RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 222 GUILLAUME, Baron P. de HADDOW, Dr. I. F. G.. HAFFNER, C. HALL, Miss J. Flat 5, Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. Unknown. Spence Robinson Architects, The Atelier, Broadwood Road, H.K. c/o Colonial Secretariat, Room 514, H.K. HALLWARD, Miss C. L. J. c/o St. Stephens Girls' College, Lyttelton HAMILTON, Bill G.--. HARDEN, Mrs, G. T., Jr.* - HARRISON, Prof. B. HARTWELL, Sir Charles HARTWELL, Lady HAYDON, E. S. HAYES, J. W. HAYIM, E. J.* HAYWARD, G, W. HECHTEL, F. O. P. - HENSMAN, Prof. Bertha HERRIES, M. A. R. - - - Road, H.K. 13768 Hower Drive, Saratoga, Calif. 95070, US.A. 15 Shek O, H.K. c/o Dept. of History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, Canada, c/o Public Service Commission, Central Government Offices, H.K. As above. c/o The Supreme Court, H.K. c/o The Colonial Secretariat, H.K. 41, Island Road, Deep Water Bay, H.K. c/o British Embassy, Kastelsvej 38-40, Copenhagen. 10 Branksome Towers, May Road, H.K. c/o St. Anne's College, Oxford, England. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., H.K. d'HESTROY, Baron P. de G. The Belgian Embassy, 1653 Galle Viamonte, HILL, D. A. HILSDALE, Mrs. E. P. · HỌ, Mrs. Hung-chiu HO, Teh-kuei. HO, Tickon* - HOCHSTADTER, Dr. W. HODGE, Peter HOGAN, Sir Michael - T - Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1633 Compton Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44118, U.S.A. 2762 Woodshire Drive, Los Angeles, Calif. 90028, U.S.A. 11, Briar Avenue, First Floor, H.K. Lakeside Building, 13th Floor, B, 259 Gloucester Road, H.K, 50, Village Road, Ground Floor, Happy Valley, H.K. 9, Cambridge Road, 1st Floor, Kowloon. c/o Dept. of Social Work, University of Hong Kong, H.K. Unknown, * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 232 GREGORY, Prof. W. G. GUILLAUME, Baron P. de HADDOW, Dr. I. F. G. - HAFFNER, C. HALL, Miss J. - Dept. of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, H.K. Flat 5, Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. Unknown. Spence Robinson Architects, The Atelier, Broadwood Road, H.K. Secretariat for Home Affairs, International Building, H.K. HALLWARD, Miss C. L. J. - c/o St. Stephens Girls' College, Lyttelton Road, H.K. HAMILTON, Bill G. 13768 Hower Drive, Saratoga, Calif. 95070, U.S.A. c/o Dept. of History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, Canada. HARDEN, Mrs. G. T., Jr.* - 15 Shek O, H.K. HARRISON, Prof. B. HARTWELL, Sir Charles HARTWELL, Lady HAYDON, E. S. HAYES, J. W. - HAYIM, E. J.* HAYWARD, G. W. HECHTEL, F. O. P. HENSMAN, Prof. Bertha HERRIES, M. A. R. HICKS, Miss Catherine M. HILSDALE, Mrs. E. P. HO, Mrs. Hungchiu HO, Teh-kuei HO, Tickon* HOCHSTADTER, Dr. W. HODGE, Peter HOLMES, Hon. D. R. - - c/o Public Service Commission, Central Government Offices, H.K. As above. c/o The Supreme Court, H.K. Room 129, Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K. 41, Island Road Deep Water Bay, H.K. White Mill End, 5 Granville Road, Sevenoaks TN13 7, England. 10 Branksome Towers, May Road, H.K. c/o St. Anne's College, Oxford, England. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., H.K. 2, Ava Mansions, May Road, H.K. 2762 Woodshire Drive, Los Angeles, Calif. 90068, U.S.A. 11, Briar Avenue, First Floor, H.K. Lakeside Building, 13th Floor, B, 259 Gloucester Road, H.K. 50, Village Road Ground Floor, Happy Valley, H.K. 9, Cambridge Road, 1st Floor, Kowloon. c/o Dept. of Social Work, University of Hong Kong, H.K. Secretariat For Home Affairs, International Building, H.K. * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 264 LIST OF MEMBERS ORDINARY OVERSEAS MEMBERS: ANDERSON, Dr. Eugene N., Jr. Dept. of Anthropology, University of California, Riverside, Cal. 92502, U.S.A. BERKOWITZ, Prof. M. I. Professor of Sociology, Dept. of Sociology, Brock University, St. Catharine's, Ontario, Canada. BEVERIDGE, R. J. 13, Hartwell Hill Road, Hartwell, Victoria, 3124, Australia. BINGHAM, Mrs. Annette Welby Croft, Chapel-en-le-Frith, SK12 6CY, Cheshire, England. BLACKMORE, Michael "Highfield", 37, The Hollow, Bath, Somerset, BA2 1NB, England. BOXER, Prof. Baruch 167, Laurel Circle, Princeton, New Jersey, 08540, USA. BRAGA, J. M. c/o National Library of Australia, Canberra, Australia. BUNGER, Dr. Karl 53, Bonn-Bad Godesberg, Lukas-Cranach-Strasse 14, Germany. CHAR, Tin Yuke 3898, Diamond Head Road, Honolulu, Hawaii 96816, U.S.A. CLARK, Mrs. A. T. c/o Government House, Honiara, British Solomon Islands, Protectorate. EITZEN, Mrs. J. 155, Mt. Pleasant Road, Singapore 11. FITZGIBBON, Desmond J. c/o British Embassy, Beirut, Lebanon. FREEDMAN, Dr. Maurice 187, Gloucester Place, St. Marylebone, London, N.W.2 HAMILTON, Bill G. 13768 Howen Drive, Saratoga, Calif. 95070, U.S.A. HARNISCH, Mr. & Mrs. D. 204, South Ellen St., Homer, Illinois, U.S.A. HARRISON, Prof. Brian 26, The White House, St. Paul's Bay, Malta. HARTWELL, Lady c/o Barclays Bank, Piccadilly Circus Branch, 52, Regent Street, London, W.1., England. HARTWELL, Sir Charles c/o Barclays Bank, Piccadilly Circus Branch, 52, Regent Street, London, W.1., England. HAYDON, E. S. Old Castle Farm, Buckland St. Mary, Somerset, England. HAYWARD, G. W. White Mill End, 5, Granville Road, Sevenoaks, Kent, England. HENSMAN, Prof. Bertha c/o St. Anne's College, Oxford, England. HILSDALE, Mrs. K. H. 1105, Armada Drive, Pasadena, Calif. 91103, U.S.A. HORMANN, Prof. B. L. 2520, Malama Pl., Honolulu, Hawaii 96822, U.S.A. HOWARTH, Richard H. c/o American Embassy, Merchant Street, Rangoon, Burma. JOHNSON, Dr. Graham E. Department of Anthropology & Sociology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, B.C., Canada. Page 270 Page 271 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d EMPLOYMENT OF FOREIGN MILITARY TALENT 135 Wu-ti's Northwestern Campaigns," HJAS, XXVI (1966), 170, 172-173; Yü, 14; Lattimore, 485. Northern barbarian cavalry units were designated Hu-ch'i; southern barbarian units were called Yueh-ch'i. 29 Michael Loewe, "The Case of Witchcraft in 91 B.C.," Asia Major, XV.2 (1970), 180-181 traces Chin's career, major offices, and impact. See also Han-shu, 7: 1b; 38: 21ff; 68: 2a-b, 20b; 112: 16a-b. 30 G. Haloun, "The Liang-chou Rebellion 184-221 A.D.," Asia Major, I (1949-1950), 119; 121. Note the interesting case of Chao Hsin, discussed in Loewe, "The Campaigns," 79. 31 WSM, TC 79; 11; WCSL, 129: 17. 32 Cited in Ch'ien and Goodrich, 9. 33 See, for example, Yü, 205; Chi Ch'ao-ting, Key Economic Areas in Chinese History (New York, 1963), 99; Eberhard, 126; etc. 34 Mackerras, 56-61, especially 60-61. 35 See Su Ch'ing-pin, 399; Yüan, 160; Gabriella Molé, The T'u-yü-hun from the Northern Wei to the Time of the Five Dynasties (Rome, 1970), 157, 163, 167, 169, 180. 36 See Yüan, 153-163; Su Ch'ing-pin, 589. 37 See Wang Kung-wu, The Structure of Power in North China During the Five Dynasties (Kuala Lumpur, 1962); also Su Ch'ing-pin, 399. 38 The preface to this work is very illuminating. Therein, Li Te-yü describes the general circumstances of Wen-mo-ssu's submission, making repeated reference to past experience with submissive barbarians and lauding the present emperor's virtue. After extolling Wen-mo-ssu's merits, Li suggests that just as the Hsiao-ching (Classic of Filial Piety) defines the proper relationship of ruler and minister, father and son, so the I-yü kuei-chung chuan defines the proper behavior of foreign employees in the Chinese service. Implicit in the comparison is the idea that Li is to T'ang Wu-tsung what Tseng Ts'an was to Confucius. For further information on Wen-mo-ssu, see Chang Ch'ün, T'ang-tai hsiang-hu an-chih k'ao [An examination of the treatment of surrendered barbarians in the Tang dynasty]. Hsin-Ya hsieh-pao [New Asia College Journal], 1.1 (August, 1955), 310-311; James R. Hamilton, Les Ouïghours à l'époque des Cinq Dynasties d'après les documents chinois (Paris, 1955), 69, 71, 153-154; Su Ch'ing-pin, 397; Hsin T'ang-shu, 217(B) [lieh-chuan, 142 hsia]: 1-3; T'ang-shu, lieh-chuan, 145: 13-14. 39 Li Te-yü, 2: 10-11; see also ibid., 7: 56; 8: 57; etc. 40 Ibid., 2: 11. 41 Ibid., 5: 29, 31; 5: 33-35; 7: 56; 8: 59-60; 13: 101-109; 19: 159-160. 42 See Mackerras, 14-47; also Li Te-yü, 14: 116-119. Tseng Kuo-fan undoubtedly had the T'ang experience in mind when he wrote: "Since ancient times outer barbarians (wai-i) have assisted China; but in each case, after success, there have been unexpected demands," IWSM, HF 71: 10b. 43 Howard Levy, Biography of An Lu-shan (Berkeley, 1961), 17-20. 44 See Richard J. Smith, “Chinese Military Institutions in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, 1850-1860," Journal of Asian History 8.2 (1974), 124-125; also Lo Jung-pang, "The Decline of the Ming Navy," Oriens Extremus, 5 (1958), 165-168. 45 Sung-shih, 472: 18-21; Liu Sheng-mu, Ch'ang-ch'u-chai hsü-pi [Supplementary writings from the Ch'ang-ch'u study] (preface date 1929), 5: 146. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q A HAWAIIAN KING VISITS HONG KONG, 1881 97 Peking. The China Merchants Steam Navigation Company had been doing business with Hawaii. Their two steamers, the Ho-Chung ** and Mei-Foo, ✯✯ were used to transport Chinese laborers to Hawaii in 1879 and 1880.* In Tientsin, King Kalakaua was received by Viceroy Li Hung-chang ✶ who asked penetrating questions about Hawaii: "How many islands are there in your Kingdom? Do you have a Parliament? You have many Chinese in your country. Do you treat them well?" The secretary and interpreter for the Viceroy was Li Sun (Tsang Lai-sun, a graduate of Hamilton College in New York.) The King wrote back on April 6, 1881 to William L. Green, his Minister of Foreign Affairs, that he went to North China to see Li Hung-chang "for the purposes I had in view: First, of stopping, if possible, further immigration of Chinese to the Islands [who came alone] without carrying their wives, and Secondly:--to secure for our government the same privileges as granted to the United States Government, the right at any time to restrict, return, or remove, the large influx of Chinese to our islands. On these two subjects our mission has been successful.” The Royal party returned to Shanghai and embarked on the S. S. Thibet for Hong Kong, arriving on April 12, 1881. Already Hong Kong officials had been informed of the King's coming and were ready to extend a royal welcome. Owing to the considerable commerce between Hong Kong and Hawaii, the King was represented as Consul General by a British merchant of high standing William Keswick of Jardine, Matheson and Co. The twelve-oared barge of Sir John Pope Hennessy, the Colonial Governor, also appeared alongside with an invitation asking the King, in the name of Queen Victoria, to be his guest. The Hawaiian King had to adjust his schedule to accept the Governor's invitation for a royal reception at the Government House. As Armstrong recorded in his book, "While we were taking coffee, the next morning, the forts, with seven warships, fired the usual salute of twenty-one guns. From the balcony of the Government House, high above the city, we looked down on a dense mass of smoke, rolling away to the mainland, pierced with the flashing of the guns, the Hawaiian flag ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q IN SEARCH OF THE CHINESE NAME FOR "LI SUN" TIN-YUKE CHAR* In other pages of this Journal, the article on Hawaiian King Kalakaua and his visit to China in 1881, while on his way around the world, was based on the report to Hawaii by a member of the entourage.1 He wrote that the King was met in Tientsin by Li Hung-chang's secretary and interpreter, "Li Sun," who spoke English and gave the information that he was a graduate of Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, and that he had a son who was a student at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut.2 In The Sandalwood Mountains, an annotated collection of readings and stories on the early Chinese in Hawaii, was included an excerpt from this same report, written by William Armstrong who accompanied the Hawaiian King as Minister of State and Royal Commissioner of Immigration.3 Romanization of Chinese names vary confusingly because of dialectal differences in the Chinese language and because of diverse backgrounds of transliterators. Only in more recent years have writers in the English language settled on a standard style, e.g., Dr. Sun Yat-sen, Dr. Wing-tsit Chan*, hyphenating two-element given names and not capitalizing the second element. Until the Chinese characters for the romanized name are determined, one is never sure of the person's true identity. Therefore, some time was given on research for the name of an intriguing person whose name, when first came upon, was written as "Li Sun." Other romanizations found for his name were Chan Lai Sun and Tsang Lai Sun. He himself signed his name thus: Chan Jaime * Mr. Char (MEL), of the Hawaii Chinese History Center is a well-known researcher into that subject, and has previously contributed to this Journal. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 108 TIN-YUKE CHAR To identify Li Sun's name as written in Chinese characters and to gather more information on this interesting person, a letter was written to Hamilton College on April 8, 1975. A reply from the President's office said, “A search of our records revealed that Li Sun (listed as Chan Lai Sun in our files) attended Hamilton College for two years, in 1846-48. He was awarded the honorary degree of Master of Arts during his visit to the College in 1873 [as a member of the Chinese Educational Mission]." Frank K. Lorenz, Reference Librarian at Hamilton, also wrote, "Unfortunately we cannot determine what Chan's full name was in Chinese. We have a dozen letters from him, under the letter head of the Chinese Educational Commission, but they are entirely in English (very fluent and colloquial English at that) and are all signed "Chan Laisun." Thus began the search for Chan Laisun's name in Chinese. Yung Wing, a commissioner of the Chinese Educational Mission in 1873 made this report: "The educational commission was to consist of two commissioners, Chin [Ch'en] Lan Pin [  ] and myself. Chin Lan Pin's duty was to see that the students keep up their knowledge of Chinese while in America; my duty was to look after their foreign education and to find suitable homes for them. Chin Lan Pin and myself were to look after their expenses conjointly. Two Chinese teachers were provided to keep up their studies in Chinese, and an interpreter was provided for the Commission. Yeh Shu Tung [***] and Yung Yune Foo [***] were the Chinese teachers and Tsang Lai Sun was the interpreter.” He was most likely selected because he had been educated in English and was familiar with the Chinese dialects of the Southern maritime provinces from where most of the students were chosen by Yung Wing who was himself from the Heung Shan (now Chung Shan) district of Kwangtung. Tsang Lai Sun was identified with the Chinese characters 曾蘭生 (Tseng Lan-sheng in kuo-yu pronunciation) in the Chinese translation of Yung Wing's book. Thus, it appears that this Tsang Lai Sun was the same person as Chan Lai Sun as listed in Hamilton College records and also Li Sun who met the Hawaiian King. Chan wrote in a letter to Professor Edward North of Springfield, Massachusetts, that he would be enclosing a family photograph about which Mr. Lorenz wrote on July 30, 1976, “.. we cannot ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q IN SEARCH OF THE CHINESE NAME FOR “LI SUN” 109 locate a photograph of Chan Lai-sun. It is not very surprising that there is none from his College days, as photography was not yet widely adopted in the 1840's. And no photographs were usually taken of honorary degree recipients in the late nineteenth century. As to the reference in the 1872 letter to Professor North, the family photographs are not in the correspondence file. They were evidently separated out when the alumni correspondence files were established. I have searched the miscellaneous North papers, but with no success. There is an old trunk of North memorabilia which I will also search as soon as time permits. . . Chan's letters to Professor North from October 28, 1872 to September 10, 1873 and selections from Hamilton College Literary Monthly, July 1869 to February 1887, made possible a tentative biographical sketch. Also very helpful were Carl T. Smith's two articles in the Chung Chi Bulletin of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Chan Laisun (hereafter this name will be used just as he used it in his signature) was born 1829 in Singapore, the son of a poor gardener. Chan attended the Chinese day and boarding schools conducted by the American Board missionaries. His mother tongue was Malay, although his father was from the Ch'aochow prefecture of Kwangtung Province. His parents died leaving him an orphan. The Reverend Joseph S. Travelli of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, and his wife served as missionaries of the American Board. Soon after their arrival in Singapore, their attention was attracted by a Chinese boy waiting on the table of the American Consul, and they took him into the school which they established for Chinese children for English and Chinese studies. When the school was disbanded in 1842, Chan was taken to the United States and put into Mr. Randall's School in East Bloomfield, New Jersey until 1846. Then the Reverend Samuel Wells Williams of the American Board arranged for him to receive free instruction at Hamilton College. His college term ended in June 1848, and he returned to China with Reverend Williams as an assistant with the American Board mission in Canton until 1853. He had lost almost all knowledge of the Chinese he had known and had to engage a language tutor to relearn Chinese. In July 1850, he married Ruth Ati (1827-1917), one of two girls Miss ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 110 TIN-YUKE CHAR Aldersey brought over from her Batavia, Java mission school to become assistant leaders in her Ningpo school. Ruth and Laisun had a family of six children: Elijah, Spencer, Willie, Annie, Lena, and Amy. Chan later left his mission work and went to Shanghai in 1853 where he became quite successful through his connections with an English mercantile firm. On a corner of the American Board's property in Shanghai, he built a school house where his wife opened a girls' school. As he was acquainted with Yung Wing and was qualified, he was engaged to accompany the Educational Mission to America in 1872. He took along his wife and six children. His two eldest sons were ready to enter college in two years and his two eldest daughters received part of their education in England. In 1875 Chan was detached from the Educational Mission and appointed interpreter to Li Hung-chang, Governor-general of Chihli. Thus, he met Hawaiian King Kalakaua in Tientsin in 1881. The February 1887 issue of the Hamilton College Literary Monthly had this letter from Chan, "We all love the United States, for many reasons. Our hearts are still there, although we are back in China. I am in Tientsin, with the well-known viceroy, Si [Li] Hung Chang, as his Secretary, and Interpreter. Annie, our eldest daughter, is married to a Dane, Captain of the Chinese government revenue cruiser; and is the happy mother of a beautiful son. Elijah, the eldest boy, graduated from the Yale Scientific School in 1887. He then went to Freiburg in Saxony, and remained there eighteen months. On his return to China, he was commissioned to open the copper mines in Eastern Mongolia. His prospects are very bright. He was offered the post of chief engineer for the government railroads, but declined to accept it. He is the first scientific engineer China has produced. His field is the largest ever offered to a single individual, for the mineral resources of China are almost infinite.” From Carl Smith's article, it was learned that another son, Spencer Tsang Lai Sun, married Man Kwai, daughter of the Reverend Ho Fuk-tong (1818-71) of Hong Kong. A further lead to more information was given by Chi Wang of the Orientalia Division, United States Library of Congress. In Shu Hsin-ch'eng's Chinese book on Chinese Students in Foreign Countries, the interpreter of the Educational Mission was identified by his official name, Tseng Heng-chung. The same is true in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q IN SEARCH OF THE CHINESE NAME FOR “LI SUN” 111 Lo Hsiang-lin's book translated into English, Hong Kong and Western Cultures (Hong Kong, 1963) which gave this same official name for the interpreter of the Chinese Educational Mission, Thus, it may well be concluded that Chan Laisun was the name given at his birth in Singapore and Tseng Heng-chung was his official name in later years. It is hoped that this article about the search for a Chinese name will stimulate a response from relatives and friends of Tseng Lan-sheng (Tseng Heng-chung) and bring forth corrections and additions to the story of an unusual person and family who lived during the early historical period of China and American cross-cultural exchanges.9 NOTES 1 See pp. 92-106 of JHKBRAS 16 (1976). 2 William N. Armstrong, Around the World with a King (London: Heineman, 1909), pp. 92-93. 3 Tin-Yuke Char, The Sandalwood Mountains: Readings and Stories of the Early Chinese in Hawaii (Honolulu: University Press of Hawaii, 1975), pp. 44-51. 4 Yung Wing, My Life in China and America (New York: Holt, 1909), p. 183. 5 容閎自傳:西學東漸記, 台北文海出版社 1973 重印, 6 Carl T. Smith, "A Register of Baptised Protestant Chinese, 1813 - 1842," Chung Chi Bulletin, December 1970, pp. 23-26; Smith, "Idols on a School Hill: the American Board School for Chinese Boys in Singapore, 1835-1842,” Chung Chi Bulletin, December 1974, pp. 28-30. 7 舒新城編: 近代中國留學史, 上海中華書局 1933. 8 羅香林著: 香港與中西文化交流, 9 Tsung-1 Dow, Chronological Biography of Li Hung-chang - 著: 李鴻章年, 香港友聯社, 1968 does not include King Kalakaua's visit in 1881 nor does it mention Chan Laisun (Tseng Heng-chung), although otherwise most comprehensive. Mr. Char has since added the following extra note: It would add great interest should Hamilton College be able to find Chan Laisun's family photograph of 1872. Also, some one in Hong Kong may be able to add to the family story of his son Spencer who married the daughter of the Rev. Ho Fuk-tong of Hong Kong. Probably Carl Smith has additional materials and will write the next article. The October 1975 issue of Smithsonian carried a good article on Li Hung-chang's visit to New York in August 1896, accompanied by 18 aides and 2 servants, 300 pieces of luggage, a golden sedan chair, several cargoes of song-birds, 2 noisy parrots. He brought along his own chefs, bakers, valets, guards, footmen, secretaries, interpreters, and physician. His chief interpreter was then Lo Fing-luh, a skilled linguist in German and French as well as English. There was no mention of Chan Laisun as an interpreter or secretary. Perhaps by that time he had gone on to other work or may have died. In 1896 he would have been 67 years old (born 1829). Editor's note: Carl Smith's article extending the story of Chan Laisun and his family follows on. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 NOTES AND QUERIES 159 National Biography, but with the library mentioned by Angus Hamilton. What became of it? Hong Kong, May 1982 JAMES HAYES A MISSING CHINESE LIBRARY Our Hon. Librarian, Mr. Rydings, has been following up the question posed in my Note on this subject that appeared in the Journal in the 1976 issue (Vol. 16: 284). The papers reproduced below will be of interest, and may also result in the still missing library being restored to wider public knowledge and use. Hon. Editor 30 July 1980 (I) Letter to The Librarian, David Bishop Skillman Library, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa. 18042 Dear Librarian, William Edgar Geil Please see the enclosed extract* from Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 16, 1976, p. 284. As Dr. Geil was one of your distinguished alumni, I am interested to know whether you can throw any light on the mystery of the missing books. It seems extraordinary if they have disappeared without trace, yet I can find no mention of them other than in the source quoted. Any help which you can provide would be much appreciated. Yours sincerely, H. A. RYDINGS Librarian c.c.: Dr. J. W. Hayes * In order to compile his book Eighteen Capitals of China (Philadelphia and London; J.B. Lippincott Company, 1911) Dr. William Edgar Geil, the celebrated American traveller and author stated in his preface: (p.x) "With the aid of viceroys, governors, Hanlin scholars, librarians, booksellers, we have gathered a large collection, out of which selections by leading scholars have been translated, and a few specimens are given, to let the readers see the old style of book. Local proverbs in themselves have never been brought together on our scale; and to choose from a mass of new material which would fill three volumes has been a difficult task." ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 Gillian Bickley, Ph.D., B.A. (Hons.), Cert. Ed., M.Litt., F.R.S.A., is an Associate Professor in the Department of English, Hong Kong Baptist University. She has previously held posts in Hong Kong at the University of Hong Kong, Longman Far East, the British Council, St. Stephen's Girls' College, and the Hong Kong Examinations Authority. She has taught at the University of Lagos, Nigeria and the University of Auckland, New Zealand. She has lived in Hong Kong for 23 years. Paul Bolding, works as a financial journalist at the news and information organisation Reuters in London. He has been with Reuters since 1974. He lived in Hong Kong from 1993 to 1997 and has travelled widely in Asia. Mr Bolding has previously worked in Europe and the Middle East including Brussels, Berlin and Nicosia. He has a special interest in the silk route and is a co-author of the Insight Guide to Turkey. B.C. Fawcett, was born in the Far East where his father served with the Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corporation. He also joined the bank and served from 1961 to 1978, being based in Hong Kong from 1971 to 1978. During that time he was also a volunteer with the Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force, now the Government Flying Services. He is a life member of the HKBRAS. Richard J. Garrett, M.A.(Cantab), C.Eng., F.I.C.E., F.I.Struct.E., F.H.K.I.E., is a director of an international firm of Consulting Engineers and based in Hong Kong since 1973. He has been a collector of antique arms and a member of the Arms and Armour Society of the U.K. for over 30 years. He has published a number of articles on the subject of early firearms. Sheilah E. Hamilton, B.Sc., M.Soc.Sc., Ph.D., is a long-time resident of Hong Kong and former forensic scientist with the Hong Kong Government from 1968 to 1988. Her passion for Hong Kong history began in 1992 and areas of interest include historical fires, forensic issues and security. R.G. Horsnell, is a Chief Property Services Manager with the Architectural Services Department, Hong Kong Government, and a ... ================================================================================