buildings of the period that have survived in Velha Goa and elsewhere in India. Velha Goa reached its greatest period of administrative importance and commercial prosperity during the last three decades of the sixteenth century, a fact reflected in the mentioned civic and religious buildings. For this very reason the passage to India and the sojourn in Goa was practically mandatory for many of the great Jesuit missionaries, scientists and artists arriving from Lisbon under the wing of the Portuguese padroado on their way to Macao, China or Japan. The Arch of Triumph motif It is not possible in this paper to give an adequate survey of what some term Indo-Portuguese churches. Instead I would like to focus on the Arch of Triumph, a characteristic architectural theme used in the decoration of façades that is linked in very interesting ways to that of the retable-façade. As will be mentioned later in these pages, it has been argued that a couple of Jesuit church fronts in Goa have arches of triumph as decoration that resemble retables. Moreover, there are some church fronts in Goa that seem to me to have been influenced by the type of façade known as a capilla abierta, or open chapel, used above a main entrance for the display or celebration of the Eucharist. It may be inferred from this that the probable use of retable inspired façades by the Jesuits or others in Goa makes it more plausible that they chose this particular decorative structure for their Church in Macao, albeit in a radically different and more elaborate style. But as will be seen, that style itself was part of a clear process of stylistic development already started in Goa. The Arch of Triumph is a well-known structure that was used by Italian Renaissance architects for the decoration of the elevation of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 324 old Colonial Office in Great Smith Street. Sir Christopher Cox, who headed the interview panel, said: 'Waters, you would be more suitable teaching building subjects in Hong Kong than in Trinidad. Go away and think about it!' Rose, Rose I Love You was the first song originating in the People's Republic of China to become popular in Britain. Yet the composers never received royalties. They could not afford to be seen drawing money from a capitalist country. And as I listened to the refrain in Merry England, it all tied in. Serving in the Colonial Service in Hong Kong seemed terribly exciting and romantic. It made me think of Camp Coffee, Zam Buk ointment and other similar branded goods with scenes of Empire on bottles and tins which I grew up with as a child. 'You're not going to the Far East?!' an acquaintance exclaimed. 'The Communists have just acquired half Korea. There's fighting in Vietnam and Malaya. Hong Kong will be the next to fall!” In spite of adverse comments I accepted the offer from the Colonial Office which was shortly to become Her Majesty's Overseas Civil Service. After all a considerable amount of a map of the world was still coloured red. Hadn't Winston Churchill proclaimed: 'I have not become the King's first minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire'? At the time I could have been posted to any one of something like 55 different colonies or dependent territories within the British Commonwealth. For me, 'Go East young man!' was the watchword. Nevertheless, some said that the Hong Kong Royal Naval Dockyard was shortly to be closed down. So, in spite of discouraging remarks, I "burned my boats,” sold the family business as a going concern, and went shopping. I spotted cabin trunks made of sheet metal. 'Oh no," the shop assistant exclaimed, 'you only need those, Sir, if you are going to some humid place like Hong Kong!' 'I'll have two!' I replied. Shipboard In the early 1950s, if one flew to Hong Kong, one normally went by seaplane, landed on water and slept the night in a hotel. The journey took five days. But up until 1959 most of us travelled by sea. The Page 390 Page 391 ================================================================================