RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author 102 : Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 Besides the nine large monasteries and ten large nunneries in the Colony there are several other categories of institutions that are, in fact, far more numerous. In the urban areas, for example, there are small business establishments that go under the name of monasteries or nunneries, but are actually funeral specialists. They are summoned by the families of the deceased to perform the necessary rites at the coffin for one to seven days. They burn incense, offer sacrifices of food, read sutras, employ esoteric mantras and mudras, and (theoretically) concentrate their minds on the joint tasks of saving the soul from hell and saving the household from the soul (who may have become an unquiet ghost). Except for Christians and Muslims, most traditionally minded Chinese in Hong Kong consider that such funeral services are appropriate in the case of the death of one of their relatives, though many people, of course, die without the benefit of any funeral service at all, either because their families cannot afford it or do not care—or because they have no families. The funeral specialists wear monastic robes when "on duty", but they are not, in fact, ordained and they lead a secular life. Persons who have money or are strongly Buddhist usually prefer to have funeral services performed by monks from one of the Colony's monasteries, but this is more expensive: a donation of HK$30 a day for each monk is considered suitable. The funeral specialists only ask for a third as much. Usually theirs is a family business, handed down from father to son, in which perhaps half a dozen people participate—mostly members of the family. There are perhaps 15 to 20 such institutions in Hong Kong and Kowloon. Another type of institution found in urban areas is the study centre, where services are held and instruction is offered to laymen by one or more ordained monks. Examples would be the To Ts'z Fat She30 in Kennedy Town and the Buddhist Lecture Hall of Abbot To Lun in Happy Valley (where greater emphasis is placed on contact with foreigners). Perhaps the best known is the Ching Kok Lotus AssociationEH, founded in 1950 by the Reverend Kok Kwong. It holds Pure Land services every Saturday, attended by about a hundred people, and occasional dharma meetings to receive instruction by eminent Buddhist teachers from Hong Kong and abroad. Kok Kwong, who is also one of the directors of the Hong Kong Buddhist Association (see below), has recently established a Buddhist monthly, Buddhism in Hong Kong, the first issue of which was dated June 1, 1960. It contains both doctrinal articles and items of local Buddhist news and history. Members of the Sangha also operate two libraries. One is the Hong Kong Buddhist Library, Boundary Street, Kowloon, established in 1957. It has a collection of over 10,000 volumes ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author 118 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 daughters, daughters-in-law and grandchildren) are often dressed in the traditional mourning colour of white, usually in a costume provided by the funeral parlour and consisting, for women, of a white skirt and an upper garment resembling half a sack with one corner placed over the head. Men tend to wear white gowns, with a white band tied round the forehead. A thin surcoat of sack-cloth (haaù ma pò) may be worn over the white mourning clothes by a widow, daughter and daughter-in-law of the deceased; a son may wear a smaller square of sack-cloth over his head. Friends and relatives will pay their respects to the deceased by bowing towards the coffin three times and once towards the chief mourners, who are usually ranged to one side and may be kneeling with their heads towards the ground. For this public lying in state, the deceased is sometimes placed in a special coffin that leaves the upper portion of the body temporarily exposed. Before burial, the missing portion of the coffin lid will be replaced. The farewell room throughout the vigil and lying in state may be lit with candles and incense sticks, often making the atmosphere uncomfortably heavy and oppressive. In the past, it was customary to bang gongs throughout the vigil, to keep away the evil spirits, but this practice is now prohibited to avoid nuisance to neighbours. It is also customary amongst the less well-to-do for the female relatives of the deceased, particularly a widow, to give a public demonstration of grief in the form of wailing, weeping and loud cries. Mute grief would neither satisfy custom nor perhaps offer adequate incentive to the spirit of the deceased to exercise a benevolent influence on his descendants. In practice, the last rites at a funeral parlour usually continue till midday, for the practical reason that it may take the whole morning to complete formalities such as registering the death and making arrangements with the relevant authorities for burial or cremation. The body is then taken by motor hearse to the cemetery or crematorium, accompanied by relatives. Friends may also accompany the hearse if they wish, but there is no objection to their departing earlier after the last rites have been performed. For a particularly large funeral, the journey to the cemetery may be preceded by a ceremonial procession in the neighbourhood, with funeral bands, mourners on foot, the hearse with the coffin, and large wicker framework plaques covered in silver and blue paper describing the deceased. The writer once saw a one-quarter mile procession, with no less than sixteen separate bands, complete an entire circuit of the Happy Valley race course before departing for the cemetery. Some of the funeral bands may be hired by the descendants of the deceased; other bands may be hired by friends wishing to offer condolences. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d NOTES AND QUERIES 151 Enough has been said to demonstrate that East Point was not the Firm's first building site. This leads on to a further contention that it was not the original intention to site the main part of the new city of Victoria in the Happy Valley - though it is undeniable that that idea was mooted within a year or so and building did commence there after a very small number of individuals, most of them connected with Jardine, Matheson & Co., very quickly obtained grants of much of the best land in the area. However, one further circumstance suggests that the firm originally intended to have their Headquarters much nearer the centre of town than was later the case. Sometime in 1841, perhaps very soon after the sale of 14 June 1841, they obtained a transfer from a Captain Ramsay of what was then Town Lot 42, and there erected a large house of which the Canton Press caustically commented that "on entering the harbour, you perceive the most commanding site, disfigured by a hybrid erection, half New South Wales and half native production, which is a foretaste of the architectural absurdities to be perpetrated on this island." But Jardine, Matheson & Co. were unfortunate in their choice of this site for their headquarters on two counts. It was early decided that the hill to the west of the present Albany nullah (Garden Road) should be reserved for Government buildings only. Government correspondence was as early as November 1841 datelined ‘Government Hill’. Thereby restricting the development of the town in that direction into the fairly wide and gently sloping valley behind the present Murray House. But even worse was the Military's insistence that the ridge and hillside to the east of the Albany nullah should be reserved for their use; this area covered the sites of both the firm's godowns and house. The house later became the residence of Lord Saltoun, Commander of British Forces in China during the war which ended with the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. The present Flagstaff or Headquarters House, built by 1846, now stands on this site."1 They were able to occupy neither building for long: early in 1842, Colonel Malcolm, Pottinger's secretary, wrote to them, extending an offer to compensate them for moving away to allow the area to be used by the Military. They would be allowed to choose marine lots in any part of the island not appropriated for any other purpose and would, in addition, be given $25,000 in cash for the buildings they had erected. They had, of course, no option, and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g NOTES AND QUERIES 195 in frames hung on the walls. A portrait of Sir Robert Ho Tung's mother and a photograph of his wife appear in the older of these two memorial halls. The Tam Kung Temple at Happy Valley This temple, which seems to have been removed here about 1900, was formerly located at Wong Nei Chung Village and was the local village temple. The village of Wong Nei Chung was one of the main villages of Hong Kong Island and its existence pre-dated the British occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841. It was eventually removed in the 1920s to make way for the present development of Wong Nei Chung and Blue Pool Road. The present race course was formerly the paddy fields belonging to this village. This temple is in fact dedicated to two gods, Pak Tai, (11) the god of the north and Tam Kung, (342) a Kwangtung worthy. Other gods worshipped in the temple include the Goddess of Mercy (left of the main altar) and Lung Mo, the Dragon Mother (right of the altar). Up some steps and behind the main building is another altar in which there is an image of Tin Hau, the Queen of Heaven. To the right of this altar are some memorial tablets which have been put there by relatives of dead persons for regular worshipping rites to be carried out in return for a small initial sum. You will note that one of these contains bone ashes in a small porcelain jar. Tin Hau Temple, Causeway Bay This is by far the oldest of the three temples we shall visit today. The structure, apart from some later repairs, dates mainly from a last major reconstruction in 1868, and the bell is dated 1747. There are various items of temple furniture inside and outside the temple bearing dates in the Tao Kwong (1821-51) and Tung Chi (1862-74) periods, including a very good pair of large stone lions dated 1845. Inside the temple the major items of interest are the carved granite altars which date from the 1860s and are worthy of close inspection. The temple is dedicated to Tin Hau, the Queen of Heaven and has long been famous for attracting large numbers of boat people on this goddess' festival in the fourth moon. Unlike most ================================================================================ 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-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d 162 DONALD C. BOWIE of 230 moved on 20 January 1942 from Hong Kong to Camranh Bay and thence to Sumatra. The 230 regiment left Camranh Bay on 18 February 1942 and landed at Java. The whole Japanese operations in Hong Kong, the Philippines, Malaya and elsewhere had been carried out by only eleven divisions. As soon therefore as Hong Kong fell on 25 December 1941 it must have been Japanese policy to withdraw the fighting troops in order to replace their losses, which had been substantial, reequip and reorganise them for the next operation. The atrocities in Stanley, Happy Valley and elsewhere were carried out by fighting troops flushed by success in battle. I imagine that these must have been withdrawn before our hospital and Hong Kong generally suffered. This seems the most likely explanation for the facts, for as I said earlier Bowen Road was practically in the front line as the fighting ended and the city of Victoria was an exceedingly rich prize. During hostilities we in Hong Kong learned of the sinking of the Prince of Wales and the Repulse off the Malayan coast, which with the destruction also of a large part of the American fleet of course extinguished any hopes of relief. Rumour spread among us and was eagerly passed on that a Chinese army was hastening to our rescue. To those who had watched the failure of the Kuo Min Tang Chinese to make an effective attempt to dislodge the Japanese armies from Canton and South China since 1938 this story was considered to be most unlikely to be true, as so it proved. Soon after our surrender, nurses and other staff and patients who had survived the outrages of Stanley, Happy Valley, St. Albert's Convent Hospital and elsewhere rejoined Bowen Road and their experiences soon became known to all staff and patients. Even so it came as a shock to many to see and hear Japanese methods with captives. For several nights for example our guards had a number of Chinese as prisoners; these they had tied to trees and seemed to carry out barbarities upon them. Some of our people reported that they had smelt burning flesh and certainly the cries of the prisoners were shattering. Rumour had it that the Chinese were caught looting, of which large numbers were undoubtedly guilty, but this experience shook patients and some staff considerably for a while. One of the early Japanese officers to visit the hospital expressed surprise at finding women there at all, and advised that they should make themselves as inconspicuous as possible. This warning spread ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG 185 received from Japanese sources, (Appendix A) will show that fresh milk was also received from time to time and this, of course, as is noted, was used practically wholly for the ill patients. It was only occasionally that a little was allowed to others in order to keep up their morale. Feeding the Staff I do not here include the officers who were members of the staff, for these received pay and could use what was left of this after contributions had been paid and friends supported to supplement their general messing, though the extra thus obtained was very small. The problems with other staff can also be stated simply. These men's work was essential; deprived of it, the hospital could not function. Some of this work was hard if intermittent, e.g., carrying patients or stores, felling trees for timber; some was hard and regular, like the work of the laundry squad, particularly during the dysentery outbreak; some was exacting and often provoking, like that of the nursing staff. On the other hand, the lamentable conditions of acutely ill patients had to be rectified at all costs. The principle adopted was that when a member of the staff began to show signs of early deficiency, as some were doing as early as August 1942, he was admitted to hospital, when he had all the rights of patients to extra diets. In the case of staff members who had, for example, put in a heavy day felling trees or moving 100 kg sacks of rice, I made to each man a small extra issue, maybe an egg, maybe some peanut butter, and so on. This was a token rather than a major contribution to their nourishment and was never resented by patients. In the early days of the Hospital Central Fund in 1942, the executive committee, on which officer patients were represented, recognised the special position of the working staff, and small, very small cash payments were made to these monthly from the Fund. At a later date, in 1943, staff were given working pay, again in very small amounts by the Japanese, but it was not till 6 March 1945 that the needs of working staff were recognised by a formal entitlement to extra general rations. We had long known that in the P.O.W. camps, men employed on camp duties got increased rations, and we got the immediate example we required when in January 1945 a working party from Sham Shui Po was accommodated in Bowen Road while employed on preparing land in Happy Valley ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d CAPTIVE SURGEON IN HONG KONG 213 service, thirty-two women members of the Nursing Detachment of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps and two women nursing auxiliaries. By December 31 we had 341 patients, slightly over half of whom were Canadians, attended by six medical officers including myself, one dental officer, one Church of England chaplain, one quartermaster R.A.M.C., 81 other ranks including seven engineers and nine Canadian combatant soldiers who served as orderlies. In these five months we admitted 546 patients of whom 42 died, 31 of these were Canadians. Up to about 19 December 1941 we had buried our dead in Happy Valley, but when this site became unapproachable we used large bomb and shell craters close to Bowen Road immediately below the hospital to form common graves. When this site was full we prepared another cemetery by the main gate of the hospital. In August 1942 we had to prepare a new cemetery within our wired perimeter on the bank to the north of the hospital and between the hospital and Bowen Road. We had, of course, no coffins and at first we used sheets as shrouds. The mounting number of deaths compelled us to substitute well-worn blankets as shrouds and this practice continued up to the end of 1942. Our funerals were dignified affairs and I attended in every case. We usually had a few patients and staff as well and at first, remarkably enough, the Japanese were always represented by Sergeant Seino or others and they came bearing wreaths and sheaves of beautiful flowers. They did not keep up this practice very long and I think they had ceased to attend well before we had buried the last of our 42 men before the end of the year. Funeral parties were always guarded. In August 1942 we began to give thiamine by injection regularly to staff while all in hospital received yeast drinks. Each member of the staff received two yen from the Central Hospital Fund and I was given a copy of the Japanese "Rules for P.O.W. Camps", and I was told that though these were not wholly applicable to a hospital, we were required to conform to the rules in a general sense. I have no idea now what these rules were, but I do know that they did not introduce any new feature into our daily life. About this time all in the hospital were required to complete a form showing their previous experience especially as car drivers, members of the medical profession, those experienced in manufacturing processes and mining, communications experts, agriculture etc. One splendid question was "In what occupation you want to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 36 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS tions were flying thick and fast from both sides. Everybody was happy and elated, and when we retired it was with the thought of arising the next day to celebrate the glorious Feast of our Blessed Lady, Her Immaculate Conception, and to make preparations for our trip to the missions. December eighth in the Far East and December seventh in the Western world! Maryknoll at Stanley rose as usual. Masses and breakfast followed and shortly after we were electrified by the report that Kai Tak airport had been bombed at 7:45 and that the Pan American Clipper which brought our new missioners had been destroyed. WAR! And Hong Kong is in the news! Being eleven miles over the mountains from Hong Kong we had, of course, heard nothing of the bombing, and were inclined to believe that the whole thing was a hoax of some kind. But soon we were entirely disillusioned when the radio flashed news of Pearl Harbor and when shortly after tiffin the planes flew over Stanley and dropped a few bombs to the west of us, apparently over the sea. We tried to get news from Hong Kong over the telephone but nobody seemed to know just what was happening. We anxiously gathered around the radio and tried to pick up what news we could. Evidently, war was on in earnest and America and we were involved. About five o'clock in the afternoon, our telephone jangled and we heard the voice of His Excellency, Bishop Valtorta, saying that all his Italian priests had been interned by the British Government, and that he would like to have Father Downs come to help him out at the Cathedral. His priests were given only a short time in which to pack up their personal belongings and were immediately taken away to a destination which was not disclosed to the Bishop. Father Downs hastily packed his suit case and caught the half past five bus for Hong Kong, and it must be confessed, with no little trepidation. The trip to the city was a tense one. Along the route the bus was stopped periodically by the British sentries, inspected and finally diverted by way of Aberdeen, instead of the usual Happy Valley route. The whole city, too, was tense, and though the downtown streets were crowded, there was fear and uneasiness everywhere. At the Cathedral were His Excellency, Father Rosello, a Spanish priest attached to the Cathedral and Father Craig S.J., from Wah Yan College, as also a few young Chinese priests. His Chancellor, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m 208 BOOK REVIEWS These and other difficulties in realizing this project seem to have deterred the present compilers. The result, I am afraid, is far from satisfactory. Although the book is set out in several sensible sections, focusing on the harbour, China Town (Western), the strategic areas of Central, the Peak, Mid-levels, several suburbs such as Happy Valley, the vast area of change in Kowloon and the New Territories is condensed into one chapter. However, there are chapters devoted to People (a few random pictures of groups of Chinese people), Buildings of Note, Early Hotels and the Beaches (Repulse Bay). But in design and execution scrappy unrelated text set to grey, dull pictures (even a couple of crudely coloured pictures advertised as the highlights of this collection stand out like sore thumbs) — this book will not satisfy anyone coming to consult it to see how Hong Kong has changed. Eric Cumine, Hong Kong: Ways & Byways: A Miscellany of Trivia. (Hong Kong, 1981). Given the rich varied cornucopia so generously offered to the reader by a man who is so evidently in love with Hong Kong, it seems the best idea is to adopt his own menu arrangement to give some idea of this book. There is some significance in the letters and entries chosen here as examples of 'Cuminology.' Records A measured sense of pride informs this book; so it is no surprise that Eric Cumine says "we have a few records to gloat over". Some, we might agree with e.g. "Hong Kong is the noisiest place in the world, according to a H.K.U. lecturer" (Reviewer's note: not me!) I do not agree that we have the best lawn bowls players in the world. Architecture This is a category not included here: but it should be. In fact, there is a goodly sprinkling of drawings by Eric and his P.W.D. friends. Reflecting the author's modesty, he does not include any mention of his own architectural contributions to Hong Kong's Ways & Byways. Of course, Hong Kong's architecture (apart from the house where the author lives) is a mediocre mass of box-like uniformity. Glamorous City Cumine quotes Fodor to the effect that Hong Kong is the fifth most glamorous city in the world. A captivating but elusive concept. It would ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 10 Occupation 1941-45 due to a desire to avoid political exploitation and incorporated in May 1959. — This school, together with another Buddhist school in Sham Shui Po, Kowloon, take it in turns to provide Buddhist services for the souls of the dead at the Race Course Fire Victims' Memorial Pavilion (c above). Known as ta chiu (打醮) these rites are performed at Ching Ming (March-April) and last 7 days. According to Holmes Welch, writing on Hong Kong's Buddhist institutions in Vol. I of the RAS Journal, Hong Kong Branch, the principal religious role of Buddhist organizations in Hong Kong is "to provide funeral ceremonies and care for the souls of the dead”. The annual service at the Race Course Fire Victims' Memorial mentioned above is not the only one performed. "In January 1960, the Hong Kong Jockey Club after a series of mishaps during the racing season, in the last of which a prominent jockey had been killed (the fourth since the war), invited the Buddhist Association to arrange for appropriate rites of exorcism. For three days and four nights some 68 monks and 44 nuns performed elaborate ceremonies at altars set up on the Club's premises. They prayed continuously in teams, not only for the repose of the souls of the jockeys, but also for those of the 2,000 persons [actually 600] who lost their lives in the grandstand fire of 1918, and for any other souls whose welfare was brought to their attention by relatives. According to the local press, some 40,000 persons attended." In addition, there is an annual public service for the souls of the (general) dead every Remembrance Day at the Tung Lin Kok Yuen, founded by Lady Clara Ho Tung at Happy Valley in 1935, (g) The Shing Kwong Church of the Church of Christ in China (h) St. Mary's Anglican Church ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 113 produce from the sea near the present Aberdeen Country Club. Some villagers operated stake nets lowered by windlass into the sea from a rocky headland, and others used lines catching fish like nai mang (鯺鏝) to make a sweet congee. The old lady's mother, born about 1860, planted hemp and made it into string used for tying and mending clothes until she was sixty years of age. The village people also grew a kind of rush (cheung po) (菖蒲) when she was young, using it as a charm to hang over their doorways, especially in the fifth moon, in the manner reported in old works on China.2 25 - The stake nets were an especially favoured form of fishing in local waters. One can see a few surviving sites round the southern coast of Hong Kong island to this day. In the Tangs' time as sub-soil owners see below they may have leased sites to local persons, as they were doing in the New Territories in 1899. It is also of interest that no less than 13 sites on the south side of Hong Kong island were leased out by another absentee landlord family of scholar gentry, the Wongs (王) of Nam Tau (南頭) and Cheung Chau, as shown in maps in their printed genealogy issued in the 1860s. People walked far to secure a livelihood in those days. One of the persons interviewed in the investigations into the murder of two British officers near Stanley in 1849, was a villager of Little Hong Kong who had a hut and operated a stakenet on the point where Stanley Fort now stands. 26 27 However, farming was the principal occupation. The Little Hong Kong fields can be seen on the Hong Kong Government's first survey sheet for the area, whilst the extent of the Wong Nai Chung fields can be gauged by the race course at Happy Valley which was built over them.28 Rice was favoured because there was a plentiful supply of stream water available that only required damming, leading and terracing, albeit by dint of hard labour, to provide fertile land that would support two crops of rice yearly. An account of harvest time in one of the Hong Kong villages appeared in one of the numbers of the Illustrated London News for 1858. "On the 1st of November (1857) I took a walk with a friend into the interior of Hong Kong and saw the process of rice-harvesting, beneath a bright, hot sun, the entire village popu- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 222 erect bridges at the crossing of the brook, for these purposes the surplus funds of the meeting will probably suffice.” From the beginning Hongkong races were a paying proposition. Some forty years later at the time of the Queen's Jubilee there seemed an excellent chance that again marked improvements would take place in the Valley, enhancing the setting for the annual race meeting. Failure to take into account the interests of the whole community, particularly the Chinese, however, defeated the effort. WHY THE CHINESE OPPOSED VICTORIA PARK When Mr. Chater rose at a public meeting in March 1887, to propose that as a permanent memorial of the Queen's Golden Jubilee a park be formed at Happy Valley, he spoke confidently of its advantages. Nonetheless, he may have had some qualms about its popularity as it had already provoked strong opposition since he first mentioned it at a Legislative Council meeting in February. In affirming his confidence in the proposal, he said: “I feel sure if this park be carried out and completed it will be a source of great pleasure to the European community of Hongkong; it will be a very agreeable drive and a pleasant lounge in the afternoon.” Unfortunately those of the community who owned horses or carriages for a drive or had the leisure to "lounge" in the afternoon were a small proportion of the total population. These were activities seldom indulged in by the Chinese. Mr. Chater admitted they might not view the project in the same way as Europeans. But in justification he said: “I am equally sure the Chinese community will also approve of and appreciate it in the course of time.” Following Mr. Chater's remarks on his resolution and the seconding speech by the acting Attorney General, Dr. Ho Kai rose to speak. His views may be regarded as those of the Chinese community. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 165 10 each article taken altogether. The washermen are a regular set of scamps; one has to look very sharp after them. I had no end of clothes to wash on my arrival. I make my servant bring in his bill every morning. You would stare to see the amount I was supposed to eat the first day: Really it was enormous, and so for the first few days. If I send them to get anything I do not see all of it I am sure, or else pounds and ounces are very much smaller here than at home. But I find it is the general rule here; it seems to be regarded as a lawful perquisite. But when I can talk to them I will see all about it. I generally rise soon after six. At seven I go to the library and give a lesson in French to Hahn-shan, after which I make him work me up in Chinese. Breakfast at a quarter past eight, [and] prayers at a quarter to nine. School at nine, where I stop a short time and then leave the students to themselves, as I have no notion of working in holiday time. Study, etc., till one, then to dinner, after which I write, or study or get the masters or students and talk with them, till five, when I go to tea. At a quarter to six I go out for a walk, etc., till half past seven, then come in and read, etc., in library or parlour, prayers at eight, then walk in the grounds till bed time. When the pupils assemble I need only superintend the school from nine till one o'clock. Mr Beach has gone to Macao for a few days so I am all alone. He is really a capital fellow, and we agree famously. I treat him just like an old college friend and he ditto. He is very rough and blunt in his manner however, and I fancy he might be far more explicit in his explanations. But I think he is ashamed of the present state of the College, and knowing I am one of the trade, he fancies I have private opinions of my own as to the way it has been managed; and he is quite right if he does fancy so. He wishes to leave me to myself entirely, and to let me begin on Sept 1st by myself, if he is not gone up north before then. However I do not care. Mr Irwin lives so far away that I seldom go to see him. The last time I found him just going for a walk, so went with him right through Happy Valley, and round home to his house. As we were going up the hill we met Mrs I. and her daughter, who were also out for a walk, so we joined them and went over some of the ground again. Of course I had the honour to escort Miss Irwin, and carried on a considerable chat with her. I think her voice for singing very nearly ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 210 the day we would be off to the beach annex of the Chefoo Club where there were rowing boats and canoes. From nine in the morning till lunch time and all afternoon a crowd of us were in and out of the water, rowing out to the raft which was a converted junk with diving boards. I got so brown that summer that the mark of the swimming trunks was still visible at Christmas time! Holidays at Home A great part of school life was the holidays at home. Home at this time was in Tung Shan Terrace off Stubbs Road, when my father was building the Chinese Methodist Church in Wanchai—the triangular red brick building at the junction of Hennessy Road and Johnston Road.* This was home not in a flat but a three-story house, with a garden overlooking Happy Valley. At the back we had access to Bowen Road which was a safe place to play as there were no motor vehicles. Those holidays I remember chiefly for rambles up to Sir Cecil's Ride and a major hike over to Tytam from Wong Nei Chong Gap. And we went to a school pantomime at the Central British School (now King George V School) where the bad guy called himself “ZBW my middle name is trouble you" ZBW being the embryo Radio Television Hong Kong. We had our first family car here, an Austin Seven with a folding roof and went for picnics to the beaches at Repulse Bay and Big Wave Bay, and at Stanley where a new prison was being built. Although it was winter in Hong Kong the climate was comfortable for us from the north and we had no hesitation in swimming. — Our journeys home in the winter holidays were considerable undertakings. Of course there was no air travel nor was rail travel possible. Instead we went by sea on the B. & S. ships of the China Navigation Line. These were coasters of about 7,000 tons which made their way up and down the China coast carrying cargoes of all sorts, a small number of passengers in cabins and a much larger number of deck passengers. Sometimes we were able to get a ship that went all the way from Chefoo to Hong Kong but often we had to get off in Shanghai and wait in the China Inland Mission hostel for a suitable connection. Some luckless schoolmaster had to accompany some twenty or so children more as far as Shanghai on these journeys. They were carefree days and I have wondered how we all survived. We would sit up on the taffrail undeterred by the possibility of toppling over into the sea. I remember getting into frightful trouble from practising throwing a penknife into the cabin bulkhead. In the ports we watched *Since demolished [Editor] — Page 225 Page 226 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 46 He was then described “as perhaps the oldest foreign resident of the colony” (Daily Advertiser 23 Apr. 1872). Shortly before his retirement John Henry Smith and Frederich Rapp were admitted as partners in the firm, John Henry (or Johan Heinrich as it is given in one record) Smith remained a partner until his death at Genoa, Italy in June 1890. He was on his way back to Germany after a visit to Hong Kong with his wife (DP 21 June 1890). His will, which had been written in Macao in 1873, states that he was formerly of Cappelen, Germany. In his will he left all business of ship chandler and auctioneer and commission agent at Macao in trust for his wife Lizzie Smith of New York" (PRO Probate File No. 29 of 1891 [4/8201]). By the time of his death some seventeen years after writing his will he had disposed of his interests in Macao. They were taken over by A. Muller in January 1875 (Macau Boletim 2 January 1875) Christian Friedrich Rapp (or as he was usually known Fritz Rapp) was admitted a partner in the firm of Blackhead and Co. in 1871 and his interest ceased some six years later (DP 2 Oct. 1877). He then went into business on his own as auctioneer and commission agent with an office on Zetland Street (DP 16 October 1877). Mr. Rapp died in Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1895. His tombstone in the Old Residents' Section of the Colonial Cemetery at Happy Valley states he was born at Stade on 30 January 1841. In his will he appoints his wife Mei Ho (May) as guardian of his children: Kwai Tsun otherwise Gustave, King Tsun otherwise Hermann, Sham Tsun otherwise Fritz, Shui San married to Mr. Li, Shui Yee and Shui Sun. In a codicil written on 1 December 1894 he states his daughter Shui Sun is now called Johanna Rapp and that one of the executors he had named, Hemrich Hoppius, was ill and likely to die. In his place he appointed Heinrich Gartels (PRO Probate File No. 7 of 1895 [4/1008]). Blackhead and Co. in 1886 were agents for the Kerscheldt Ice Depot. The ice was manufactured at the Saki Distillery on the Shaukiwan Road (DP 1 April 1886). In the same year they announced plans to build a wharf adjoining their coal godowns, then in course of erection, at what became known as Blackhead's Point in Tsim Sha Tsui (DP 3 April 1886). The account of the firm's Jubilee published in the Daily Press 31 March 1905 stated the company was the largest of the coal merchants in Hong Kong. The coal godowns and wharf later passed into the hands of Butterfield and Swire and were known as Holt's Wharf. The site is now ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 240 committees. As was common in an earlier age, he addressed many people by their surnames, such as 'Hayes', as James sometimes likes to remind me. Nevertheless J R Jones was not a snob. He made old bones and the last trumpet call sounded in January 1976, when he was 88. He was lucky to be buried in the Hong Kong Cemetery (previously called the Colonial Cemetery), in Happy Valley. It was already just about full at the time. On his tombstone are two lines of Welsh, which are supposed to mean so I am informed: An affectionate son who loved life (literal translation, 'who loved the world'). I have been informed by a Welsh scholar, however, who teaches at the University of Wales, that there are mistakes in this Welsh inscription. This is a pity but fortunately, hardly anyone notices it. Few people in Hong Kong can read Welsh. I could, of course, name many other interesting people who have been members of our Branch, many of whom I knew personally. Unfortunately, time will not permit. There was the late John Romer, the 'snake king' (ser wong), who later established the Natural History Society. There was 'big,' in every sense of the word, Ken Barnett who had a splendid command of various Chinese dialects. Governor Sir Samuel Bonham (1848 to 1854) believed that studying Chinese addled the brain. But it did not apply in Ken's case. He had a prodigious intellect. In prison camp, according to Dr Solomon Bard a past RAS member, they used to play mental chess. But no one could keep pace with Ken Barnett. Aims of this conference Why are we here? As with many of the contributors to our Journal you will find that our speakers here today, while they may not be full-time academics, have lived through or had access to important periods of local history. For instance Mr Tim Ko, who will be speaking this afternoon. His family came to Hong Kong around 1850. The male members worked as stonecutters and masons. They came here because business was brisk. Five generations of Tim's family have lived in Hong Kong. If anyone can describe himself as a true 'Hongkonger' it is Tim Ko. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 198 and rock falls. We saw one such team, hard at it, with a pot-bellied sergeant doing the important job of watching them. A dignified repast On the far side of Haa we took the road up the valley to inspect a small village, Nagyel - we were even able to go inside one of the houses and poke around. Everything was, of course, wooden and very solid. But at 9,000 feet we were a bit puffed and in need of lunch - and so headed back down the valley again. Very soon we realised that we ourselves were the visiting dignitaries for whom the large table and chairs had been set up. We had not up to now realised, but in addition to our two minibuses and the smaller one for our baggage, there was yet another. This fourth vehicle contained the catering crew of three, who had gone ahead and prepared a splendid al fresco buffet lunch. What a treat! An excellent spread and served most professionally. And not over the top at all, now we realised who the diners were to be. The second night's accommodation was waiting for us in the capital city, Thimpu. As that was four hours away we had no time to hang around, but we were able to stop for a treat along the way. This was the Napchong Hadang Monastery, where we found we were just in time for a puja for the water god. This ritual, dating from the 17th century, lasts for three days, the third day involving a long procession through the nearby villages. We were there on the first day, and were lucky enough to enter the temple and see two lines of red-robed monks, sitting cross-legged on the floor facing each other and eating rice from their bowls. At the head of the lines was the master. When he started chanting the rice bowls disappeared under the robes pretty sharpish as all were expected to join in. The older monks, sitting nearer the master, had drums whilst the younger ones had enough to do to try not to stare at 27 members of the Royal Asiatic Society. To one side were two, as it were, oboists and to the other were two, as it might have been, bass horn players. The whole ensemble was absolutely magical, something I had never seen nor heard except on the National Geographic Channel. The three further hours to Thimpu were spent in happy conversation on the bus, the subjects ranging from Tung Chi Wah's chances of a second term to African insects that lay their eggs under your toenails. I don't know how I did it in the face of such intellectual challenge, but I ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 244 in the Happy Valley.'" The year of 1845 is referred to as the year when the Colonial Cemetery was opened, in a number of official records.24 This was also suggested by a contemporary local historian.25 The new site for the Catholic cemetery, later to be named St. Michael's Catholic Cemetery and adjacent to the Colonial Cemetery, was granted on 7th January 1848.26 At the same time, it was requested that the use of the old burial ground should be discontinued: His Excellency the Governor in Council has been pleased to grant the Ground next to and North of the English Burial Ground in the Valley of Wong-nei-chong, for the purpose of a place of Burial for Roman Catholics, provided you distinctly agree to discontinue for the future all internments whatever in your present burial ground.27 Death and suffering continued to trouble the troops into the 1850s. A British soldier who was posted to Hong Kong between 1850 and 1854 had recorded not only the sorrowful condition, but also commented about the location of the race-course: During July, August and September [1850], we buried about 300 men. I never seen or heard anything like the epidemic that got amongst the men and every one, native and European has this sickness... Every day at this time July and August three dead bodies into the hearse at once off to the Happy Valley (grave yard named)... At this time October 1850 the remnants of the 59th were about 250 and 150 of these were either in hospital on shore or on board the Minden Hospital Ship across the harbour, so many men dying... Every year we had the races at the Happy Valley Course. On the main road running around the Race Course in Happy Valley opposite the Grand Stand was the burying ground where so many of our comrades lay buried... I always considered the Race Course was in the wrong place, as the sight of the grave yard generally dampened my spirits and took all pleasure away at these races... By the mid 1850s, it was thought that the Colonial Cemetery had already been nearly full, and it became a subject of discussion in a local newspaper: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 410 junk and used this to trade up and down the river between Ichang and Chunking, all the while studying the river and its treacherous rapids. He soon gained the deep respect of all the junkmen he came in contact with and was given the name Pu Lan Tian by them. After trading in this way for some years he was approached by the Chinese owned Szechwan Steam Navigation Company to assist in the design of a purpose built steamer to trade on the Upper Yangtze. This vessel "Shutung" was built in Southampton by Thorneycrofts for £6,000. She was 115 feet long, 16 feet beam and drew 3 feet. Under Plant's command "Shutung" operated a 14 day service between Ichang and Chunking. She carried 12 First Class passengers, 66 deck passengers and 60 tons of cargo in lighters lashed alongside the vessel. The service proved to be very popular and a second vessel "Shuling" was commissioned. In 1910 Plant was offered the post of Senior Inspector, Upper Yangtze in the Chinese Maritime Customs (CMC). He accepted and, in the course of the next few years, compiled a 'Handbook for the Guidance of Shipmasters on the Ichang-Chunking Section of the Yangtze River.' He also wrote a slim volume entitled 'Glimpses of the Yangtze Gorges.' Plant retired from the CMC in 1919. In recognition of his outstanding service, the CMC and the Chinese Government built him a small bungalow on the outskirts of the village of Xintang. This bungalow perched on a small promontory overlooking the mouth of the Xiling Gorge and the Hsin T'an Rapids. Steamers using this stretch of the river saluted Captain Plant by sounding their whistles and he would reply by waving his hat or handkerchief. 1921 and the Plants decided to return to England for a short holiday before returning to Xintang to live out the rest of their lives. They were feted everywhere they stopped on the journey downriver to Shanghai. Here they took the Blue Funnel ship which was to take them to England. Sadly, en route to Hong Kong, Captain Plant came down with pneumonia and died at sea on 26th February, 1921. Tragedy struck again when Mrs. Plant died in Hong Kong shortly after arrival. They were buried together in the Colonial Cemetery, Happy Valley (now called Hong Kong Cemetery). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 207 THE MIDDLESEX (“TYNDAREUS”) STONE DAN WATERS For those of you who can picture Hong Kong's Victoria Peak, on the small, flat, grassy, sitting-out area in the saddle between High West and Victoria Peak, there used to lie a Boulder. This sitting out area complete with pavilion is close to where Lugard Road joins Harlech Road. The Boulder used to lie just above where Hatton Road joins Harlech Road. A ring of small stones roughly three metres in diameter, partially overgrown with grass, still marks the position. The Boulder is in its natural state except for one side which was flattened to take the original plaque. As far as can be measured the Stone is 110cms x 130cms x 71cms and it is estimated to weigh a little less than one tonne. Then suddenly one afternoon I spotted it was missing. While trying to find out what had happened to it, over the next week or so two letters appeared in the South China Morning Post. Both writers expressed concern. One letter, dated 8 April 1994, from the late Martin Booth the well-known author who spent time in Hong Kong as a child - but in later years lived in England - was headed, 'An outrage.' He said the Stone also celebrated, by association, those men of the Middlesex Regiment who so valiantly defended Hong Kong in 1941 against the Japanese. Booth went on to say that the monument was also of interest because it was erected by Lieutenant Colonel John Ward "whose prompt action, military efficiency and strong sense of humanity saved many during the disastrous Happy Valley Race Course fire. This took place in February 1918 and has been well documented. Booth states the death toll in the fire was 570. 'That [the "Middlesex Boulder"] has disappeared is an outrage to local history and an insult to those it commemorates. A patch of newly seeded grass is all that remains.' The two letters were followed by another from R I Goodwin, Director of Public Relations HQ British Forces Hong Kong, dated 18 April 1994. He stated he wished to reassure Mr Booth that the Middlesex Stone was in good hands and that it was en route back to the Regiment's safe keeping in the United Kingdom. Goodwin then went on to mix up the whole issue. He took the figure of 570 lives lost in the Hong Kong Racecourse Fire in 1918 (as quoted by Booth) and quotes this as the number of lives lost when the troopship Tyndareus was mined off South ================================================================================