RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 28 G. FINDLAY ANDREW Having agreed the matter of weight and accepted the rate of exchange, the next settlement had to be agreement on count and grading. Cash was usually strung in strings of five hundred. But the count was never full for the law of custom allowed the shop to deduct up to three cash per hundred to pay for the labour of counting, grading and stringing. Thus a nominal hundred worked out at 97—even less with a little sharp practice. Then in many districts there was a differentiation of "large" and "small" cash. In such case further bartering was necessary to agree the ratio of "large" and "small" in each hundred. Personally I would agree that the charge of three cash per hundred for counting, grading and stringing cash could be well justified. I do not remember seeing even a Scot count his cash after an exchange transaction. The labour involved is well illustrated in a Chinese story of a wealthy man and his prodigal son. The father was so incensed by the gambling debts incurred by his wayward son that, in a moment of extreme exasperation he disowned him. In accordance with well-established Chinese custom, the friends of the family rallied around and set to work to persuade the father to rescind his ruling. Finally, yielding for face sake, the father called for his steward to bring out 100,000 cash, the amount of the last gambling debt. It was winter time and the money was taken to the arbour in the garden and there the strings were cut and the cash poured into one pile on the floor. The son was then ordered to count and string the cash and discharge his debt therewith. You can imagine the state of the young man—physically and mentally—when at long last the task was completed! Finally when the long exchange transaction was completed, the purchaser was faced with the physical task of moving his purchase. The approximate weight was one lb. per hundred cash. Thus the exchange of one Mexican dollar (at the time equal to one U.S. dollar) at the ruling rate of 1,500 cash per dollar, faced the purchaser with the problem of having to move fifteen lbs, deadweight. When the traveller was on horse-back (as we so often were) this became a problem of considerable magnitude. Applied to present days this would mean that a traveller changing five dollars into cash before boarding a plane would find himself saddled with 75 lbs. of luggage—some ten lbs. in excess of the luggage allowance on an international flight. Yet in those days a single brass cash had its purchasing power. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f CHINA'S 35 MILLION NON-CHINESE 71 been pushed into the higher mountain districts and are surrounded by Han or T'ai people in the lower valleys. The chief Yao concentration is in the border mountains where Hunan, Kwangsi and Kwangtung come together. In Kwangsi they form a compact group in the Yao Mountains. According to Bruk, only a third of the Yao still speak the Yao language; the other two-thirds are said to have adopted one or the other of the Miao, Tung, Chuang or Han Chinese languages. Of the Miao-Yao group, but set somewhat farther apart culturally by time, is the She cultural group which mostly are in the east coast provinces but consider themselves to have come from Kwangsi. All except about 3,000 of the 151,000 She are in Fukien and Chekiang, the most compact settlement region being Ching-ning district in southern Chekiang, in which about a third of the total number reside. Aside from whatever problem the minorities constitute to the controlling Han Chinese, their occupation of the frontier regions of south and southwest China give them a peculiar significance. Many of them inhabit blocs of territory overlapping the international boundaries. With the development of national consciousness, especially in periods of real or imagined oppression by governments not of their own choosing on one side or the other of the border, resentments tend to be reflected in desires for pan-national or pan-ethnic consolidation. Trouble on one side of the border leads to easy flight across the border to receptive and related peoples on the other side. This also works for criminal elements wishing to escape from police authority in their home territory. Frontier smuggling and banditry require the cooperative effort of friendly neighbour states, but are hard to deal with when neither side exercises effective control in the isolated, sparsely-settled frontiers of southwest China. International grievances over minority peoples in the past have been numerous between former British-controlled Burma and China. 21 Within China, the ethnic character of its southwest clearly indicates its frontier aspects. This is a region of clashing cultures in various stages of peaceful or compulsory Sinicization. Today the acculturation process is being greatly accelerated by the Chang Hu, T'eng-yueh pien-ti chuang-k'uang chi chih-nien ch'u-yin (A discussion of the situation in the T'eng-yueh frontiers and of their control), Yunnan Frontier Research, Kunming, 1933, 321-322. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v 128 A. D. BLUE an unofficial association of Chinese pilots stationed at Hankow, whose members were employed by the companies on this section of the river. For the Upper River there was a branch of the Chinese Pilotage Service, whose members were licensed by the Customs, and an apprenticeship of five years was required to qualify as a pilot on the Upper River. The Yangtse was opened to foreign trade through British diplomatic and naval action, and the Yangtse Valley was always a particular preserve of British commerce and industry. This was tacitly recognised by the other Powers, even during periods of intense international rivalry. By the early 1920's it was estimated that British investment in the Yangtse Valley, including Shanghai, was over £200,000,000. This was almost as much as was invested in the whole of British India at that time, and much more than was invested in British Africa. More than half of the shipping regularly employed on the Yangtse was owned by two British companies—the China Navigation Company of John Swire of London, and the Indo-China Steam Navigation Company of Jardine Matheson and Company of Hong Kong. Both Companies also had substantial investments in other industries in the Yangtse Valley, as well as in docks, wharves, and warehouses. The operations of the British Yangtse steamers were severely curtailed shortly after the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Within a few months of the outbreak of the war the Japanese had captured Shanghai, and soon after that Nanking, the capital. The capital had previously been moved up river to Hankow, and when Hankow in turn was threatened it was moved further up to Chungking, which remained the capital for the remainder of the war. The capture of Hankow resulted in the closure of the Lower River to British shipping, but the services above Hankow were still maintained. After Ichang was captured in June 1940, a still more restricted service was maintained in the Upper River until the end of the war. No British ships operate on the Yangtse nowadays, and the Red Ensign is seen only on the rare occasions when a British ship under charter to the Chinese government visits Nanking or Hankow. 17 By Shanghai is meant here the Chinese city surrounding the International Settlement and the French Concession. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 91 LAND AND LEADERSHIP IN THE HONG KONG REGION OF KWANGTUNG IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY* JAMES HAYES This article concerns a fringe area of the Kwangtung Province of South China and deals with land and leadership on the island of Lantau. Lantau or in its Chinese form (L) is the largest offshore island of what, since 1898, has been styled the New Territories of British Hong Kong. Lantau is roughly fifteen miles long by five-and-a-half miles broad. The island takes the form of a mountain range which runs, with breaks, along its whole length on a N.E.S.W. axis. The main peaks of this range are around 3,000 feet high. Most of the cultivated land is situated around the coast and at the time of the British lease amounted to a little less than 2,660 acres; that is, only a few square miles. The main crop was and still is rice, harvested twice in July and November. In 1898 the island possessed one market town (population 2,000) situated at its north-west extremity. This place was a salt-producing centre and a considerable fishing port. There were also about fifty small villages on the island. At a carefully-conducted census taken some years after the lease, four of these villages had populations in excess of 200 persons (the largest 363), another seven had more than 100 inhabitants, whilst the remainder were under that figure. The total land population was then over 6,700 persons, mainly Cantonese. Most of the villages were inhabited entirely by Cantonese or Hakka clans, though some of them were of mixed settlement. There was also a boat population of around 5,500 persons whose craft were based on the market town and other anchorages along the coastline. Before 1898 Lantau was part of the San On (**) district of the Kwangtung province. Though it was not far by sea from the This paper is a slightly amended version of that presented at the XVIIth International Congress of Chinese Studies held at the University of Leeds in 1965. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 the Society had a fine home of its own with a lecture hall presented by a Dr. Wu Lien-teh, a magnificent library and a museum and art gallery. It was supported by the Municipal Councils of the International Settlement and of the French Concession with liberal grants. In Hong Kong, however, no philanthropist has yet appeared to help the Society and the Government gives us only $200 a year in return for which it receives free copies of the Society's publications. Our library is increasing and now consists of about 500 books but can be much enlarged by the purchase of books and by donations. One section of the library, the rarest volumes and our exchange journals as well as a stock of our own journals, is kept in the University, while the other section is kept in the rooms of the British Council which is already hard pressed to house its own library. We are grateful to the University and the British Council for these facilities and the services of their staff but the time has come when the Society will have to appeal for funds to house our library and make it more easily available. We have to acknowledge with gratitude the gifts of books made during the year, including contributions from the Hong Kong University and from the South China Morning Post. A most valuable gift was the presentation on behalf of the Diocesan Girls' School of the classic and rare book, Bentham's Flora Hongkongensis, published in 1861. Bentham was a member of the Society but published his great work two years after the Society's collapse. In this connection I want to add that it has been my great wish, so far not achieved, to see Bentham's book succeeded by a new and colour edition of the Flora of Hong Kong based on the 500 admirable slides from the photographs taken by Mr. F. A. Nixon. With some Government encouragement and some philanthropic help, such as was given by Jardines and Dents in 1859, such an aim could be achieved and would serve as a permanent contribution by the Royal Asiatic Society to the natural history of Hong Kong. As you will see from the Hon. Treasurer's Report our finances are in a satisfactory position; but we cannot be complacent as we have heavy expenses to meet in printing the new issue of the Journal and in reprinting Vol. I and the printing of the record and results of the recent Symposia conducted by Professor Dwyer ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g THE TAIPINGS AT NINGPO 25 that they would not strike the first blow, but neither would they stand idly by. Finally, they used this occasion to affirm that under Taiping rules, all Chinese residents of the foreign settlement were still under Taiping Chinese jurisdiction. This was put very civilly, and it was emphasized that Chinese deportment toward foreigners would continue to be proper, and that trade would be allowed to continue as before.24 This letter did not satisfy Captain Dew. On May 2, he replied that since his "moderate demands" for the insult to the British and French flags had not been met, the generals' letter had been forwarded to the admirals. While awaiting the latters' decision, the foreign ships were moved down river two miles and all communication with the city was cut off. Dew now added a third demand: the appointment of a Taiping officer with guards to perform the duty of preventing anyone from mounting the walls opposite the ships. If the demands were not complied with, the Taiping generals were informed that the foreign naval vessels had already been given the authority to blockade Chinghae, and would prevent all foreign ships from entering the river toward Ningpo.25 The Taiping generals replied the following day, May 3, 1862. Point for point the reply seems to be reasonable enough. Regarding the first demand, it was pointed out that explanations had already been given on the accidental nature of the event. On the second demand, the Taipings again discussed their concern for the security of the city in the event of an attack. However, it was agreed that the portholes of guns bearing on the international settlement would be stopped up and all shot and powder from these positions would be removed. As to the third demand, it was emphasized that no persons were allowed on the walls in question except the men in charge of the guns. The few temporary workmen there would soon be removed. The generals concluded by reminding Captain Dew that "the order to blockade Chinghae will do more harm to your trade than it will to us," and that "we are inordinately desirous of remaining on good terms with you."26 The final exchange in this dialogue was an ultimatum from Captain Dew on May 8. By this time, the British had already made arrangements for an attack on Ningpo. This had come ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d MERCHANT ORGANISATIONS IN IMPERIAL CHINA 39 other geographical groups. However, the Chinese chambers of commerce, with their foreign influence and official sponsorship, were a “modern” kind of merchant organisation, and their story properly belongs elsewhere.38 In the area of increased political leadership—the third area of merchant aspirations—the merchants' success was mixed and in one sense limited. As a social class, the merchants did not have an overall strategy to enhance their status and influence. Rationalisation of their political roles varied from place to place. In Canton, the merchant leadership remained with the directors and officers of the charitable halls, and they remained conservative. In Shanghai, merchants participated not only in charitable halls but also in municipal organisations with clear political aims. By the first decade of the twentieth century, merchant study groups, in imitation of others formed by students and scholar-gentry, were established to examine the questions of local government and constitutionalism. Eventually these activities led merchants to agitate for political representations in the Municipal Council of the International Settlement, and to set up a city council for the Chinese-controlled section of Shanghai.39 Others participated in direct action, as in the case of the 1905-06 boycott against American goods over that country's discriminatory immigration policy.40 Few merchant organisations, however, became schools for political confrontations or other forms of patriotic outbursts. Most of them were run by establishment-oriented merchants who sought to use their institutions as a means to promote symbiotic arrangements with officialdom. Although these efforts varied by time and place, one common element stood out—the Chinese merchants in late imperial China were by and large interested in making their political links only at the local and provincial levels. Their interaction with the political order took place at these levels, for governmental sanctions and supports came from the provincial Governors-general and their lieutenants. The merchants realised that the central authority at the time was weak and far away. As practical men, they therefore limited their ties of mutual benefit to where they were counted most. Yet this went against their long-term interests. For to achieve economic development, China needed efforts at the national level. Then as collaborations between local officials and merchants increased, the considerable strength of the merchant ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 168 C. MARTIN WILBUR Su, Sing Ging; The Chinese Family System. New York, International Press, 1922. Tang, Chi-yu; An Economic Study of Chinese Agriculture. No place, no pub., 1924. (Cornell University Ph.D. Thesis.) Tayler, J. B.; See: Malone, C. B., and Tayler, J. B. Tsu, Yu-yue; The Spirit of Chinese Philanthropy; a Study in Mutual Aid. New York, Columbia, 1912. Tyau, Min-ch'ien (Ed); Two Years of Nationalist China. Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1930. Werner, E. T. C.; China of the Chinese. London, Pitman, 1920. Werner, E. T. C.; Descriptive Sociology: or Groups of Sociological Facts, Classified and Arranged by Herbert Spencer. Chinese; Compiled and Abstracted upon the Plan Organized by Herbert Spencer. London, Williams and Norgate, 1910. (Folio no. 9 of series). Wilhelm, Richard; A Short History of Chinese Civilization. (Translated by Joan Joshua). New York, Viking, 1929. Williams, Edward T.; China Yesterday and Today. New York, Crowell, 1923. Williams, Edward T.; A Short History of China. New York, Harpers, 1928. Yen, James Y. C.; New Citizens for China. No place, Chinese National Association of the Mass Education Movement, 1929 (Reprint. Yale Review, vol. 18, No. 2) II. USEFUL WORKS NOT CITED. Brenan, Bryon; "The Office of District Magistrate in China" (Journal of the North China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 32, 1897-98, p. 36-65). Chen, Ta; "Socio-economic Conditions in Two Chinese Villages” (Chinese Economic Monthly, vol. 2, no. 5, 1925, p. 11-23). Chiao, C. M. and Buck, John L.; "The Composition and Growth of Population Groups in China" (Chinese Economic Journal, vol. 2, no. 3, 1928, p. 219-235), "Chinese Clans and Their Customs" (Chinese and Japanese Repository, vol. 3, no. 23, 1865, p. 281-284). Dickinson, Jean; Observations on the Social Life of a North China Village. (Chien Ying, Wu Ching Hsien) Oct.-Dec. 1924. Peking, Yenching, no date. Fang, Fu-an; Chinese Labour; an Economic and Statistical Survey of the Labour Conditions and Labour Movement in China. Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1931. Gamble, Sidney D., and Burgess, John S.; Peking; a Social Survey. New York, Doran, 1921. Halhoun, Gustov; "Contributions to the History of Clan Settlement in Ancient China” (Asia Major, vol. 1, 1924, p. 76-111, 587-623). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p CONTENTS Page PRESIDENT'S REPORT viii ADDRESS BY DR. J.W. HAYES xiv ADDRESS BY REV. C.T. SMITH xvii TREASURER'S REPORT xviii LIBRARIAN'S REPORT xxi ARTICLES: Structure and Function in an Urban Organization: The Mutual Aid Committees JANET LEE SCOTT 1 Origin and Development of the Political System in the Shanghai International Settlement J.H. HAAN 31 The Strike and Riot of 1884 A Hong Kong Perspective - ELIZABETH SINN 65 The New Constitution and China's Emerging Legal System in Perspective W. ALLYN RICKETT Two Chinese Domestic Murders LETHBRIDGE 99 H.J. 118 Phonology of a Cantonese Dialect of the New Territories: Kat Hing Wai -- LAURENT SAGART 142 Saikung, The Making of the District and its Experience during World War II-DAVID FAURE 161 The Hong Kong Amateur Dramatic Club and its Predecessors - CARL T. SMITH 217 Village Education in Transition: The Case of Sheung Shui — NG LUN NGAI-HA 252 V ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF THE POLITICAL SYSTEM IN THE SHANGHAI INTERNATIONAL SETTLEMENT J. H. HAAN* In this article I shall examine the special governmental structure which came into being in the Shanghai International Settlement,1 and which was virtually unique among colonial or semi-colonial territories. Put succinctly, the Settlement had the following characteristics: 1. It was a territory which had explicitly been set aside by the Chinese authorities (in 1845 on the basis of the 1842 Nanking Treaty) in order that foreigners might live in it and conduct their trade from it. For the rest it was surrounded by Chinese territory, different from, say, Calcutta, Bombay, Colombo or Batavia, which all lay in foreign-dominated areas, if not originally then eventually. 2. It was never the possession of any one single Western power. In this it was distinct from, e.g., Hong Kong, Singapore or Macau. In practice, this meant that no single foreign country was ever able to convert the city into a colony of that country, or to claim sovereignty over it. In the crown colonies, government was conducted by a Governor who was appointed by the home country, and he was assisted by an Executive Council, equally appointed by the authorities; furthermore, there was a Legislative Council which consisted partly of official, ex officio, members and partly of non-official * Mr. Haan is a student of the University of Amsterdam. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 33 This contrasts with the situation in Hong Kong, for instance, where Chinese were tried by colonial judges principally according to English law, and also with Singapore where a similar situation obtained. Land Regulations: the Constitution of the International Settlement Earlier I have made mention of the Land Regulations without clearly explaining what these were. As these Land Regulations formed the Constitution of the Settlement on which nearly the entire structure of government was built it seems proper to give some more details about them, In the course of the Settlement's history (1845-1943) three sets of Land Regulations were issued: in 1845, 1854 and 1869. They all dealt in various degrees with the delimitation of the settlement's boundaries, the mode of renting land, the way in which foreign land-renters or ratepayers could elect a Municipal Council, the organisation of the Municipal Council and other administrative details. The way in which these sets of Land Regulations originated differed from each other. The 1845 Land Regulations The first set was issued by the taotai Kung Mu-chiu, on November 29, 1845. According to the preface these had been drafted by the Chinese and British authorities, meaning Kung and consul Balfour, "in communication together". This first Constitution had a distinctly Chinese flavour, as was to be expected. The basic principles of Chinese rulers were: first, paternalism, which held that a great number of detailed rules had to be laid down in writing and that one of the main tasks of administrators was to prevent the cropping up of unrest among the population, second, the so-called Ai-min principle (literally "love the people") which said that the feelings of the people should be respected, and third, the principle of mutual responsibility through the pao-chia system. In one form or another all these foundations of the Chinese state were represented in the 23 articles of the Land Regulations (the number of articles alone already indicates the Chinese obsession with detailed rules): e.g. paternalistic attitudes were to be found in articles IV, VI, IX, X, XI and others; the Ai-min rule in articles II, V, VII and IX; and the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 41 be recognized, but as many qualifications as possible should be enumerated".25 But the landowners would not accept this, the hub of the matter being forcefully expressed by Mr. Hogg that a substantial enlargement of the voting qualifications "would in fact admit a class that now lived on the property holders and might then outvote them on every important question" and even if Mr. Winchester made any efforts to tempt his superior (the British minister Alcock) into liberalizing the franchise, he was unsuccessful. The final text of this article read: "Every foreigner, either individually or as a member of a firm, residing in the Settlement, having paid all taxes due and being an owner of land of not less than five hundred taels in value, whose annual payment of assessment on land and houses shall amount to the sum of ten taels or upwards, or who shall be a householder paying on an assessed rental of not less than five hundred taels per annum and upwards shall be entitled to vote in the election of the said members of the Council and the public meetings. Although it should be borne in mind that over the years rentals increased substantially, whereas the figures in the Land Regulations were not altered, so that more tenants became eligible for the vote, great disappointment was voiced at the time in a rather harsh comment of the North China Herald in which it was stated that "the Municipal Government has hitherto been conducted on quasi-feudal principles... the extreme difference between the election qualifications (under discussion in Shanghai and those under discussion in Britain) is sufficiently striking. While we have with difficulty gained a £250 franchise (viz Taels 700, the minimum rent which gave a tenant the right to vote — JH), large numbers at home are dissatisfied with a £10 standard and are agitating for a reduction to £6, while we fix the payment of £6 per annum in taxes as necessary qualifications, at home the payment of a £6 rental is thought to be established as entitling the householder to a vote. We see no reason why the outer many should not enjoy a voice and vote as well as the fortunate few"20 But however valid the objections of the critics were, these remained the foundations upon which the franchise in the Shanghai International Settlement was based. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 48 J. H. HAAN In practice this meant that only the big commercial houses and other business interests came to be represented on the Municipal Council as virtually no private person paid enough taxes to qualify for membership: if only ten percent were qualified to vote, it may be imagined that the percentage qualified for membership of the Council was even smaller. In the period up to 1865 only one instance has been found of a Municipal Council member who did not originate from a commercial firm, namely Dr. Medhurst of the London Missionary Society, who was on the Council for 1854-55. Otherwise all members belonged to some China house, and it is remarkable that the American firm of Russell & Co. was at the top of the list, being represented seven times during the period 1849-1866, whereas the renowned British firm Jardine, Matheson & Co., very early established in Shanghai, had only one member on the Council and that as late as 1865-66. Later there would hardly be a Municipal Council without Jardines. 40 As befitted an International Settlement, the composition of the Municipal Council was mixed according to nationality. The number of members fluctuated rather wildly in the early years (2 in 1849-50; 3 in 1850-54; then it jumped to 7 for the Municipal Council of 1854-55, to be reduced to 5 the next year and to 3 as from 1856-57; it was increased again to 5 in 1862-63 and to 7 the following year). These changes and enlargements were principally caused by the numerous problems which the Settlement faced at one time or another. In the 1869 Land Regulations it was provided that the Municipal Council would consist of 9 members. In 1927, 3 Chinese members increased it to 12 and another 2 to 14 in 1930. The British and Americans were first in the field at Shanghai and throughout its history they retained their majority on the Municipal Council (until 1930 when they became on a par with other nationalities). The first non-Anglo-Saxon member was a German in the Municipal Council for 1863-64 due to the growing German commercial interests in China. The Germans retained their seat until the outbreak of the Great War in 1914. After 1915, their ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 52 J. H. HAAN contest if the term may be used in connection with such tame tussles as the Shanghai Municipal Council elections"45 and it was alleged that the "small and select group which dominates the affairs of the Shanghai International Settlement always regards the situation as ideal when there are only nine nominees for the nine posts on the Municipal Council because that obviates the necessity for holding an election. A public election, even when all the nominees are highly respectable as Shanghai standards go, is generally regarded as undesirable for there is always the possibility of unexpected developments because of nationalistic rivalries which exist here in an exaggerated degree”46 Municipal Bureaucracy and Social Legislation As has been made clear a certain ossification took place with regard to the political structure of the Settlement. It is interesting to consider whether this influenced the way the Settlement government coped with the increasing social and infrastructural problems which were inherent in a fast growing town which, moreover, was changing from a commercial into an industrial centre. The attitude of the foreign rulers of the Settlement remained essentially one of non interference, though efforts were sometimes made to soften the most obvious hardships. But in general an early and mid nineteenth century individualist liberal ideology prevailed. This meant that the main tasks which were considered legitimate business for the Municipal Council were: the upkeep of law and order through the police the provision of public works like roads, drainage, parks, etc. the taking of essential measures to prevent the outbreak of diseases, plagues, etc., in other words: public health. Closely related to these tasks was the rise of the several departments of the municipal administration. The municipal police originated in the early 1850s and although it cannot be said that it functioned very satisfactorily in the beginning one superintendent was even dismissed in 1860 "on charges indicating systematic fraud and extortion"47 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 54 J. H. HAAN would, if not have abolished, at least have restricted child labour. But these came to nothing as a result of apathy or hostility on the part of sections of the foreign ratepayers who had to decide about such measures.51 Some years later, in 1933, a byelaw was in fact passed which gave the Municipal Council the right to refuse licences to industrial enterprises and through this indirect way it gained some control over factory conditions. But owing to opposition from the local Chinese administration (of the Shanghai territory outside the Settlement), which was against any new and undue expansion of the functions of the Municipal Council, the new rules were applied only haphazardly. It was true that in 1932 an Industrial Section, under the Secretariat of the Municipal Council, was created, replaced by an Industrial and Social Division in 1940, and the officials of this department sometimes managed to persuade or coax factory owners into the adoption of more humane working conditions,52 but this was all on a rather ad hoc basis. In the 1920s and 1930s more and more pressure arose from the workers, sometimes organised in small trade-unions which were, however, regarded with some distrust by the Settlement authorities (just as they had been in Britain before the abolition of the combination laws in 1824), and numerous strikes, politically or economically motivated, were held. There were a number of reasons for the lack of social legislation in the Settlement, apart from the factors already mentioned. 1. As noted above, the Land Regulations only dealt with the traditional view of government functions. Any additions to the functions of the Municipal Council in the shape of byelaws ― would have to be passed by the Council, the ratepayers, the consuls, and the foreign ambassadors, as well as, in some cases, the Chinese authorities. This cumbrous process alone was in most cases enough to nip any efforts for improvement in the bud. 2. A second major factor was that the Shanghai area consisted of three independent municipalities: The International Settlement, the French Concession, and the Greater Shanghai ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 58 J. H. HAAN Seventy years later it was complained that "official business in this important municipality is conducted in secret. Members of the Municipal Council are bound not to disclose matters discussed in meetings and no reporter of a local newspaper has ever attended a meeting of the Council. The Council does issue a so-called Municipal Gazette, probably the dullest official journal in the world, which contains brief reports usually starting out "Notice is hereby given" or "I have the honour to convey etc." 100 Now it is, of course, true that in Western countries with a parliamentary government, meetings of the cabinet or other governing bodies were (and are) not open to the public. But there the rulers were responsible to representatives of the people, be it in parliament or its local equivalent. Nothing of the kind happened in Shanghai, which apart from the other structural and institutional regulations which halted democracy as understood elsewhere, made the whole administrative system come to be looked upon as oligarchic. Summary Summarizing this article we might say that the Settlement government rested on a base which became increasingly outmoded in Western countries where democracy allowed ever more people to participate in politics. Franchise according to tax paid was gradually abolished in the West, but in the International Settlement at Shanghai it remained till the last day of its existence. In the beginning, consent of all residents was claimed to be the foundation of municipal government, but as time progressed the administration degenerated into an oligarchy with or without the negative implications which the term suggests. Political interest was low and nobody really tried to change the system. Though Justice Feetham published a massive report about the situation in the Settlement and offered valuable advice in 1931, nothing was done. Only in the heyday of Chinese nationalism were some minor facelifts agreed, without altering any of the fundamentals. It was only after the return of the Settlement to China in 1943 and especially after the communist takeover in 1949 that ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 59 Serious measures were taken to change the whole social and political structure of the town. NOTES Preliminary note: Although the present paper is to a great extent based on fresh research, the following works have been of considerable use as they contain material about the government of the International Settlement: Feetham, Justice Richard: "Report to the Shanghai Municipal Council" 1931-1932. Johnstone, W.C.: "The Shanghai Problem", 1937. Jones, F.C.: "Shanghai and Tientsin", 1940. Kotenev, A.M.: "Shanghai, its Mixed Court and Council", 1925. Montalto de Jesus, C.A.: "Historic Shanghai", 1909. Port, F.L. Hawks: "A short history of Shanghai", 1928. 1 The International Settlement at Shanghai was formed in 1863 by the amalgamation of the original British Settlement (formed in 1845, but later increased in area) with the so-called American Settlement in the Hongkew area which had grown up without formal establishment in the 1850s, and early 1860s, and which had been formally recognised by the Chinese earlier in 1863. The French Settlement (formed in 1849) always remained separate from the International Settlement. Outside the area of the foreign settlements lay the old Chinese city and suburbs: these remained under Chinese rule, and became subject to the Greater Shanghai Municipality when that was set up by the Chinese authorities in 1927. * Cf also Treaty of the Bogue, article VII, "ground and houses, the rent of which is to be fairly and equitably arranged for, shall be set apart by the local officers in communication with the Consul." 3 Population figures for intermediate years are, 1,666 foreigners and 75,047 Chinese in 1870, and 6,774 foreigners and 345,276 Chinese in 1900. Of the 13,536 foreigners resident in 1910, 4,465 were British, 940 Americans and 3,361 Japanese. Of the 38,940 foreigners resident in 1935 no fewer than 20,242 were Japanese, as against 6,596 British and 2,015 Americans. + * Text of the 1845 Land Regulations (LR) is in Shanghai Almanac 1853. It is not too fanciful to suppose that persons willing to move to as remote a place as Shanghai in the 1840s were likely to be particularly strongly imbued with the contemporary belief in individualism, with its consequent hatred of despotism and paternalism; this almost certainly assisted in the speedy breakdown of the 1845 Land Regulations to something far more individualistic in tone. • North China Herald (NCH) 30.7.1853. * J.H. Haan: "De opkomst van de International Settlement te Shanghai 1845-1865. Een historisch — politicologische analyse" ("The rise of the International Settlement at Shanghai. A historical-political analysis"), unpublished manuscript University of Amsterdam, 1977; chapter II. Cited as Haan "Shanghai". Cf NCH 22.7.1854; text of draft LR in NCH 30.7.1853, 27.8.1853; final version in 8.7.1854. NCH 22.4.1865. 10 NCH 17.3.1866. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p NOTES AND QUERIES 299 examples from field work, I began to look in books on China for examples from other places. It then became obvious that the use of firecrackers in the settlement of disputes was widespread. Some examples from my reading may be of interest to readers, and I shall briefly refer to them here. E. T. Williams mentioned their place in the settlement of disputes in his general work on China China Yesterday and Today (New York, Thomas Y. Crowell 1923), 128: The village elders use their good offices to reconcile the disputants and earn for themselves the reward of the peace-makers. They hear the complaint and the defense, the rejoinder and the sur-rejoinder. They find a middle ground on which the parties to the quarrel may meet, The law-suit is avoided: the ill-feeling is removed, the principals and their relatives are reconciled, and the whole village participates in the feast with which the event is celebrated. Of the complainant is decorated with red hangings, and the neighbor against whom complaint was made brings great bunches of fire-crackers attached to a pole and sets them off in the gateway. Thus full atonement is made for the alleged injury or affront and everybody is happy. The house except, as I have said above, the losing party! And forty years before Williams' book was published, the prefect of Canton, intervening in a three-cornered dispute between merchants, scholars and his subordinate officials, playing the role of mediator, "soothed the anger of the scholars with fireworks, i.e. shooting firecrackers, a customary way of giving loud apology to a party whose sentiments or honor were wronged". This is taken from Kung-chuan Hsiao Compromise in Imperial China, Occasional Papers on China No. 6 (Seattle, School of International Studies, University of Washington, 1979), p. 45, citing the account given by Herbert A. Giles, China and the Chinese (New York, 1902). Chang Fu-liang, a member of a rural reconstruction programme in Kiangsi province in the 1930s, found that the settlement of disputes was sometimes necessary before a start could be made to the work. He describes one situation as follows:- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 207 THE SHANGHAI MUNICIPAL COUNCIL, 1850-1865: SOME BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES Introductory remarks J.H. HAAN In a former article* I gave an analysis of the administrative structure that developed in the International Settlement of Shanghai during the nineteenth century. Appended to that article was a list of Municipal Council members for the period 1850-1865. Here I intend to give some biographical details about those members, not only with regard to their commercial positions, but still more to show in which other organisations they were active. This may serve as an indication of the social ambitions of the Council members. From the data I have been able to assemble it will appear that in this respect some were far more active than others, but that most in some way or another devoted themselves to public tasks other than the purely political one for which they had been chosen by the landrenters. The organisations, committees, etc., in which they participated may broadly be divided into two categories: those that were of a political nature and those that were of a more social nature. 1. Political Committees As from 1862 a number of committees were appointed by Public Meetings of Landrenters, mostly in order to devise methods to improve the effectiveness of Municipal Council rule. * JHKBRAS, Vol. 22 (1982) p. 31 “Origin and Development of the Political System in the Shanghai International Settlement” ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 135 NCH 31.3.1855. 136 137 CR Jan. 1848, Jan. 1849, Jan. 1850. Adv. NCH 1.4.1854. 134 Adv. NCH 11.8.1855. 119 Adv. NCH 17.5.1862. 140 227 NCH 31.3.1855, 14.3.1857. 141 Polt, o.c., fac. p. 81. 1414 "Dictionary of National Biography” (1900), Vol. XIII, p. 202-203; A. Wylie: "Memorials of Protestant Missionaries” (1867), p. 25ff; NCH 11.4.1857; Couling, o.c., p. 344. 143 See: J.H. Haan: “De opkomst van de Internationale Settlement te Shanghai 1845-1865" (The Rise of the International Settlement at Shanghai) Unpublished manuscript, University of Amsterdam, 1977, p. 167-169. 144 NCH 13.9.1851; SA 1855. 145 146 J.C. Harris: “Couriers of Christ" (1931), fac. p. 112. Wylie, o.c., p. 25ff; BS I, 74; III 1596-1597. Obituary by Henri Cordier in T'oung Pao, Vol. III (1902), p. 338. 147 148 SA 1855, 1856. 149 Adv. NCH 19.1.1861. 150 China Directory 1874. 151 See: Edward LeFevour "Western Enterprise in Late Ch'ing China" (1970), passim. 152 King & Clarke, o.c., p. 98; see also p. 137 (year of death should be 1902 instead of 1891). 153 JNCBRAS, Vol. VI (1871), p. ix. 154 JNCBRAS, Vol. VIII (1874), p. i. 155 BS III, 2365; IV, 2557. 156 CR Jan. 1847. 157 Adv. NCH 27.8.1853. 158 NCH 12.4.1856, 14.3.1857, 9.1.1858, 15.1.1859. Replaced by Whittal (NCH 13.6.1863). 159 NCH 26.9.1857; Cordier, Letter, (see n. 32) p. xii. 160 Death reported in Report 1863 Trustees Trinity Church (NCH 10.12.1864). 161 CR Jan. 1842, 1843, 1848 (Macau), 1847 (Canton), 1848 (ibid), 1849 (ibid), 1850 (ibid). 162 Elliston. o.c., p. 25. SA 1854, 1855, 1856; adv. NCH 3.1.1857. 163 164 CR Jan. 1851. 165 Notification in NCH 17.8.1861. 166 NCH 10.6.1865. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x International Settlement at Canton. Finally on 15 March 1986, some 60 members visited the Hong Kong Cemetery at Happy Valley under the expert guidance of Revd. Carl T. Smith. This occasion was memorable because it included a visit to the grave of our first president, Dr. J.R. Jones. The Council is most grateful to all persons who have contributed to the programme with their time and knowledge. Particular thanks go to Elizabeth Sinn of our Council who with a small sub-committee has taken up the task of providing the programme with zest, knowledge and imagination. Hitherto, it was usual for the Council to plan future programmes at each Council meeting, relying on councillors to make suggestions and arrangements, but after a longish period where this had become difficult, the new sub-committee was established. Publications Publication of the annual journal, always the mainstay of our publication programme, is behind schedule, but I am glad to report that the 1983 Journal has just come from the printers. Its editor, Dr. Patrick Hase, also has the 1984 journal in hand, which is expected within the coming year. As incoming editor, Dr. David Faure took over preparation for the 1985 journal from November last year. A note on our publication difficulties and arrangements for the 1983-85 Journals has been sent to our overseas members. A special publication with Oxford University Press to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Society's re-establishment in Hong Kong was completed in time for our celebration of the event at the Mandarin Hotel on 28th November, 1985. This was the volume of essays dealing with the Chinese Protestant Church and its contribution to the growth and development of Hong Kong society, by our vice-president Revd. Carl T. Smith. Copies of the book, suitably inscribed to mark the occasion, were presented to our patron, His Excellency the Governor Sir Edward Youde (by Revd. Carl T. Smith) and to Revd. Smith ix ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 297 that guided the administration of the city of Canton during its four year occupation by the Allies, during which he laid the foundations of his knowledge of written and spoken Chinese, he joined the Chinese Maritime Customs at Ningpo. When that city was captured by the Taiping Army, he assisted the Sino-French "Ever Triumphant Army" to recapture it, and later commanded it in the operations that led to the recapture of Hangzhou, for which he received high rank and honours from the appreciative Ch'ing government. Contacts made during this time led to employment after the Rebellion, in and outside China, that lasted until his death in France in 1886. His principal achievement was the construction and administration of the Fuzhou Dockyard and its fleet of warships in the face of many difficulties. Ironically, they were destroyed by naval forces of his own nation during the hostilities of 1884-85 between France and China over Vietnam. Giquel was a rare bird for his times. Apart from his linguistic proficiency and administrative capacities, he was sympathetic towards China at a time when this was not common among his contemporaries. Moreover, he sought ever to combine his duties to his employers, the Chinese, with his loyalties towards his native land, a veritable tightrope which he conscientiously trod throughout his working life. As Dr. Leibo observes, "A less committed individual might never have attempted such a balancing act”. (Transferring Technology, p. 5). He gave offence to many influential Frenchmen and to his government in 1872 by an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes in which he suggested that the French Concession at Shanghai should be merged with the International Settlement, and criticized French policy towards China in various aspects. Why this should be so is hinted at by an English account which indicates how different Giquel must have been from most of his fellows. Even allowing for the fact that this is an English account, written at a time of strong rivalry between the two powers and by one side of an old and mutual antipathy, it speaks for itself: French officers are so quick to take offense (sic) — so quick to obtain satisfaction - so imperious, so impractical, and so totally uncommercial that they are viewed ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q DEZAKETTRE DWUKISME) James Hayes 233 NOTES See the list of printed papers given at pp. 271-272 of my book, The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911: Institutions and Leadership in Town and Countryside (Hamden, Conn., Archon Books, 1977). Perhaps I should add that whilst the progress of the survey and land settlement are described, the records of hearings in cases where disputes could not otherwise be settled are not now available, save for some reports in the local English-language newspapers.1 See Chapter 4, "Shek Pik, A Multilineage Settlement of Cantonese Farmers" in Hayes 1977, op cit, pp. 104-128. I have also used some of the documentary material in my paper Education and Management in Rural South China in the Late Ch'ing at pp. 575-592 of Vol. 1 of Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Asian Studies 1984, (Hong Kong, Asian Research Service, 1985). 1 Although surviving “Chi Tsai” from the New Territories are few in number, they are not rare either. I have come across them here and there in my research, but unfortunately dismissed them as being of no particular interest or value, compared with the Block Crown Leases and actual customary deeds of sale and mortgage. One entry from my Notes, for instance, taken at Chuk Yuen Village, New Kowloon, in July 1963, states, "Her husband's father was Lam Hei (), and she showed me a few chits for lot numbers claimed at the Land Court in 1901. They included one interesting receipt for 13 tax receipts, presumably Ch'ing land tax receipts, which must have been submitted as proofs of ownership at the land settlement following the lease of the New Territories to Great Britain in 1898“. A collection of some dozens of chi tsai from New Kowloon villages is in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong (HKMS104): these will be the subject of a separate note in due course. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h # BIBLIOGRAPHY 245 1. Archives: "London Missionary Society": Incoming Letters, Central China. 2. Newspapers and Periodicals: **Boletim do Governo de Macao**, Macao, 1855-1865. "China Mail", Hong Kong, 1845-1860. "North China Herald", Shanghai, 1850-1867. "Puck, or the Shanghai Charivari", Shanghai, 1871-1873. *Shanghai Commercial Record*, Shanghai, 1865. 3. Books and Articles: Adams, W. Davenport: "A Dictionary of the Drama. A Guide to the Plays, Playwrights, Players and Playhouses of the United Kingdom and America from the earliest times to the present", Vol. I (A-G) (no more published). Philadelphia, 1904. Appleton, William W.: "Madame Vestris and the London Stage", New York - London, 1974. Barr, Pat: "The Deer Cry Pavillion. A Story of Westerners in Japan 1868-1905", London, 1968. Black, J.R.: "Young Japan. Yokohama and Yedo. A Narrative of the Settlement and the city from the signing of the treaties in 1858 to the close of the year 1879", Tokyo-London, 1968 (reprint of 1880-1881 edition). Boase, Frederic: "Modern English Biography", London, 1965 (reprint of the 1891-1921 edition). Booth, Michael (Ed): "English Plays of the 19th century", Volumes I and IV, Oxford, 1969-1973. British Museum General Catalogue of Books. Brown, T. Allston: "A History of the New York Stage from the first performance in 1732 to 1901, 3 vols.; New York 1964 (reprint of 1903 ed.). Buckley, C.B.: "An Anecdotal History of Old Times in Singapore 1819-1867, Singapore, 1902. Carse, A.: "The Life of Jullien", Cambridge, 1951. Chesterfield, Lord: "Advice to his son on Men & Manners in which the principles of politeness and the art of acquiring a knowledge of the world are laid down in an easy and familiar manner", Chiswick, 1826. Conolly, L.W. and J.P. Wearing: "English Drama and Theatre 1800-1900. A Guide to information sources", Detroit, 1978. Cordier, Henri: "Bibliotheca Sinica", second edition; 5 vols.; Paris 1904ff. Davis, Jim (Ed.): "Plays of H.J. Byron", Cambridge, 1984. 'Dictionary of National Biography". Dyce, C.M.: "Personal Reminiscences of Thirty Years' Residence in the Model Settlement. Shanghai 1870-1900", London, 1906. Engle, Gary D.: "This Grotesque Essence. Plays from the American Minstrel Stage". Baton Rouge, 1978. Fétis, F.J.: "Biographic Universelle de Musiciens", Paris, 1864; Supplement by Arthur Pougin, 1880. Fitzgerald, Percy: "Principles of Comedy and Dramatic Effect", London, 1870. "The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians", London, 1980. Haan, J.H.: "Origin and Development of the Political System in the Shanghai International Settlement" in: "Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of Royal Asiatic Society", Vol. 22 (1982), p. 31-64. Haan, J.H.: "The Shanghai Library: A history of the first foreign library in Shanghai" in: "Journal of the Hong Kong Library Association", 1987. Hartnoll, Phyllis: "The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre", London, 1972. Howard, Diana: "London Theatres and Music Halls, 1850-1950", London, 1970. Page 270 Page 271 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 246 King, F.H.H. and P. Clarke: “A Research Guide to China Coast Newspapers 1822-1911”, Cambridge (Mass), 1965. Kosch, Wilhelm: "Deutsches Theater Lexikon", Klagenfurt, 1960. Kounin, I.I.: "The Diamond Jubilee of the International Settlement of Shanghai", Shanghai, n.d. (c. 1939). Kunitz, Stanley (Ed.): "British Authors of the 19th Century", N.Y., 1936. Lang, H.: “Shanghai considered socially", Shanghai, 1875. Lanning, G. and S. Couling: "The History of Shanghai", Vol. I.; Shanghai, 1921. MacGuire, Paul: "The Australian Theatre", Melbourne, 1948. MacLellan, J.W.: "The Story of Shanghai from the opening of the port to foreign trade". Shanghai, 1889. Makepeace, Walter, Gilbert E. Brooke and R. St. J. Bradwell (Ed): 'One Hundred Years of Singapore", 2 vols.; London, 1921. Maybon, Charles B. & J. Fredet: "Histoire de la Concession Francaise de Changhai'', Paris, 1929. Maude, Cyril: "The Haymarket Theatre, Some Records and Reminiscences" London, 1903. Mullin Donald (Ed.): "Victorian Actors and Actresses in Review", Westport, 1983 National Union Catalogue. 1 Nicoll, Allardyce: "A History of English Drama 1660-1900", 6 vols,; Cambridge 1952ff. Pal, John: "Shanghai Saga", London, 1963. Pearsall, Ronald: "Victorian Popular Music", Newton Abbot, 1973. "The Player's Library. A Catalogue of the Library of the British Drama League”, London, 1950. Pope, W.J. Macqueen: "Haymarket, Theatre of Perfection", London, 1948. Reynolds, Ernest: "Early Victorian Drama (1830-1870), New York, 1965 (reprint of 1936 edition). Riemann, Hugo: "Musik Lexikon", Berlin, 1916 (8th edition). Rowell, George (Ed.): "Nineteenth Century Plays”, Oxford, 1972. “Shanghai Alamanac” 1855, 1856, 1858, 1862; Shanghai, 1854ff years. **Shanghai t'ung yen-chiu tzu-liao (Shanghai Research Materials), Hong Kong 1972 (reprint of 1936 edition). Smith, C.; "The Hong Kong Amateur Dramatic Club and its predecessors" in: "Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the R.A.S.", Vol. 22 (1982), p. 217-251. Thomson, Peter: "Plays by Dion Boucicault", Cambridge, 1984. Toll, Robert C.: 'Blacking Up. The Minstrel Show in 19th century America”, New York, 1974. Troubridge, St. Vincent: "The Benefit System in the British Theatre”, London, 1967. Wearing, J.P.: "American and British Theatrical Biography", London, 1979. White, Walter: "China Station 1859-1864", London, 1972. Williams, Harold S.: "Tales of the Foreign Settlements in Japan", Tokyo, 1972. Wright, Arnold and H.A. Cartwright: "Twentieth Century Impressions of Hong Kong. Shanghai and other Treaty Ports of China", London, 1908. Abbreviations: NOTES BGM: Boletim do Governo de Macao. NCH: North China Herald. SCR: Shanghai Commercial Record. 1 Performance 6.5.1852. NCH 8.5.1852. Only passing attention has been paid to the early theatre in Shanghai: Lanning & Couling. p. 429-430: MacLennan: p. 85-86. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 418 administration of the Foochow Dockyard and its fleet of warships in the face of many difficulties. Ironically, they were destroyed by naval forces of his own nation during the hostilities of 1884-85 between France and China over Vietnam. Giquel was a rare bird for his times. Apart from his linguistic proficiency and administrative capacities, he was sympathetic towards China at a time when this was not common among his contemporaries. Moreover, he sought ever to combine his duties to his employers, the Chinese, with his loyalties towards his native land, a veritable tightrope which he conscientiously trod throughout his working life. (As Dr. Leibo observes, “A less committed individual might never have attempted such a balancing act”, Transferring Technology, p. 5). He gave offence to many influential Frenchmen and to his government in 1872 by an article in the Revue des Deux Mondes in which he suggested that the French Concession at Shanghai should be merged with the International Settlement, and criticised French policy towards China in various aspects. Why this should be so is hinted at by an English account which indicates how different Giquel must have been from most of his fellows. Even allowing for the fact that this is an English account, written at a time of strong rivalry between the two powers and by one side of an old and mutual antipathy, it speaks for itself: – French officers are so quick to take offense (sic) — so quick to obtain satisfaction, so imperious, so impractical, and so totally uncommercial that they are viewed by the Chinese with great dread and by foreigners with apprehension. (Transferring Technology, p. 69) In truth, Giquel must have been greatly valued by the Chinese in particular, though the books show that this was at the expense of being thought too pro-Chinese by the French authorities, and even by trusted subordinates. The book is full of such interesting and illuminating passages, either from Giquel's own pen, those of contemporaries, or from Dr. Leibo's hand. Another useful observation, this time coming from the Imperial Commissioner charged with overseeing the Dockyard project, has for us today an oddly familiar ring to it. Commissioner Shen Baozhen was ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 97 made a very good shewing, which drew the admiration of all neutral observers. The Japanese soon brought reinforcements and extended their front down towards the Yangtze in an attempt to dislodge the Chinese from their grip on the suburb of Chapei; but despite the overwhelming superiority of the Japanese equipment, especially in the air, the Chinese stuck to their ground all through August and September, until well into October, when they began to crack, and were finally dislodged by a successful landing on the flank in Hangchow Bay, These operations at first led to a complete breakdown in communications between Nanking and Shanghai. Towards the end of August, however, it was found that cars could cover the 200 miles to Shanghai by turning off the main road at Soochow, and passing through Kashing to the Hangchow road, which entered Shanghai from the south. As I was badly in need of instructions I decided to motor down. On arrival in Shanghai I was astonished at the state in which I found popular foreign opinion. There appeared to be no adequate appreciation of the meaning of these new Japanese encroachments in China, or of the Japanese threat to the "open door" system of trading the Far East, the traditional British policy expressed in Lord Palmerston's instructions to Admiral Elliot in 1840, when he said "You will bear in mind that Her Majesty's Government do not desire to obtain for British subjects any exclusive privileges of trade which should not be equally extended to the subjects of every other power". Shanghai had for some years been the object of much factious interference and petty vexation on the part of Chinese officials in their campaign to recover their "lost privileges". The municipal council of the International Settlement found itself continuously involved in arguments, mostly sterile, over all sorts of questions of local interest, such as roads, police, taxes, jurisdiction, and so on, providing occasions where the Chinese aptitude for obstruction had full play. The consequence was to alienate the sympathies of many of the leading foreigners in the main stronghold of foreign interests in China. (According to Professor Remer, an American economist who made a study of foreign investments in China in 1931, British business investments were distributed as follows: In Shanghai £130,000,000 In Hongkong £36,000,000 In the rest of China £30,000,000 Page 120 Page 121 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 98 These figures compare with the total American investment in China of £32,000,000). Feeling had been further embittered recently by the damage and heavy casualties caused when Chinese pilots, attempting to bomb the **"Idzumo"**, had dropped 1000-pound bombs in the most crowded street of the city, while evading Japanese pursuit planes. These incidents were attributed to carelessness and, though the victims were mainly Chinese, the Chinese population of Shanghai at that time was around five million; many foreigners, moved also largely by sympathy for the victims, felt the Chinese government had given insufficient consideration to the international investments at stake in Shanghai. They resented the fact that the Chinese had deliberately brought the war to Shanghai. They argued that the Chinese intention was to provoke the foreign powers to intervene on their behalf. In such an atmosphere, whispering campaigns detrimental to Chinese morale flourished. One of the most ridiculous, which to this day is still firmly believed by many, was that had the Chinese troops succeeded in driving the Japanese into the Whangpoo, they would then have turned to looting the International Settlement. If there was one thing that was clear at that time to the unprejudiced, it was that Chinese advantage lay in courting the goodwill of the powers, not in estranging it by allowing Chinese troops to commit anti-foreign excesses. It is true that in the past Chinese troops had acquired an unenviable notoriety for rapine and looting, but unfortunately, the seclusion from China in which the majority of foreigners resident in Shanghai lived had not allowed them to discover the great improvements the Central government had brought about in the administration and discipline of the Chinese army. The discipline in the 86th and 87th divisions, who were inspired at Shanghai to fight to the death, was equal to that of any Western troops. It was not realised that the Chinese were fighting for the democracies against fascist aggression. What the Chinese needed most at that time was sympathy and the expression of some confidence in their ability to weather the storm; and that is just what they did not get. No confidence was shown in the ability of the Chinese government to withstand Japan. The prolonged resistance at Shanghai came as a surprise, although Chinese troops had already proved to... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 ― 131 East. Thirty-five million tons of shipping entered the port each year, carrying twenty-five per cent of the trade of China. The vast town was controlled by three independent authorities: the International Settlement, where British and American influence predominated; the French Concession, mostly residential; and the Chinese Municipality. A polyglot population of between four and five million Chinese, and fifty thousand foreigners, thronged the streets. The war had brought about a great shift of population from the Chinese area, where residents were exposed to Japanese oppression, to the comparative safety of the two foreign areas, whose Chinese inhabitants increased from 1½ millions to 4 millions, resulting in a heavy congestion. It was a far cry back to those days in 1845, when in the British Concession, before it was amalgamated with the American district to form the International Settlement, the British Consul appointed "three upright merchants" to act as a Committee of Roads and Jetties to supervise the inconsiderable municipal needs of a small community living on a mud bank. From those simple beginnings had grown the proficient machine required to cope with the extensive complexities of a unique metropolis. H.G.W. Woodhead, the talented editor of "Oriental Affairs", described the functions of the Municipal Council of the International Settlement, and I cannot do better than quote his words: "Owing to its peculiar status as a sort of 'imperium in imperio', the Shanghai Municipality has had to shoulder various responsibilities that in other countries would be assumed wholly or in part by the State. For example, it maintains its own Defence Force, the Shanghai Volunteer Corps, and a highly efficient professional Russian unit. It maintains, what, for the average daily number of prisoners, is the largest gaol in the world. It maintains or makes substantial grants in aid to many hospitals. It started subsidizing Foreign education in 1880, and Chinese education in 1900, and now operates, or makes grants in aid, to numerous Foreign and Chinese schools. It has an Industrial Section, which concerns itself with labour problems, and also controls the rickshaw business to the extent of limiting hire charges, and providing for welfare work among the pullers. It maintains a public library and a municipal orchestra and an up-to-date Public Health Department. And it finances these and other important activities such as Policing, the Fire Brigade, Public Works, etc., mainly from ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 133 1935, and probably exceeds 30,000 today the Japanese secured a second seat in 1927 and since that date, with one or two exceptions, the proportion of Foreign Councillors has been five Britons, two Americans, and two Japanese,'' It was from amongst the managers of the large firms that the foreign Municipal Councillors were selected, by a process of back-stage negotiation. There was, it is true, a form of straw vote through which nominations could be contested, but as the large firms could swing the votes that process was not democratic in operation. In point of fact the suggestion that the Council was a democratic body had long been discarded. The Council represented the interests of the large firms and, while it had to explain its actions to the foreign land-renters of the Settlement, it preferred, as such committees will, to avoid having to make explanations, by doing its work away from the limelight. That was, indeed, a necessary precaution, in so far as the delicate political negotiations in which it was frequently involved with the Chinese, and Japanese, authorities were concerned. The Council was an international body, a diminutive League of Nations, incomparably more effective, though on a small scale, than that larger body at Geneva. The comparison lends it international significance and underlines the importance that men, who are appointed to such positions of responsibility, should be carefully selected. On the expiration of my home leave I was appointed to Shanghai, where I arrived in July 1939. The betrayal of Czechoslovakia that Spring had increased international tension, and a series of incidents was bringing it home to the optimists, who had so cheerfully accepted the Japanese influx, that their early anticipations were so much smoke. Apart from a number of local outrages, including the bayonetting of a Briton, named Tinkler, inside the grounds of his own mill, there was the case of the British Military Attaché, who had been arrested in May in Kalgan, and was still held incommunicado, the mob attacks on the British consulate at Tsingtao, the heavy bombing of British property and shipping at Ichang, and the degrading treatment to which British nationals were being exposed at the barriers, erected by the Japanese to the exits of the British Concession in Tientsin. I was sitting on the verandah of the Country Club one day in September, after a game of tennis, when the boy called me to the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 136 American films were flown over quickly from Hollywood, and pictures would often be released earlier in Shanghai than in London. When the newsreels of the war began to come along, they led to disturbances; the Germans got nasty and wanted to break things up. Cinema owners did not wish to see their cinemas wrecked and in the end the showing of newsreels was discontinued. Unfortunately, they also did not dare show pictures, like "The Great Dictator", which were critical of Fascist methods. The French were, however, determined to see "The Confessions of a Nazi Spy", an anti-Nazi picture which was doing much in the States to open the eyes of the population to the methods of the German 'Bund'. They stationed two armoured cars outside the cinema, while inside armed police, with drawn automatics, stood along the gangways. The picture had a very popular run for two weeks, without incident. Since the disturbances of 1927 the leading Treaty Powers had maintained garrisons at Shanghai. The Japanese forces were quartered in the section of the International Settlement north of the Soochow creek, where the majority of the Japanese population lived; the British, American, and Italian contingents guarded sectors of the perimeter south of the creek; and the French garrisoned their own Concession. There was a local understanding of live and let live, and even after the Italians came into the war, the Grenadiers of Savoy, decked out in patches of red on collar and sleeve, and the baggiest of plus-fours, continued to man their sector: but to avoid argument with Thomas Atkins and Jack Tar they were confined to their own particular taverns. Blood Alley remained an Anglo-Saxon preserve, where Johnnie Doughboy sometimes threw his weight about. It was in January, 1940, that the Royal Navy stopped the Asama Maru, within a few hours steaming of the Japanese Coast, and removed 21 Germans from on board. The Japanese, of course, went up in the air at this alleged insult to the Imperial flag, and the British community in Shanghai questioned the expediency of the action. The incident was settled by negotiation, 9 of the captives being returned, and the Japanese undertaking not to convey in their ships military personnel of the belligerents. It is interesting to remember that, when the S.S. "President Hoover" ran aground on the East Coast of Formosa, in Japanese territorial water, closed to foreign shipping, the Japanese refused to allow the Americans to salvage her, but insisted on the work being done by Japanese firms. Soon after, the Asama ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 312 of degree holders, indicating social rank, there is also a wealth of swept ridges and stylised, 'teapot-handle', gables among the roofs of the common folk. Like Hong Kong, granite was readily available, and a good, dense, red face brick, some of which is quite narrow, is manufactured locally. The brickwork has an attractive, diaper pattern, with dark kiln marks on the face. Unlike Hong Kong, arches with keystones and pediments are in evidence. Much of the architecture resembles that of Taiwan, and, not unusual in many parts of China, there is a marvellous variety of murals and stone carving, including stylised motifs. Small figurines ride lions or other mythical beasts on roof ridges, which, together with eight-diagram (ba gua) and knife and sword charms ward off evil spirits. Similarly, 'wind lions' have stood on guard at entrances since the days of Koxinga. Another scenic spot for architectural gems is the 1.71 square kilometer Gulangyu Island, where at least one member of every family is said to play a musical instrument. This Island has two beautiful white egrets as its emblem and is situated a five-minute ferry ride from Xiamen proper. Part of the beauty is, however, marred by large, ugly, cigarette signs which generate high rents. No vehicular traffic is permitted in this hilly haven. It was a cold day, and RAS Party Members kept themselves warm by exploring. This included climbing to the Lotus Flower Monastery and beyond up the 90-metre high, crowded, precipitous 'Sunlight Rock'. Koxinga chose this as his bastion because it reminded him of Japan. Gulangyu Island is full of architectural 'relics' from the old International Settlement, with patchworks of yellow, terracotta and pink walls blending with oranges and greens. The forlorn, dilapidated building which once served as the British Consulate, is still there. Before World War II, 13 other governments also had consulates on the Island. They, together with tea merchants and financers, could afford to pay for, and insisted on, the best quality building materials. Much of the architecture of this 'garden island' is European, but there are examples of eclectic styles with Chinese columns and western capitals, and Chinese friezes and western brickwork. All these contrast with rows of old, Chinese type, shops with colonnades in Xiamen, with upper floors projecting over pavements; or with ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 189 investigated the special field of Chinese Medicinal Plants and published a book "An Atlas of Chinese Medicinal Plants". It was wartime and, owing to some unskilled people who helped him, his 125 specimen drawings, the typing and the printing of his French manuscript, were full of errors. I corrected this publication and filled 12 typed pages. Years after, as I corresponded with someone in Malagasy, I discovered that J. Roi was there. I wrote to him and among other things, I asked him about his book. He told me he had published another one on the same subject. I ordered a copy from Paris: Les Plantes Medicinales Chinoises. This was a quite different achievement, a well-documented and well-presented volume containing chemical analysis, explaining the uses of plants and their extracts, with references from Chinese and European Medical Literature. During the Japanese occupation of Shanghai, at the end of 1941, I often met scientists who normally would have been connected with the Shanghai Museum in the International Settlement. One of them was Mr. Arthur de Carle Sowerby. He had offered the Museum a small but interesting collection of plants from Eastern China. This was prepared and published in 1950 by I. V. Kozloff, a Russian botanist who was working at the Museum at that time. But his main publication at the Heude Museum was his book illustrated by the author in Chinese-style drawings. Unfortunately, it was printed on newsprint paper, the only type available at that time. Copies couldn't last long. Kozloff was a white Russian botanist who had acquired a good knowledge of the North China flora. He had many articles to his credit. When he came to Shanghai in the 40s, he couldn't find a job as he spoke only Russian. He contacted me through the school where his son was studying. I found out that he was living in an attic with his family and that they were starving. He was invited to work at the Museum with a decent salary. Later, he migrated to the USA. I could not fail to mention Charles De Vol, of America's Fern Society who was encouraged by Dr. Roi to publish Courtois' fern collection. When Dr. Belval published Courtois' Flora, he did not include the Pteridophyters. De Vol's book is a classic but suffered the effects of the war, i.e., lack of proper proofreaders, poor printing, and wartime paper. I met De Vol again at the Herbarium of the University of Taipei. He had contributed the volume on Ferns in the Flora of Taiwan. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 97 the barrel resting on a second man's shoulder. Kang sì: a baked mud or brick bed used in northern Chinese homes, warmed in winter by hot air from the kitchen flue passing through it. Ko-ino Hul #₺★ : A powerful secret society; the Elder Brother Society, membership to which was strictly forbidden by the Ch’ing government and punishable by death. Kowtow : 'knock the head': The ceremony of prostration common in China, chiefly performed before the emperor, in religious ceremonies, and by inferiors to superiors as an humble apology. International Settlement together with the French Concession [Shanghai]: Colonial enclaves where privileges but not political control were enjoyed. The Municipal Council of the International Settlement, against which Mesny occasionally railed, eventually regarded itself as independent even of the UK and US Governments. Most foreigners regarded their presence in Shanghai, despite increasing Chinese nationalism, as in the best interests of the Chinese. Foreigners were divided socially and economically into businessmen, officials of all kinds including police officers and customs officials, missionaries and others such as be-shored seamen, refugees, later mainly White Russians and German Jews, and 'stayed-on' westerners who had married Chinese women or had nowhere better to go. Lartigue railway system: Mesny would appear to have been acting as the local agent for the Lartigue Railway Construction Company in China [in 1886] though whether authorised on a retainer or on commission we shall probably never know. The Lartigue system was invented during the 1880s by Charles Lartigue, a French inventor who, having observed how camel loads were balanced on either side of the animal, invented a monorail which after a tentative experiment in France was chosen as the system to be used for the Bally-Bunion to Lisowel Railway in a remote corner of Ireland in 1888. There is no indication that the line Mesny proposed between Wu-sung and Shanghai, ever got beyond Mesny's fertile imagination. Wu-sung, the town at the junction of the Yangtze and the river which leads up to Shanghai, was where ships first berthed before sailing up the Wu-sung River to Shanghai, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 152 German, Central and Eastern European Jews The third wave of Jewish immigration into Shanghai, and incidentally the largest, was in the years following 1938, as a result of Nazi persecutions in Germany, Central and Eastern Europe. Since Shanghai was the only port that accepted people without visas, Jews who were not permitted to enter other countries came to Shanghai. They travelled by water, on Italian liners via Africa. Since canal tolls had to be paid in pounds sterling, ship captains tended to take the long way by going around Africa, making the journey to Shanghai more than six weeks. Other refugees took the Siberian Railroad to Manchuria, then went from there to Japan. The Japanese consul at Vilna, apparently for humanitarian reasons, issued transit visas for those who possessed another, usually for some Latin American country. Or, for those who did not have any visa at all, the destination was to be Shanghai. As a result, a large number of Jews congregated at Kobe or Yokohama, waiting to travel to Shanghai by ship. Among this group were the faculty and student body of the Yeshiva from Poland. So, until the school moved to New York after 1945, the rabbis were trained in Shanghai. When the Sino-Japanese conflict merged into the global war following Pearl Harbour in December 1941, resulting in Japanese occupation of the International Settlement, the Jews in Shanghai were treated according to their nationalities. The large refugee community, either with 'non-enemy alien' status or stateless, manned the factories and operated cottage industries in their homes. In 1943, when special privileges enjoyed by foreigners in China came to an end as the unequal treaties of the 19th century were formally abrogated, the Jewish population in Shanghai was estimated to number 25,000. As the war ended in 1945 the Jewish refugees left to settle in the United States, Canada, Australia or, after its establishment, Israel. Long-term Jewish residents left as well after 1949. By 1956, only 543 Jews remained in China, 231 of them in Shanghai, 402 of these Jews were classified as Soviet citizens by the Chinese government, and were therefore unable to obtain the necessary papers in order to emigrate without cooperation between the Chinese authorities and the Soviet consulate. R.D. Abraham, leader of the Jewish community at that time, learned through a BBC broadcast that David Marshall, the noted Jewish lawyer from Singapore, was being invited to visit China. He quickly ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 157 surviving members of the Ezra family still enjoy a favoured position in the Jewish community in Hong Kong. Nevertheless, individual members of the family (or families, since there were several separate groups of Ezras in Shanghai) attracted notoriety from time to time. In 1918, criminal proceedings were instituted against Joseph Ezra and Ellis Isaac Ezra for using the launch owned by the Standard Oil Company without authorization. The same year, Joseph Ezra was summoned to court for assaulting a Mr Gordious Nielson, a Dane, who was the proprietor of the Shanghai Gazette, which had printed something that Joseph Ezra did not like. The South China Morning Post recorded a 1933 case whereby two men named Ezra, Judah and Isaac, were brought to court in San Francisco for smuggling narcotics. By 1933, the International Convention against opium had long since been signed. 16 Nissim Ezra Benjamin Ezra, better known as N.E.B. Ezra, founded and edited the Anglo-Jewish weekly newspaper, Israel's Messenger from 1909 to 1935. This paper became the official organ of the Shanghai Zionist Association, taking issue with Sir Victor Sassoon and other Sephardic Jews in Shanghai over the issue of Zionism. The paper supported the Jewish National Fund in China. In 1921 the fund received a donation of 21,000 pounds sterling from a single donor in Shanghai. Since it was pro-Japanese, Chinese sources speculated that the Japanese had succeeded in buying the paper's editorial policy to favour Japanese imperial ambitions in Asia. Silas Hardoon Silas Hardoon alone among the Shanghai Jewry was not spoken of as a family. To the Chinese he was the most interesting Jew in Shanghai. There is so much information on him that it is difficult to distinguish fact from fiction. Hardoon was a colourful as well as important personality. He was also very, very wealthy. He was elected to the Municipal Council of the International Settlement as well as the Conseil Municipal of the French Concession. Chinese tradition has it that the British made this Jewish parvenu pay for the honour of being a municipal councillor by shouldering the expenses of paving Nanking Road. Hardoon married a Chinese woman reputed to be of brothel origin, by Jewish and Buddhist rites. They adopted a number of Chinese and Eurasian children, rumoured to be from a dozen to twenty. The Chinese ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 160 published weekly under the editorship of Ezra, was in English. Others were in Russian and German. Schools Youngsters from the Sephardic community were educated at the Public School in the International Settlement. The fee was too hefty for most of the Ashkenazi boys. As a result, the Kadoorie family endowed the School for Hebrew Boys where there was a respectable scholarship program. B'nai B'rith An article entitled 'Shanghai Fortunes' in the National Jewish Monthly (June 1930) revealed that B'nai B'rith, considered the foremost secular Jewish organization in the world, but by the Sephardic community as particularly Ashkenazi, had trouble getting started in Shanghai. The Shanghai lodge was established officially in 1928, but, 'the circumstances of Jewish life in Shanghai are such that the organization of a B'nai B'rith Lodge was fraught with the most unusual difficulties. National divisions are sharp, particularly between the older Jewish families of the city and the more recently arrived Ashkenzim. Eventually the Shanghai Lodge of B'nai B'rith went on stream when leading citizens of the Sephardic community, notably the Kadoorie, lent their support. It sponsored such activities as the Jewish Boy Scouts and the Jewish Girl Guides. On Seder Night, hospitality was extended to all Jews. At a Hanuka tea, 500 children were present. Clubs 17 The Jewish Club opened in 1919 or 1920 in a colonial style building at the corner of Great Western and Tifeng Road. The cost for the building was $250,000. The entrance fee was $25 and the monthly subscription was $7. There was an auditorium of 80 by 40 feet for lectures, and a billiard room 'that was rarely neglected.' Meanwhile, Jews joined major clubs such as the Shanghai Club, the French Club, the American Club, and the Country Golf Club. They were also active in horse racing. As the reader can see, a great deal of work remains to be done in order to obtain a more complete portrait of the Jewish community in Shanghai. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 139 Journal, this set out the basis on which the Hong Kong Branch of the Society had operated during its 30 years' existence. It explained our independent status and self-financing within an approved constitution; how we operated with complete freedom of action, without our activities being controlled, directed or restricted by the present government in any way; and mentioned the willingness of our guest speakers, and the cooperation of all the persons and institutions visited during our local tours. I emphasized that these were all vital elements in the Society's successful operation, and that they rested on the personal freedoms enjoyed in contemporary Hong Kong, stating in conclusion, that I hoped they would continue after 1997 and enable our Society to continue with its role as a cultural interpreter of Hong Kong and China to (in the main but not exclusively) the territory's expatriate population, 20 Chinese Membership of the Hong Kong Branch One of the interesting features of any voluntary society is undoubtedly its membership. A glance through the RAS membership lists for the 1960s, supplemented by my recollections of those years, indicates that the membership was widely distributed among the non-Chinese population, and that quite a number of them had been resident in pre-war China and Shanghai, the headquarters of the former North China Branch of the Society. There was a sizable Chinese component too, again largely with a Shanghai connection. The standard of English among members of that group and their knowledge and appreciation of Western culture, had struck me as being very high, perhaps even generally superior to the level among our Hong Kong Chinese members today. Educators in Hong Kong have agreed for years that, whilst the quantity of English-speakers in the population has increased, quality has not kept pace. However, such comparisons are facile, and not really helpful. It has to be remembered that English-speaking Chinese of the time were generally older and had belonged to another era and a very different world. Those able to acquire Western languages and culture in those now far-off days often came from families that were comfortably off, or even wealthy, well able to provide their offspring with an overseas education, or at schools and universities in the International Settlement at Shanghai, the main Treaty Ports, or in Hong Kong. The percentage of Chinese members in the Hong Kong Branch has never been high, amounting to not more than 15% to 20% and sometimes ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 77 health and fortune would not be harmed by evil spirits. In fact, these two religious activities are held in Fanling Wai (the settlement of the Pang lineage in Fanling) by the Pangs exclusively. The Pang villagers, be they in Fanling Wai or in other settlements, will enjoy the supernatural benefit from these activities through the descent line of their father or husband. This figure was collected from the Lands Department in the North District Office. 12 See Fong, Peter, K. W., op. cit. "But the Lees in Wo Hang, Sha Luk Kok recognised that renting village houses out would infringe on the values contributing to the maintenance of their community as a whole. The villagers defined occupancy within the village as permanent residence, and the rights for it could only be enjoyed and inherited by their fellow villagers through the male line. Houses were not simply residential structures but constituted Wo Hang as an agnatic village community. The house was a source of the rootedness that permitted the natives to claim identity with their natal village community through their right of occupancy." See Allen Chun, op. cit., pp. 249-50. David Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the New Territories, Hong Kong, pp. 2-4. Hong Kong: Oxford University Press. Liao Hua Chuan, "Xin Jie Yifan Lai Min Quan Yi Lu You" (The Origin of the New Territories Indigenous Inhabitant's Prerogative), p. 144, in Lu Yan (Ed.), Xiang Gang Zhang Gu (Legends of Hong Kong), Xiang Gang: Guang Jia Jing, 1987. 16 See GWE Jones, “Rural Housing in Hong Kong", in Lok, S. K. Wong (Ed.), Housing in Hong Kong: A Multi-Disciplinary Study, Hong Kong: Heinemann Educational Books (Asia), Hong Kong, 1975; Kwok Kam-chau, Planning for Village Development in the New Territories, M.Sc. thesis, The University of Hong Kong, 1987; Allen Chun, op. cit.; and James Hayes, Chinese Customary Law in the New Territories of Hong Kong, paper proceedings of the fourth International Symposium on Asian Studies in 1988. 18 For details, see Heung Yee Kuk (Ed.), Xin Jie Xiao Xing Wu Yu Zheng Ce Te Ji (Special Collection of the New Territories Small House Policy), 1980. **Of this total of twelve houses, four were built in 1979, five in 1980, two in 1981, and one in 1982. 19 The one allowed to build ding wu on Crown land had to pay a premium of about $4,000 at that time. 20 210 hectares of this new town were designated for residential and commercial development, 50 hectares for industrial development, and 140 hectares for government and community use. See Hong Kong Government, Hong Kong 1984 (Annual Report), p. 132. Hong Kong Government Press. 21 Hong Kong Government, Hong Kong 1985 (Annual Report), p. 183. Hong Kong Government Press. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 208 Hitting the highway Day 6, and the winding road, 1,000 feet up the valley side, that was taking us to the next item on our agenda, and along which no two vehicles could pass without one of them either reversing a few miles or risking an extremely rapid journey to the river, was referred to by the guide as 'The East-West Highway.' Along the route we had a brief but stunning view of Gunga Phunsum, at 24,614 feet the highest unclimbed peak in the Himalayas. At about 11,150 feet Shingkar village was the highest settlement we visited and the most remote. Even our guide had not been before, but needless to say Brian had. With the assistance of some international aid money, each house had been fitted with a small solar panel, but it was not certain whether or not they were working. However, that was the only hint of modernity. The rest was pure Middle Ages England. The village straddled a stream, which flowed through its middle unchecked, running where it would. The water was only diverted at one point, through a narrow wooden channel into a small stone structure, by which time the water was rushing with quite some force. Was it used to fire a generator, or to turn a mill wheel? The very beginnings of a local industrial revolution? No. Of course, the water was being harnessed to turn a prayer wheel. We wandered along the village's stone and mud paths, between the widely spaced and randomly placed houses. Up here at the back of beyond these people have precious little, but what little they have is precious, Our itinerant chef, Al Fresco, once again conjured up a good and welcome meal of rice, vegetables, salad and chicken. This time we were watched by a crowd of inquisitive but well-behaved onlookers - a novelty compared to all previous outdoor lunches. A short distance down the valley was the village of Ura, at about 10,170 feet, special for having its houses huddled more closely together. For warmth? It was not clear. But it had been a feature of all other villages that we had seen that the houses had been widely spaced; unlike their Chinese counterparts, for example, Bhutanese village-dwellers usually like to have a bit of space around them. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 Transitional wares and their forerunners. Hong Kong: Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong, 1981. Kotenev, Anatol M. + Shanghai: its mixed court and council: materials relating to the history of the Shanghai Municipal Council and the history, practice and statistics of the International Mixed Court, Chinese modern law and Shanghai municipal land regulations and bye-laws governing the life in the settlement. Shanghai: North-China Daily News & Herald, 1925. Kotenev, Anatol M. Shanghai: its municipality and the Chinese. Shanghai: North-China Daily News & Herald, 1927. Lam, Susan YY. and Sze, Jane Past visions of the future: some perspectives on the history of the University of Hong Kong. Hong Kong: University Museum and Art Gallery, The University of Hong Kong, 2001. Liao Disheng, Zhang Zhaohe, Cai Zhixiang Xianggang li shi, wen hua yu she hui. 1, Jiao yu xue pian. Xianggang : Xianggang ke ji da xue Hua nan yan jiu zhong xin, 2001. Liao Disheng, Zhang Zhaohe, Cai Zhixiang Xianggang li shi, wen hua yu she hui. 2, Tian ye yu wen xian pian. Xianggang: Xianggang ke ji da xue hua nan yan jiu zhong xin, 2001. Liao Disheng, Zhang Zhaohe, Cai Zhixiang Xianggang li shi, wen hua yu she hui. 3, Tian ye yu wen xian pian. Xianggang: Xianggang ke ji da xue hua nan yan jiu zhong xin, 2001. Lee, Kuan Yew Memoirs of Lee Kuan Yew. Tai-bei: Shi jie shu ju, 2000. Liang, Ellen Johnston Art and aesthetics in Chinese popular prints: selections from the Muban Foundation collection. Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 2002. lv ================================================================================