RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 Besides the Governor and Shortrede, the first office-bearers included Major-General D'Aguilar, Peter Young the Colonial Surgeon, Mercer the Colonial Treasurer, John Bowring the Younger (of Jardines); and also Thomas Wade, the celebrated interpreter and Envoy to China, who later became famous as inventor of the Wade System of romanization of Chinese still in general use today, and, as Sir Thomas, was to become President of the Society in London in 1887. In his Inaugural Address as President, Sir John Davis stressed the importance of directing the Society's attention to practical projects and to natural history, geology and botany, as well as to literary pursuits, and suggested that he could get the sanction of the Colonial Office to the grant of a moderate piece of ground for a Botanical Garden. Sir John left the Colony in 1848; but, as the result of a stirring appeal by Mr. G. Gutzlaff, the missionary, at a meeting of the Society in August 1848, the project was approved, although it was not carried into effect until the governorship of Sir John Bowring (the younger John Bowring's father), and then the Garden was placed under Government control and not under that of the Society. During the twelve years of its life, the Society was dogged to some extent by the personal animosities prevalent in Hong Kong in the early days; but it flourished under the inspiration of Sir John Davis, and also for a time under Sir John Bowring, who enjoyed a European reputation as a scholar—as President he preferred to be called Dr. Bowring—and who animated the Society with his personal influence and by his contributions to its discussions. The Society had no permanent home of its own, but in 1849 it was granted by Sir S. G. Bonham a room in the Supreme Court building. It published six volumes of Transactions, the first in 1847 and the last in 1859. With the departure of Sir John Bowring in May 1859 and the death in the September following of the Branch's devoted Secretary—Dr. W. A. Harland, M.D.—the Society collapsed. The efforts of Dr. James Legge, as well as those of Sir Hercules Robinson, the new Governor, as President, of the Bishop of Victoria and of the Acting Chief Justice as Vice-Presidents and of Harry (later Sir Harry) S. Parkes were of no avail. The collapse of the Society came at an unfortunate time and deprived it of the prestige and momentum which it would have gained from the work of some of its famous members. Legge was on the eve of publishing his famous translation of the Chinese Classics, which could be printed and distributed only through the generosity of Joseph Jardine, and his successor Sir Robert Jardine, and of John Dent, the heads of the two largest merchant houses in the Colony. A little later, in 1865, T. W. Kingsmill had to resort to the aid of the Shanghai Branch for the publication of his studies on the geology of Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f Nevertheless the monthly meetings of the Society have been consistently well attended with audiences which often have more than filled this room and have averaged well over one hundred at each meeting. This regularity of attendance proves that there is in the Colony a reliable cross section of the community who appreciate what Professor Drake referred to in his inaugural lecture as the Study of Asia and our heritage. In the earlier days of the Society up to 1859 when the Government of the Colony provided a home for the Society and its library it was honoured with the presence on its Council of the Governor, the Commander of the British Forces, the Chief Justice, the Bishop of Victoria, the Colonial Secretary, the Colonial Treasurer and the Attorney General, and it had the active support of the heads of the great merchant houses like Jardine, Matheson and Co. and Dent and Co. Although in these busier days we miss the successors of some of these eminent personages we are still honoured today by the patronage of His Excellency the Governor and the support of leading members of a more cosmopolitan community than in the earlier days. We particularly appreciate the keenness of the Hon. W. C. G. Knowles, who has recently joined the Council, and of the Honourable the Chief Justice whose athletic figure some of us recall striding along the slithery slopes of Lantao on the occasion of our archaeological excursion last year. We hope that this year we may provide a further opportunity for members who do not perhaps know one another as well as it might be desired, to join in a combined social and study expedition either to Lantao or elsewhere in the New Territories. During the year 1961 nine public meetings were held at which unusually interesting lectures were given, most of them illustrated with colour slides- January 23rd James Liu "The Knight Errant in Chinese Literature" "Tibet As It Was (1936-1950)” February 10th Hugh Richardson April 10th May 13th Miss Mary Tregear "Chinese Paintings in Formosa and America" Expedition to Lantao to visit archaeological sites ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v PROTESTANT CEMETERY IN MACAO APPENDIX 21 Below are two lists of those known, or believed, to have been buried in the cemetery or memorialized in its Chapel. The first list is arranged alphabetically, and the second according to the numerical order used in the official list in the Chapel. The first list gives the location and number of the memorial, while the second gives in addition the sex, age at death, date of death and nationality. In those cases where the exact age is not known and it is certain that the individual was an adult, the evidence is given in brackets e.g. Able-seaman, Ship's captain, &c. "40+" means "40 at least". The following abbreviations are used; LIST I U = Upper Terrace; L = Lower Terrace; C = Chapel. A. ADAMS, Joseph Harod ALLEYN, Frederick Perceval ASTELL, John B. BACON, Francis W. + BALLS, Sarah Anne BARNETT, William BARTON, Charles John Wood BARTON, Euphemia Isabel BATEMAN, James BATES, Edwards Whipple DEALE, Daniel BEALE, Thomas BIDDLE, George Washington BOECK, Christian BOVET, Margaret BRIDGES, Henry Gardner BROOKE, John F. BUTTIVANT, John Henry C. CAMPBELL, Archibald S. CANNING, James CAPPER, Cawthorne + 38 U 55 L +++ 131 L 59 L + 79 L 49 L -- 11 U + 12 U 121 L 2 U 160 L 159 L 58 L 46 L 105 L 4 108 L 68 L 154 L 89 L 162 L 116 L ++ 40 U +++ +++ + 133 L 94 L 96 L 95 L 22 U 100 L 10 98 L + 87 L --- + ++ ++ +++ 151 L 7 U CHINNERY, George CHURCHILL, Henry John Spencer COLLEDGE, Lancelot Dent COLLEDGE, Thomas Richardson COLLEDGE, William Shillaber COOPER, Mark Beale CROCKETT, Ann CROCKETT, Caroline Rebecca CROCKETT, John CRUTTENDEN, George CUSHMAN, Daniel +++ ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 40 W. C. HUNTER at Samarang where he served for 3 years. He died at Delft in 1863. (L.T.R.) 32 Viceroy. The Governor-General of Kwangtung and Kwangsi at this time was Teng Ting-chen who held this post from early 1836 until early 1840. See Hummel, op. cit., II, 716. (J.L.C-B.) 33 Hoppo. The Superintendent of Maritime Customs at Canton in 1839 was Yu (?). (J.L.C-B.) 34 The Yum Chae. Cantonese pronunciation for the characters (mandarin Ch'in-ch'ai) meaning "an Imperial Commissioner”. (J.L.C-B.) 35 Innes, James Innes (1787-1841), the "storm petrel" of Canton was the 7th Chieftain of the Inneses of Dunkinty, Scotland. He came out to China about 1825 and operated as a Free Trader mostly on his own, but for a time in the firm of Innes, Fletcher & Co. His dealings in opium had not a little to do with precipitating the trouble in 1839. He died in July 1841 and was buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery, Macao. (L.T.R.) 36 Chaye Beale. Thomas Chaye Beale was a member of the firm of Magniac & Co. in Canton as early as 1826. He severed his connections with this firm in the early thirties, and operated on his own till 1845 when he set up a house of agency in Shanghai with Lancelot Dent under the name of Dent, Beale & Co. In 1851 he was Portuguese Consul and Vice-Consul for the Netherlands at Shanghai. (L.T.R.) 37 Se-yin. This is probably a reference to the characters Ssu-ying, the officer in command of a ying which corresponded in some ways to a battalion. However, the rank of a ying commander corresponded more to the Western rank of captain or major. (J.L.C-B.) 38 Ta-lao-yeh. The phrase ta-lao-yeh signifies "revered elder”. (J.L.C-B.) 39 The linguists. Linguists (t'ung shih) were supposed to be able to act as interpreters between the Canton officials and the foreign merchants when instructions needed to be conveyed. The foreigners, for their part, usually enlisted the help of the Hong merchants when they wanted a document translated into Chinese or they needed an interpreter at an important interview. They repeatedly declared that the linguists were useless when it came to linguistic matters. In fact, the linguists appear to have been rather low-grade men of not much education, and able to speak only pidgin English. However, by law a foreign merchant trading at Canton was bound to employ a linguist. Since it was forbidden by the statutes of the Ch'ing dynasty to teach the Chinese language to foreigners, it was reasonable that linguists should be licensed to cope with their language problems. However, in order that the foreigners should not learn much about affairs in the interior, the qualifications needed by a linguist were low and their pidgin vocabulary was restricted to matters of trade. This was part of a deliberate policy which grew up among the officials at Canton, and the linguists merely acted as another cog in the mechanism whereby communication between the foreign merchants and the officials, however minor, was prevented, and the foreigners dealt instead with a number of different unofficial functionaries such as the compradores and linguists. Thus, the foreign merchants were kept at an arm's length and also kept in ignorance. The linguists and their servants mentioned in this journal appear to have acted as general clerks and messengers, as much as linguists. The prefix A or Ah (ya) signifies the status of servant. (J.L.C-B.) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g HUGHES, G. M. HUGHES, Mrs. G. M. HUGHES, Prof. W. I. HULL, G. B. G. HUNG, C. S. HURT, Miss E. J. - - - + HUTCHISON, Miss P. M. HUTSON, P. E. INGLES, Miss J. M. INGRAM, Miss P. • IRETON, Mrs. Polly Hogue* IU, Miss S.* JACKSON, R. N. JAMES, Miss S. C. JAO, Tsung-i - JEN, Prof. Yu-wen JOHNSTON, James J. - JONES, Dr. J. R.* - KEATLEY, R. L. KELLY, Miss E. KENT, M. H. KESWICK, Henry KESWICK, S. L. KEYES, M. P. + KHAN, Dr. L. A. - L + - KIDD, S. T. KINOSHITA, James H. - American International Assurance Co., Ltd., American International Building, H.K. RBL 175 Sassoon Road, H.K. Dept. of Extra-Mural Studies, The University, H.K. 49 Beach Road, Repulse Bay, H.K. 4B, Headland Road, H.K. 601, The Hermitage, 75 Macdonnell Road, H.K. 176 The Avenue, Lowestoft South, Suffolk, England. c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. Government House Lodge, Garden Road, H.K. 95 Robinson Road, Top Floor, H.K. 10, Peak Road, H.K. Matron, Grantham Hospital, Aberdeen, H.K. The Registry, The University, H.K. D-12, Bay Court, 127 Repulse Bay Road, H.K. Dept. of Chinese, The University, H.K. 2 Stafford Road, Kowloon, United States Consulate General, 26 Garden Road, H.K. 3, Abermer Court, May Road, H.K. Apt. 4-B, 41-C Conduit Road, H.K. P. O. Box 117, H.K. 7B Lincoln Court, Tai Hang Road, H.K. c/o Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. As above. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. 1, Wing Ying Mansion, 2/F, Soare's Ave., Kowloon, c/o Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Rd., H.K. Palmer & Turner, Room 1906, Prince's Building, H.K. * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 208 HUNG, C. S. HURT, Miss E. J.- HUTCHISON, Miss P. M. - HUTSON, P. E. INGLES, Miss J. M. Yuet Ming Building, 17th floor, Flat B, King's Road, North Point, H.K. 601, The Hermitage, 75 Macdonnell Road, H.K. 176 The Avenue, Lowestoft South, Suffolk, England, c/o H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. Government House Lodge, Garden Road, H.K. IRETON, Mrs. Polly Hogue* 10, Peak Road, All, H.K. IU, Miss S.* - JACKSON, R. N. JAMES, Miss S. C. JAO, Tsung-i JEN, Prof. Yu-wen - JOHNSTON, James J. JONES, Dr. J. R.* - KEATLEY, R. L. KELLY, Miss E. KENT, M. H. - KESWICK, Henry KESWICK, S. L. KEYES, M. P. KIDD, S. T. KINOSHITA, James H. - KHAN, Dr. L. A. KLEIN, Prof. Leonard KNIGHTLY, F. J. Matron, Grantham Hospital, Aberdeen, H.K. The Registry, The University, H.K. D-12, Bay Court, 127 Repulse Bay Road, H.K. Dept. of Chinese, The University, H.K. 2 Stafford Road, Kowloon, United States Consulate General, 26 Garden Road, H.K. 3. Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. Apt. 4-B, 41-C Conduit Road, H.K. P. O. Box 16004, H.K. 7B Lincoln Court, Tai Hang Road, H.K. c/o Jardine Matheson & Co., Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. As above. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., Ltd., Jardine House, H.K. c/o Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Rd., H.K. Palmer & Turner, Room 1906, Prince's Building, H.K. 1, Wing Ying Mansion, 2/F, Soare's Ave., Kowloon, Flat C, 4/F, 70 Conduit Road, H.K. H.K. & Shanghai Banking Corpn., H.K. KNOWLES, Miss Moira G. - Training & Examinations Unit, Electric House, 22A Ice House Street, H.K. KNOWLES, Dr. W. C. G.* Wakes Coine Place, Nr. Colchester, Essex, England. KNOWLES, Mrs. W. C. G. As above. * Life Member Please notify the Hon Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 the Society included the hierarchy of the Government, Military, Medical and Mercantile communities. In his Inaugural Address as President of the Hong Kong Branch, Sir John Davis stressed the importance of directing the Society's attention to practical projects and to natural history, geology and botany, as well as to literary pursuits, and suggested that he could get the sanction of the Colonial Office to the grant of a moderate piece of ground for a Botanical Garden. Sir John left the Colony in 1848; but, as the result of a stirring appeal by the Rev. C. Gutzlaff at a meeting of the Society in August 1848, the project was approved, although it was not carried into effect until the governorship of Sir John Bowring, and then the Garden was placed under Government control and not under that of the Society. The Society was fortunate in enjoying influential Government and press support, including that of the China Mail, and continued under Sir George Bonham who gave the Society a room in the old Supreme Court building to hold its meetings and to house its library. With the departure of Sir John Bowring in May 1859, and the death in the September following of the Branch's devoted Secretary, the Society collapsed. The efforts of Dr. James Legge, as well as those of Sir Hercules Robinson, the new Governor, as President, of the Bishop of Victoria and of the Acting Chief Justice as Vice-Presidents and of Harry (later Sir Harry) S. Parkes were of no avail. The collapse of the Society came at an unfortunate time and deprived it of the prestige and momentum which it would undoubtedly have gained from the work of some of its famous members. Legge was on the eve of publishing his famous translation of the Chinese Classics, which eventually appeared only through the generosity of Joseph Jardine (and his successor Sir Robert Jardine) and of John Dent, the heads of the two largest merchant houses in the Colony. A little later, in 1865, T. W. Kingsmill had to resort to the aid of the Shanghai Branch for the publication of his studies on the geology of Hong Kong. It was thus with a deep sense of responsibility, and also of duty, that it was decided to revive this Society in 1959 after the lapse of a century. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 138 H. J. LETHBRIDGE with a passion for tidiness disliked them intensely. In this case, I suspect, the Registrar General bowed to the will of the Committee. 26 There was a marked tendency for the committees of such associations to grow very large in size-so many affluent Chinese wanted their names recorded as committeemen, and to donate money, without of course doing any committee work. Professor Freedman supplies an explanation for this phenomenon in Singapore: 'Since office-holding occupies a strategic position in the formation of social status, it is not surprising that the structure of associations seems adapted to this function. This adaptation is clear in two features: the elaboration of offices, such that many positions are made available, and the institutional arrangements for filling the offices with the well-to-do', Maurice Freedman, Chinese Marriage and Family in Singapore, London, H.M.S.O., 1957, p. 95. 27 In 1903 the proposed scheme of detectives under the control of the Committee was not approved; but permission was given at a later date, apparently during the First World War and probably because of the shortage of European policemen. 28 In 1938 there were 5 Head District Watchmen, 6 Assistant Head District Watchmen, 26 detectives and 103 uniformed men. The position was approximately the same in 1941. 29 In 1902 the rate paid by Chinese shops was increased slightly and in 1924 it was increased by another 1/4 per cent. 30 Butters writes that the figures which appear annually regarding the cost of living in the report of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs are based on information obtained from the District Watch Force. At my request figures were furnished from the same source showing the cost of living of an ordinary labourer': H. R. Butters, Report on Labour and Labour Conditions in Hong Kong, Sessional Papers, No. 3 of 1939, p. 137. Applications from guilds and trade unions to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for permission to hold 'sing songs' were granted conditionally on a district watchman attending the meeting to see that nothing unlawful transpired. See Butters, p. 126. The watchmen were always regarded as a source of information about the Chinese population. When the commission on chair and jinricksha coolies attempted to discover whether there was a secret union of public transport workers, the first people they contacted for information about the matter were district watchmen. See Report of the Commission on Chair and Jinricksha Coolies, Sessional Papers, No. 47 of 1901, p. 56. 31 The Registrar General in his report for 1868 made this quite clear: 'the chief object of the Chinese paying these watchmen is to drive away thieves, the cardinal evil of a shop-keeping population, And it is thought that the watchmen succeed, not only in arresting actual offenders, but also in keeping away those who live by pilfering'. 32 These constables were recruited mostly from Weihaiwei, a territory leased to Britain on 1 July, 1898. 33 These facts are taken from the reports of the Secretary for Chinese Affairs for the respective years. 34 See above: note 33. 35 The Lok Sin Tong was an association established by officials and village gentry in Kowloon about 1879 to perform charitable works in the surrounding district. See James Hayes, 'Old ways of Life in Kowloon: The Cheung Sha Wan Villages', Journal of Oriental Studies, vol. viii, 1970, p. 167. The Chung Sing Charitable Society, originally known as the Chung Sing Opera Society, was founded around 1917 by a leading merchant, Tsang Foo. This charity also maintained a free school. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 174 REV. JAMES LEGGE the Central Market was formed; and on the other side were some foreign Stores, and a tavern or two. Looking up Aberdeen Street, you saw a few indications of building, and a house on the south of Gage Street, forming the headquarters of a Madras Regiment; and looking up Pottinger Street, you could see the Magistracy and Gaol of the day, where the dreaded Major Caine presided, and below them were two or three other buildings. On from Pottinger Street, a few English merchants had established themselves, and the house which long continued to be known as the Commercial Inn was a place of great resort. On the west of D'Aguilar Street, not then so named, building was going on, and just opposite to it, was a small house called the Bird Cage, out of which was hatched the Hongkong Dispensary. All the space between Wyndham Street and Wellington Street was garden ground, with an imposing flat-roofed house in it, built by Mr. Brain, of the firm of Dent & Co. That great firm had its quarters where the Hongkong Hotel is now, and further on was Lindsay & Co.'s house. All else on the north side of the street was blank, on to the Artillery Barracks, which were building. On the south of the street was the Harbour Master's establishment on Pedder's Hill; and as conspicuous as are now Messrs. Heard & Co.'s Offices, which have been manufactured from it, rose the house of Mr. Johnstone, who had been administrator of the island on its first occupancy. On the Parade Ground was a small mat building, which was the Colonial Church, and above it, about where the Cathedral and Government Offices now stand, were the unpretending Government Offices of that early time and the Post-Office. Far up, if I recollect aright, might be seen a range of barracks, out of which have been fashioned the present Albany residences, and beyond the site of the present Government House was a small bungalow where Sir Henry Pottinger and Sir John Davis after him held their court. Crossing the bridge from the Artillery Barracks, there were some poor buildings for military purposes where the Naval Yard now is, and the houses of Gemmell & Co. and Fletcher & Co., the former of which has since been metamorphosed into the Commissariat Offices. On the right was the General's House, looking much as it does now, and below it was the Canton Bazaar, mainly occupied by troops. Following the bend of the road, one met with a few Chinese houses on the bluff opposite the present Military Hospital, and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 176 REV. JAMES LEGGE the end of June and the beginning of September, and was then removed from its quarters of which I have spoken on board ship. Many civilians also fell victims to Hongkong fever. The mortality was mainly owing to the want of accommodation for the multitudes who kept pressing into the new colony, and to the miasma set free from the ground which was everywhere being turned up. I remember visiting officers who were living in small huts reared on the hill behind the general's house. It was no wonder that one after another they were seized with fever, and either died, or were invalided home. Then the drains were for the time all open, and an atmosphere of disease, which only the strongest constitutions and prudent living were able to resist, might be said to envelope the inhabitants day and night. I have intimated my opinion that there was no subsequent year of sickness and mortality so great as that of 1843; and nothing can be more delightful than the change in the colony in this respect. I do not think there is now a healthier residence on this side of Africa. This has been very gradually arrived at, by the increase of good houses, effectual drainage, the better supply of water, and the growth of trees and vegetation in general. There were other unhealthy years, and it came to be said that we might expect one of that character every seven years; but we have ceased to be troubled with the apprehension of such a periodic visitation. As to the healthiness from increased vegetation, I may mention that Dr. William Morrison, the colonial surgeon, who himself died from abscess of the liver, in October, 1883,* told me, some years before that event, that he had advised planting the ground on the south of the street behind the Murray Barracks with bamboos, as being of speedy growth. It was done, and soon the grove which every one of you knows, began to wave, and there was from that time a marked improvement in the health of the soldiers in those barracks. The Colony, I have said, is now one of the healthiest residences, if not the very healthiest, in the East. The average of 14 years, reckoning back from the present, gives a rate of mortality for the foreign residents, not including the military, of a very little over 4 per cent; and in 1868, the rate was a trifle under 2 per cent, rather lower than the rate of mortality in Great Britain. * SIC: Morrison died later than the date given, but I have no reference books available at the time of writing. Ed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART 59 ent Chinese he was largely instrumental in reorganizing the District Watchmen Force (a body of watchmen paid for by voluntary subscriptions from the Chinese community) and he obtained the appointment of twelve leading Chinese gentlemen as a supervising committee; he remodelled the Po Leung Kuk (a voluntary association concerned with the welfare of girls and young women); and he helped in the reformation of the Tung Wah Hospital and strengthened its committee of management.11 He was active, then, in setting up a number of official Chinese committees, linked to government through their special relationship with the Registrar General's Department, of which he was head. The Registrar General in all cases was ex officio chairman of the committees. Lockhart's views on the importance of the Chinese element in the population are to be found in a trenchant report he submitted in 1894 to the Governor, Sir William Robinson, 'on the subject of a petition addressed to the House of Commons praying for an amendment of the Constitution of the Crown Colony of Hong Kong.' This petition from Hong Kong taxpayers to the House of Commons owed its origin principally to the imposition upon the taxpayers in 1891 of an additional military contribution of £20,000 a year, a decision that irritated and excited particularly the European business community. In 1894 T.H. Whitehead,13 Unofficial Member of the Legislative Council and leader of the business faction, was granted six months' leave of absence from the Council and he took with him to England a petition signed by 363 members of the community — (in Lockhart's words) ‘284 British, 10 Anglo-Chinese, 3 American, 4 Portuguese, and 47 British Indians.' The petitioners sought the election of representatives of British nationality in the Legislative Council; freedom of debate for the Official members with power to vote as they desired; complete control in the Council over local expenditure; the management of local affairs; and a consultative voice in questions of an Imperial character. With great dialectical skill Lockhart took the petition to bits and exposed the vacuity of its arguments. In his memorandum to the Governor he averred: 'Most of the taxes fall almost entirely on the Chinese. The only tax to which the British and other residents as a whole are subject in the same manner as the Chinese is the tax of 13 per cent levied on the rateable value of house ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n BRUNEI: A HISTORICAL RELIC 23 Spaniards. She worried about the presence of France in Indochina on the opposite side of the South China Sea at mid-century; and later on she suspected imperial Germany of coveting northern Borneo and the Philippines. The British sphere was initiated by the private efforts of an English adventurer, James Brooke, a former officer in the Bengal Army. In 1840, he helped bring an end to an insurrection in the Sarawak River, in the southern-most area under the nominal rule of the Sultan of Brunei, and was rewarded by being granted the province. In 1845 Brooke was appointed diplomatic agent to Brunei and supervised the transfer of the island of Labuan to Britain as a colony and a naval station. He also, in 1847, negotiated a consular treaty with the Sultan which effectively gave to Britain control over Brunei's foreign relations. The colony of Labuan languished but the quasi-protectorate over Brunei served as the de facto and legal base for Britain's sphere of influence in Borneo. Such a sphere was proclaimed in 1868 as a warning to all European nations to keep out. The real carving-up of the carcass of Brunei began in earnest in 1878 with the founding of another private venture, that of a syndicate of City of London businessmen which later became the British North Borneo (Chartered) Company. The syndicate was under the control of Dent Brothers Company. Alfred and Edward Dent were sons of the owner of the former Hong Kong firm of Dent and Company. Raja Brooke had annexed, by treaty with the Sultan, additional chunks of territory before 1878. In 1853 he purchased northward to and including the large district of the Rajang River. And in 1861 he purchased the five so-called “sago rivers” as far north as Kidurong Point. When that point was reached, the Governor of Labuan objected to any further northward encroachment of Sarawak and Labuan's wishes were supported by Britain. When, however, the British North Borneo Company purchased the large area of Sabah, the whole of the island of Borneo to the northward of Brunei Town, with strong support from the Foreign Office, both Raja Brooke and the Colonial Office protested. It is interesting to note that the permanent undersecretary at the Foreign Office who midwifed the company charter through officialdom in Whitehall was Julian Pauncefote, who was a former attorney-general. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 205 12 On this particular type of tenancy, see John Kamm, "Two essays on the Ch'ing economy of Hsin-an, Kwangtung Province”, JHKBRÁS 1977, pp. 55-84, and James Hayes, The Hong Kong Region, 1850-1911, Folkestone, Kent, England, 1977, pp. 50-53. 13 Ints. Mr. Wong 22.6.81, Mr. Lam Kaap Shau 8.6.81, Mr. Cheung Kau 26.6.81, Mr. Cheung 26.6.81, Mr. Cheng Yung 10.7.81, and Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 8.5.81; Hugh D.R. Baker, Sheung Shui, A Chinese Lineage Village, Guildford and London, 1968, p. 172. 14 Father Sergio Ticozzi, 12.5.81, quoting from Giovanni B. Tragella, Le Mission Estere di Milano, Nel Quadro Degli Avvenimenti Contemporanli, Milan 1950-1963, vol. 1, pp. 274-275, vol. 2, pp. 85, 89, and 314. Int. Father George Carusso, 20.5.81. 15 Ints. Mr. Lok Tak K'ei 17.7.81, Mr. Leung Yung Hei 16.6.81, Mrs. Lau 14.6.81, and Mr. Tse Kw'an 16.11.80. 10 Int. Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 8.5.81. Mr. Yau's term for "moorage inlet" was "siu wan t'au". Cf. also the type of market James Hayes refers to as "coastal market centres" in his Hong Kong Region, p. 37. 17 Documents on this case are included in Kuan T'ien-p'ei, Ch'ou-hai ch'u-chi (1836, n.p., Taipei reprint, 1968) 2/26a-33a, 56a-74a, 80a-99b. Kuan was Naval Commander-in-Chief for Kwangtung from 1834 to 1841. C. Fred Blake, in Ethnic Groups and Social Change in a Chinese Market Town, Hawaii, 1981, p. 46 note 8, states "Lung Shuen Wan was a traditional outpost for the Chinese imperial navy's regulation of eastern approaches to the Pearl River. I wonder if perhaps Lung Shuen Wan was the original 'coastal market centre' in this area?" Elsewhere (loc. cit. and p. 95) he points out that the Lung Shuen Wan Tin Hau Temple retained the patronage of the Pak Kong and Sha Kok Mei villagers, despite the greater convenience of the Tin Hau Temple within Sai Kung Market. 18 These are figures of shops as registered in the Block Crown Lease (DD215, DD224). It is more than likely that these were shop spaces rather than shops, and in the event that a shop might take up more than a shop space, there were fewer shops in Sai Kung and Hang Hau in the early 1900's than noted here. For comparison, in 1905, Yuen Long had only seventy-four shops and Tai Po Market twenty-three large and fifteen small ones. See James Hayes, Hong Kong Region, p. 36. 19 Ints. Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 15.5.81, Father George Carusso 20.5.81, Mr. Lei Kan 19.6.81, Mr. Ue Shun Hing 10.7.81. 20 Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 15.5.81. 21 Mr. Cheung Ts'oi 20.6.81, Madam Chiu I Mooi 7.5.81, Mrs. Foo, née Lei, 28.6.81. 22 Mrs. Kong Lei San Kiu 21.6.81. Mr. Cheung Kin Wa 10.6.81 of Taai Fung Nin (opened c. 1933) in Sai Kung Market remembered that the shop used to slaughter a pig each day to sell to the boat people. 23 Mr. Chan Kei Shang 28.5.81, Mr. Chan Shou 19.6.81. 24 Mr. Hoh King 6.5.81, Mrs. Lei née So 20.6.81, Mr. Lei Yau 13.11.80, Mr. Cheung Ming Shing 8.6.81, Mr. Lai Foh 8.5.81. Mrs. Lei used to obtain piglets from Kam Lei Loi in Sai Kung Market. It took six to seven months to fatten them, and two dollars to have each pig carried back to Sai Kung Market. She also had rice and pig feed (chiefly rice husk) from Kam Lei Loi on credit. Kam Lei Loi was a butcher's cum general store, where her husband worked. 25 According to Mr. Yau T'aam Shang, 15.5.81, the interest rate in Sai Kung Market was 5 cents per dollar per month, i.e. 60 percent per annum. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 35 The 1866-1869 Land Regulations The first two sets of Land Regulations had been drafted by the Chinese and/or local foreign authorities; this was not the case with the third Constitution, the one of 1866-1869, In the years between 1854 and 1866 a great number of problems had arisen, partially caused by the influx of Taiping rebellion refugees. Moreover, civic discipline among foreigners was waning (taxes were not being paid, nuisances were being caused in the form of building materials left lying around, the authority of the Municipal Council to levy taxes was being questioned, the members of the Municipal Council had been held personally responsible for any deficits and debts of the municipality, etc.). All this contributed to the opinion that something had to be done to increase the authority of the Municipal Council, and on April 15, 1865, a Public Meeting of landrenters appointed a Commission to draft new Land Regulations. This Commission consisted of Henry Dent (member of the Municipal Council 1863-64 and 1864-65), R. F. Gould (former municipal secretary), Thomas Hanbury, James Hogg, and William Keswick (all members of the Municipal Council 1865-66), J. P. Lynill, and G. Tyson. The new proposed Regulations were published on January 22, 186610, and discussed in Public Meetings on March 9, 12, 13, and 1711. After a delay of three years, they were eventually approved by the foreign powers in 1869. There were a number of differences between the draft and the final version, but space does not permit me to detail these12. The new Constitution consisted of 29 articles, in which the position of the Municipal Council was strengthened as compared to the former Land Regulations. These Land Regulations were subsequently slightly amended, some articles being added in 1898. In this form, they remained in force until 1943, when the Settlement was returned to China. In the course of these years, only a few byelaws were altered or introduced; and thus, during the greater part of its existence, the Settlement had as its constitutional foundation a set of Land Regulations devised essentially by the landrenters themselves in 1866. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 64 1862 (April) -- 1863 (April) › (31.3.1862) Henry Turner (Chairman) x J. H. HAAN Agra & United Service Bank British James Cock (Treasurer) x Watson & Co. British Andrew Brand Smith, Kennedy & Co. British Henry Sturgis Grew Russell & Co. American Alexander Michie x Lindsay & Co. British Note: In April 1863 only those members marked "x" were still in office (A. Brand had died). 1863 (April)- 1864 (April) (4.4.1863) Henry William Dent (Chairman) James Cock (Treasurer) Robert Brand David Reid J. Kearney Rodgers August Wieters George Fairley Heard 1864 (April) — 1865 (April) (16.4.1864) Henry William Dent (Chairman) x Robert Crawfurd Antrobus x James Cock Frank Blackwell Forbes x Rudolph Heinssen x Julius Kahn G. W. Talbot Dent & Co. British Lindsay & Co. British Watson & Co. British Russell & Co. American Siemssen & Co. German Reid & Co. (per 1.1.1864) British ? German Aug. Heard & Co. American Harkort & Co. ? Dent & Co. British Reiss & Co. British ? ? Note: In April 1865 only those members marked "x" were still in office, 1865 (April) — 1866 (March) William Keswick (Chairman) J. C. Coutts Thomas Hanbury James Hogg Nichol Latimer Clement D. Nye W. Probst Jardine, Matheson & Co. British ? ? ? ? Bower, Hanbury & Co. British Hogg Brothers British N. Latimer & Co. British Bull, Nye & Co (?). ? German Note: N. Latimer died during his term of office. As from April 1865 a different mode of electing a Municipal Council was followed (cf. main text). Source: North China Herald 1850-1866. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 70 ELIZABETH SINN economy of the Colony could be crippled by the whims of coolies and boatmen,24 In an effort to break the strike James Stewart Lockhart, the Acting Registrar-General, had several interviews with the boat people and their sureties. He believed he had succeeded in persuading them to resume work on the 3rd.25 On the morning of the 3rd, the police were on the alert, anticipating that the resumption of work would not be trouble free. Extra police were placed on the Praya. Boats did return to the British side of the harbour. As they approached Praya West, they were, as expected, attacked by a group of cargo coolies with stones and bricks, and they promptly moved off again. One of the stone throwers was arrested. The stone-throwing stopped when the boats were gone, and the cargo coolies then appeared to turn their wrath upon the rickshaw and chair coolies, wanting them to stop work as well. They started to turn over chairs and rickshaws, pelting coolies as well as passengers with stones. Interestingly enough, the chair coolies resisted being forced into the strike, fighting back at the cargo coolies as did several of the European passengers. In the midst of the scuffle, Sikh policemen arrived, and the mob stoned them too. The Sikhs, who were heavily armed with carbines and a good supply of ammunition, got into action at once. They fired into the crowd and cut their way into the crowd with their swords.20 The Acting Captain Superintendent, having called out all the available men at the Central Police station, sent a request to the Military Barracks for support. One hundred men of the East Kent Regiment, the "Buffs", were marched to the scene of the disturbance with fixed bayonets. Their presence seems to have restored order and it was not necessary for them to interfere actively.27 On hearing of the disturbances, Marsh immediately called the Executive Council, and it met at 11 o'clock on the 3rd. After hearing the account given by Colonel Barton, the Assistant Military Secretary who had just returned from the scene of the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 323 Certificate. But seeing you have come a long way we will set papers on 5 subjects as a test. If you pass our examination we will admit you." Ngan Chun On told us he got 100% marks on all 5 subjects which shocked his American examiners. This ancient episode tallies with what both Dr. Joyce Symons, recently retired headmistress of the Diocesan Girls' School, and the Rev. George Zimmern of the D.B.S., used to tell me, on separate occasions, that our Hong Kong students have always been able to be trusted to perform well when competing abroad. This reflects credit on the schools provided by the Church of England, as well as on all other schools in Hong Kong, and on this note my note may best end. NOTES 1 The author, Mr W.J. Howard was born in 1903, and studied at Diocesan Boys' School between 1911 and 1919, leaving the school as a Prefect. He has lived most of his life in Hong Kong, and is a keen member of the Society. At Plate 1 is a photograph of the Prefects of Diocesan Boys' School in Mr Howard's final year at the school. The original inscription on this photograph reads: "Diocesan Boys' School, Bonham Road, Hong Kong, Prefects 1918/19. Left to Right Back Row: Middle Row: Front Row: Charles Mackenzie, Kenneth Tyson, James A. Kent Harvey W. Knight, John L. Litton, James Howell, William J. Howard [author] Kor Bu Lok (Head Prefect), Rev. W.T. Featherstone M.A. Oxon. (Headmaster), Charles F.G. Jackson.” ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 154 CARL SMITH Canton and Macau. In Macau he was a close friend of the eccentric painter George Chinnery. In one of Chinnery's paintings, Hunter appears in a group of men gathered informally on the verandah of the mansion occupied by the English firm of Dent and Co on the Praia Grande at Macau. Along with two other old friends of Chinnery's, Hunter maintained a watch beside the artist's bed the night of his death in 1852. He also helped to take charge of the deceased's effects. It is from Hunter that we have a number of interesting anecdotes about Chinnery. After Hunter left Russell and Company he did business on his own and connections with American firms, particularly Augustine Heard and Co, for whom he handled some of their Macau affairs. From 1864 to 1868, Hunter lived in Hongkong. During this time he was a member of the Heard firm. But in 1868, he retired and moved to Paris. In 1859 he was appointed French Consul at Macau. As he grew older he suffered poor health. In 1886, it was thought his death was imminent. Notice was sent to his children and three of his daughters set sail for France. Their ship, the Victoria, went down at sea. One of the daughters drowned, the two others were rescued. The daughter who drowned was still single. This suggests that she may have been the crippled daughter mentioned by Lieut Preble in 1855. She had been taken to Hongkong by her mother for a series of operations to cut the tendons in her foot, which turned inward, so that it could resume a more normal position. At the time Preble mentioned the operations their ultimate success was not yet assured. William Hunter survived the crisis which had summoned his daughters to his supposed death-bed for another five years. He died at Nice in 1891 aged about 80. WHEN LEGGE TOOK OVER ANGLO-CHINESE COLLEGE The Rev. Dr. James Legge, famous for his translation of the Chinese Classics into English, moved the Anglo Chinese College from Malacca to Hongkong in 1843, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 230 Van Horne threatened, "I will crush you. Don't you attempt to start a steamship line of your own. If you do, we will run you off the Pacific." Dodwell retired from the East in 1899, the year his firm became a limited company. It has continued to prosper. But much of its success in earlier days was due to the personal contribution of Dodwell himself. Profits increased from his shipping department. He also played a prominent part in the shipping world as a whole. G.B. Dodwell, a man of high principles, died in 1925. Gilman's Richard James Gilman, a tea-taster, who worked for the old established company of Dent's in Canton, set up a partnership, known as Gilman and Bowman, in a Canton factory in 1840. By 1863 the firm was also represented at Kiukiang, Hankow and Tientsin, employing 21 staff. In many ways the firm was similar to Dodwell's, but on a smaller scale, and it was substantially involved in shipments of tea from Shanghai and Foochow in the 1870s. Gilman's was also active in the import-export trade and shipping, and in 1862 it was appointed agents for Lloyd's at Canton, Hankow, Foochow, Hong Kong and Macau. In these ports its reputation in shipping circles was high, especially after the famous tea race of 1866. 'Taeping (sic) Yeung Hong' (KF) (Great Peace Foreign Firm) chartered the 'Taiping' (named after Gilmans) which beat 'Ariel', the rival ship, by 20 minutes over a 99-day voyage from Foochow to London. Gilman's also played an important part in promoting the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, when it was established in 1864, and it was represented on its Board in its earlier days. Gilman's failed, however, to heed the warning that there was a growing preference for Indian and Ceylon teas in Britain, and, heavily indebted to its London agent Ashton & Company, it came close to bankruptcy. Gilmans had to abandon its Shanghai and Hankow branches in the 1880s. But, with the huge demand for joss sticks in Southern China, the agency for the Australian Sandalwood Company helped ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 242 Chartered Bank Until 1840 or so banking facilities in Hong Kong were provided by the large hongs, such as Jardine's, Dent's and Russell's. However, once the Colony was considered stable enough, bankers came here following the traders, and, after the establishment of the Treaty Port System, starting in 1843, a number of joint-stock banks with their headquarters in India or London opened. The Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China, one of the principal promoters of which was James Wilson MP, the founder of The Economist, and a successful businessman, was such a bank. It was established in London in 1853, and its first branches in the East were founded in Calcutta and Shanghai, both in 1858. Only six years after receiving its Royal Charter Makalee (F), as the bank is called in China (a direct translation of John MacKellar, the first manager in Shanghai), set up a branch in 1859 in Hong Kong. Since 1862, Jah Da (†) (as 'Chartered' is usually called in Cantonese in Hong Kong) has issued its own bank notes. It is at present the oldest foreign bank and was the first licensed financial institution in the Colony. Together with the Hong Kong Bank, the Bank of East Asia, and the Overseas-Chinese Banking Corporation, the 'Textile Bank' (yet another sobriquet for 'Chartered' because of its connections with that industry) was one of four overseas banks that was allowed to keep its branch in Shanghai after the People's Republic Government came to power in 1949. The author recalls opening his first account with the Chartered Bank in early January 1955, not in the building that was demolished in 1986 (which was completed in 1959 and at the time was the tallest building in Hong Kong) but in the one before that. There was a colonial atmosphere about the place, with paddle-type fans suspended from ceilings. Few buildings in Hong Kong were air-conditioned then. The bank did not open its first branch in the Territory until early 1962. This was in Tsuen Wan. A time-worn adage had it, a little unkindly perhaps, that officers of Chartered were bankers aiming to be gentlemen, and that expatriates in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank were gentlemen trying to be bankers. In those days the Hong Kong Bank did not employ Chinese, other than in menial positions, and local staff were mainly Eurasians. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 244 Parsees. At one time, with a German Chairman and an American Deputy Chairman, the Board had no British members. The financial failure of Dent, in 1867, had the effect of freeing the Bank from dependence on any one enterprise and brought about more independent management control. Within months of setting up its headquarters in Hong Kong a branch was opened in London, and further branches were established in San Francisco (1875), New York (1880), Lyons (1881) and Hamburg (1889). By the 1880s The Hong Kong Bank had become banker to the Hong Kong Government, and to this day it is, in effect, the Central Bank of the Territory. World War I proved a difficult period, and its German directors resigned shortly after hostilities commenced. The Bank resumed its leading position in China and the Far East in the 1920s and 30s. Like the Chartered Bank, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank's branch in Shanghai operated without interruption all through the Cultural Revolution. Today 'Wardley' is the name of an investment company associated with the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank. In 1864, Wardley House (demolished in 1882 when its new bank building was completed) was the first premises of the Bank. William Henry Wardley was a staff member of Gibb Livingston. He started his own firm about 1850. Although the company was taken over by F.B. Johnson and James Bowman the name was retained. It stopped trading about 1861, before the Bank was established. But the name, Wardley, has been perpetuated. The Mercantile Bank The old Mercantile Bank can be traced back to October 1853, with the founding of the Mercantile Bank of Bombay. Within two months it had become the Mercantile Bank of India, London and China, a co-partnership of four Indian proprietors and four British. An office was opened in London almost immediately, and other offices, in 1854, in Madras, Colombo and Kandy. In 1855 branches started at Calcutta, Singapore, Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong. Comparing these dates with the Chartered Bank, Mercantile got off to a quicker start, although both banks were established in the same year. Mercantile had a branch in Hong Kong, for example, four years before Chartered. Skipping a century, in 1958 the name was shortened to ‘Mercantile ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 12 support my wife and family. In 6 year of Hum Foong (1856) being advanced in age, I handed over all my property to my eldest son Cheng Chuen to manage and sign my name Soong Ke in all business transactions, and he has already managed for several years. In consequence of my having to return home to my native place in the present year to build an ancestor's hall out of my own money, and consequently coming and going I took sick and a large carbuncle broke out on my thigh, getting worse day by day, being now about sixty years of age and my constitution is weak. Hong Kong-Shanghai and Shanghai-Canton-Hong Kong Networks Cantonese compradors were predominant in the nineteenth century. They occupied most of the compradorship in foreign mercantile establishments. They were influential in Hong Kong, enjoying a high status in the business community. Cantonese compradors filled the new posts by personal ties, extending their influence from one place to another. For example, Xu Run was introduced by his uncles Xu Yuting and Xu Rongcun who had been working as compradors to Dent & Co. in Shanghai for many years. Xu was first employed as an assistant comprador and later succeeded his family members as compradors: one of his sons to a German firm; one of his cousins as Dent's Kiukiang (Jiujiang) comprador; and another cousin as Shanghai comprador to Carlowitz & Co. Likewise, Zheng Guanying was also introduced by his relative in Shanghai to serve the compradorship in Butterfield, Swire & Co. Tang Tingshu was introduced by his Zhongshan colleague called Acum (Lin Qin) to James Whittall, the Jardine's Shanghai manager, then he became a comprador to Jardine, Matheson & Co. Tang later guaranteed his elder brother Tang Maozhi as the firm's Tianjin comprador and this brother later succeeded him as chief comprador in Shanghai when Tang Tingshu was relocated to work at the China Merchants' Steam Navigation Co. in 1873. The post was held by the Tang family for several decades. The last was his grandson Tang Jichang. Those three compradors came from the same Zhongshan prefecture and had an inter-relationship. Zheng was a relative to Tang by marriage and also knew the Xu family for generations. Zheng had guaranteed a Zhongshan townman named Yang Guixuan ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 104 CHINESE FUNERALS: A CASE STUDY DAN WATERS The boast of heraldry, the pomp of power, And all that beauty, all that wealth ever gave Awaits alike the inevitable hour; The paths of glory lead but to the grave. Thomas Gray, Elegy Written in Country Churchyard. Introduction This paper examines an actual, fairly typical, present-day Chinese death in urban Hong Kong and the funeral services and mourning that follow. Comparisons are made with past customs in Hong Kong, with traditional Hong Kong New Territories funerals and European funerals. Because this paper is largely about Hong Kong, Cantonese terms and Romanisations are mainly used rather than pinyin. Currency quoted is in Hong Kong dollars. The author is grateful to Mr Gerald C.S. Siu, manager of the Hong Kong Funeral Home, Doctor James Hayes, the Reverend Carl T. Smith, Mrs Judy Kant Young and other persons and organisations named in this paper. Help varied from recommending source material to providing information. The Case Study One November night in 1988, a couple received a call saying the wife's mother had been taken to hospital. Shortly after midnight the couple, together with the wife's two younger sisters and two granddaughters, gathered around the corpse. Traditionally, Chinese hope for a peaceful death in old age with family mustered around the deathbed. In this case the end came suddenly. As Chuang Tzu, sometimes named as the first important Taoist writer, phrased it: We are born as from a quiet sleep, We die to a calm awakening. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 219 would have been rakish nonentities in their home country, and it is incontestable that there was an element of 'keeping the numbers up' in the recruitment of British expatriates by the Hong Kong Government. James, though, was never to give anything less than a hundred per cent effort to his work and to Hong Kong in general. After a year's language training, he was posted to the Southern District Office as District Officer. His first assignment was to co-ordinate the clearing of villages soon to be immersed under the new Shek Pik Reservoir on Lantau Island. Thereafter he served with the Resettlement Department, the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, and the Commerce and Industry Department, in addition to his posts within the City & New Territories Administration. A notable posting was as Deputy Commissioner for Labour from 1982 to 1985. The apogee of his career was as Regional Secretary, New Territories, an area and whose inhabitants he had come to know and love. His postings are remarkable in that he spent almost all of his career outside the Government Secretariat, in contrast to the norm which is generally a mixture of work in the policy branches of government and, in James' words, 'key' departments. Generally, postings to the departments, other than to the most senior positions, are not sought after. This book will make a good, informative read for people with little knowledge of Hong Kong and its government. It is written in an informal, pleasant style and there is no impaling of former colleagues or slagging of the system, although James does start drifting towards a characterisation of the political reforms of the eighties towards the end of the book, the impression being that he was not entirely enamoured of the new scheme of things. For 'insiders', there are few surprises and the book is not, therefore, riveting, although it will bring back memories for some, though. Well done, James, a good addition to the shelves from a former leading civil servant. PETER HALLIDAY ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 134 have therefore added it here for the record. The Sowerbys were an old family of Saxon stock that can be traced back to the time of Edward the Confessor, and possibly earlier to the first kings of Kent in the fifth century AD. Arthur de Carle Sowerby was the great grandson of James Sowerby, who died in 1822, the botanist who wrote English Botany and was one of the founder members of the Geological Society. His son in turn continued his work and helped organise the Royal Botanic Society and Gardens in Regent's Park. On his mother's side Arthur was descended from Pierre Séguier, the Chancellor of France in the reign of Louis XIII; he was also the great grandson of Anthony Stuart, the miniature and portrait painter of the early Victorian period. Arthur's uncle was part-founder and first Keeper of the National Gallery of Portraits in Trafalgar Square. At the end of his schooling he began his training to be an artist but soon left it for that of a scientist, working for his BSc. at Bristol. He returned to China having dropped out of College and after his arrival back in China he was appointed in 1906 in the double capacity of lecturer and curator on the staff of the Anglo-Chinese College in Tientsin. He served in France during World War 1 as Technical Officer in the Chinese Labour Corps, and on his return to China made his headquarters in Shanghai where he remained until the end of the Second World War. He developed an interest in Chinese Art and was impressed by the accuracy of ancient Chinese craftsmen in modelling pottery animals for the tomb, an accuracy that enabled him as a naturalist to identify the breeds of various domestic animals in use in ancient China. He wrote a series of articles for the China Journal on Birds in Chinese Art; the Owl in Chinese Art; The Flora in Chinese Art; Rocks, Mountains and Water in Chinese Art; Animals in Chinese Art; as well as Animals in the Myths, Legends and Fairy Tales of China. His interest in craftsmanship also led him to write a series of articles on Chinese arts and crafts, including four papers on the Chinese ivory industry. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 93 told the Editor: 'Villagers are out to "screw" Government.' One Scottish, retired, senior civil servant and his Chinese wife who was herself at one time a government servant, both level-headed people, agreed between them it was 90 per cent money and 10 per cent belief in feng shui. Some other Chinese government servants take a similar view. 'Perhaps some of the older Tang Clan members really believe in tun fu', a Chinese, past District Officer who is outwardly quite westernised but inwardly still very Chinese, told the Author. 'But not the younger ones. Some young people do believe, nevertheless. And for those that do not it does not mean to say that, as they grow older, their views will not change. Such people, in middle age or when they are elderly, sometimes become the most enthusiastic proponents of traditional values. 'A woman who did not believe in feng shui nearly died', the Author was once informed. 'After recovering she became convinced', the informer continued (Waters; 1997, 63). It has been argued by Wong Siu-lun that most Hong Kong Chinese are westernised only in a superficial sense (Evans; 1997, 3, 7). Inwardly, they are very Chinese. To a large number traditions and festivals are important. There were, however, few young people at the Pat Heung tun fu ceremony as it was a weekday and pupils had to go to school. The ceremony was, nevertheless, well attended by adults. There are, of course, other reasons for attending. In some cases villagers were expected to be there by others. In any case people could meet old friends and chat. They might even get invited to a lunch at government expense. Not everyone agrees believing is all a question of money. James Hayes, a past District Officer in the New Territories, wrote (Hayes; 1998): some European civil engineers and contractors' staff stated their belief (to me) that it was all hooey ...' ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 261 A TORN SCRAP OF PAPER: RELATING TO A MONEY LOAN ASSOCIATION, SMALL LOANS, OR WHAT? JAMES HAYES The torn scrap of paper shown at Plate 1 was found between the leaves of a Chinese book bought some time ago from a second-hand dealer in Hong Kong. Measuring only 3" by 2", it was probably incomplete, yet someone had kept it as a record. It contained seven names and seven amounts, but one of the names had been scored out. Reading from the right, a translation of the characters and amounts, as given in the Cantonese rendering which I believe to be appropriate, runs as follows: Yip Tung 10 cents; Yeung Tai 7 cents; Ah Yee 8 cents; Seng Ho 13 cents; Seng Chan 16 cents; Name crossed out 7 cents. The currency being used, singly or in combination, for the accounts was the sin, a one-cent coin, and the ho, a ten-cent coin. The first can be found in Rev. W. Lobscheid's An English and Chinese Dictionary, revised and enlarged Japanese edition, Tokio, J. Fujimoto, 16th year of Meiji [1884], p. 220. The second appears on p. 162 of Ernest John Eitel's A Chinese Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect (London, Trubner & Co. and Hongkong, Lane, Crawford & Co., 1877) p. 162. Lobscheid's dictionary was originally published in Hong Kong in 1868, but to date, this author has never seen a copy of the original edition. For the sake of clarity, the renderings made in translation are given uniformly in cents, instead of variously in the two different units used in the original. I believe these coins were Hong Kong currency, but the date of their introduction is not known to me. However, it could not have ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n FROM THE HON. EDITOR The publication of the fortieth Volume of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (and my tenth contribution) seems to merit a special mention by your Hon. Editor as, of course, it marks the fortieth anniversary of the rebirth of the Society. You "saw" the fortieth anniversary conference (in 2000), now read the book! As you know, Council's instructions are for about 200 pages (Don't give 'em too much!) but I've strayed beyond that by about 50 per cent. Perhaps I can be forgiven, given the propitiousness of the occasion. Once again, I've striven for variety and, as you will see, the contributors are both old and new. The distinguished Solomon Bard has come out of retirement to pen Tea and Opium, a wholly dispassionate look at a controversial subject. Brian Fawcett's The Chinese Labour Corps in France, 1917-1921 represents an enormous investment in time and I should imagine he knows France quite well now. The redoubtable Keith Stevens has contributed two articles including the long-awaited (for me) The Celestial Ministry of Time, a veritable Tour de force. Readers of Volume 38 - 66 our Y2K issue will recall the photograph of Tai Sui, the Goddess of Time, on the dust jacket, and so kindly provided by Jennifer Welch. What was not revealed at the time was that Keith Stevens and Jennifer Welch were writing The Celestial Ministry of Time and has lots of photographs of Tai Sui including the magnificent one of Jai Zi which adorns the dust jacket of this issue. I wanted it for Volume 38 but, understandably, Keith and Jennifer held out on me. Otherwise, the unflagging Dan Waters has almost single-handedly provided the Notes and Queries section but with most interesting contributions from Barbara Park and our man in Bondi Beach, James Hayes. Barbara has given us a perceptive glimpse of The Peak in "the good old days." James keeps editors on their toes ("Dear Peter, please find attached the fifteenth amendment to my article."). Jack Lao's 1954 photograph of the Harbour will bring back memories for many. I came into contact with Teresa Kowalska in Poland, and her exquisite... When I was researching the piece on A Many Splendoured Thing, iii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n ... we do the general view was (see volume I of HKBRAS Journal)". not go out into the highways and byways to recruit members..." As a well-qualified member of staff at the University of Hong Kong said to me during the past year, 'In the 1960s, it was not easy to join the HKBRAS. It was quite exclusive. Meetings were usually held in the Hong Kong Club.' Since the Hand Over of Hong Kong, from Britain to China, we have had a recruitment drive. This has paid off. It was necessary largely because of the appreciable drop in numbers with many members leaving the Territory. With about 73 per cent of our members being aged between 40 and 60, we were pleased, during 2000/2001, to see a few of our younger members playing active parts. I have special pleasure in thanking Moody Tang, Josephine Wong, and Crystal Tang for their assistance. Our Society needs more younger people taking part to leaven the membership. Continuing, it gives me great pleasure to report that our long-serving Vice President, Dr Elizabeth Sinn, was awarded a Bronze Bauhinia Star in the Hong Kong SAR 2000 Honours List for her work in the field of Heritage. We like to believe consideration was also given to her related work as a long-time office bearer of our Branch where her contribution has been considerable: Congratulations Elizabeth! I also have great pleasure in congratulating one of our members for 'pushing back the frontiers of knowledge.' She is Dr Sheilah Hamilton. As a mature student, she received her doctoral degree from the University of Hong Kong. Very well done! During the course of the year, we were delighted to receive a letter from Dr Marjorie Topley who played a leading part in the re-establishment of our Branch in 1960. We have also kept in touch with Dr James Hayes and Mr David Gilkes. All three served as presidents. All three are now Honorary Members. On a sadder note, we are sorry to record the passing, at 82, of Lord Murray MacLehose who held the distinctions of being not only the longest-serving governor but also one of Hong Kong's greatest achievers. He was our HKBRAS Patron from 1971 to 1982 and, later, we were proud to bestow honorary membership upon him. In a letter to our Branch, Lady MacLehose wrote: "The many generous tributes to XV ================================================================================