RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 153 1979, he has done a great deal to establish the Journal as the Journal specializing in Hong Kong. Today, the RAS is still going strong, promoting interest in local history by organizing visits to different parts of Hong Kong, arranging talks and seminars, publishing proceedings of seminars and books. Its latest occasional publication, Beyond the Metropolis Villages in Hong Kong, produced to celebrate its 35th anniversary, contains nine articles about Hong Kong's villages and is illustrated by over 200 photographs. Above all, it provides an opportunity for people, academics as well as members of the general public, to share a common interest in local history and culture. Centre of Asian Studies Another institution which played, and still plays, an active role in promoting Hong Kong studies and bringing together members of the different groups, is the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong. It was established in 1969 as a separate research centre within the University and, in that year, hosted one of the first conferences on Hong Kong studies, The Symposium on Anthropology and Sociology in Hong Kong, organized by Marjone Topley, then vice-President of the RAS. 14 All the speakers were expatriates, and, not surprisingly, the symposium discussed the methodological and data collecting problems overseas field workers faced. For the next 25 years, the Centre has continued its work in this area by providing research facilities for researchers, organizing conferences and publishing proceedings. Some of the major areas covered by Centre Projects, conferences and publications include opera, church history, church archives, genealogies, temples and materials for Hong Kong studies. Almost all the scholars mentioned above have been associated with it in one way or another, showing that it does provide for the interaction of scholars of many disciplines, and highlighting the value of multi-disciplinary approach to local history studies. Progress in the 1970s and 1980s The 1970s witnessed several developments which greatly transformed the nature of local history research. On the one hand, new institutions ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 179 Stewart II Lockhart. Report on the New Territory during the First Year of British Administration, Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1900, p. 251 Brum, op cit. p.94 12 David Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 100 Interviews: "Uncle Lau" (age: 73), Lam Che, Jun 18, 1991; Cheng Man Yim, op cit.; the Tung Chung Public School, Jan 24, 1991; K'ung Chuo-Yim (age 56), Ma Wan Chung, Jul 11, 1991; Headmaster Mui Wen Hsi (age 50), the Tung Chung Public School, Jun 6, 1991; Tseng Jung Wu (age 53), Ngat Au, Jun 28, 1991 14 Interview of Lo Ch'uan Mei (age 82), Shaek Mun Kap, Jun 22, 1991 15. Ha Wan Yee, "Tung-chung-hsiang te min-chien tsung-chiao hsin-yang chi ch'i han-tung," Unpublished Graduation Thesis, History, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991, p. 4 Sessional Paper, 1911 (Hong Kong: The Government Printer), p. 103 (38) 17 Interview of Teng Ch'iao (age 66), Ha Mei, Jun 26, 1991 18 Interview of Teng P'ei (age 61), Ha Mei, Jun 18, 1991. According to her story, the Teng's ancestral hall was damaged by the Japanese, and since then the lineage has failed to raise money for its reconstruction. San Tau's Hsiehs also lost their genealogy as well as medical books to the Japanese, according to the interview of Hsieh Ch'i, op. cit., Jun 21, 1991 19 Interview of Huang Wu (age 80+), Village Head of Tai Po, Aug 12, 1991 20 Interview of Cheng P'o, op cit. 21 Faure, op. cit., pp. 70-71; Marjone Topley, "Chinese Religion and Rural Cohesion in the Nineteenth Century,” HKBRAS, Vol. 18 (1978), pp. 9-43 22 Interview of Tseng Jung, op cit. 23 Ho, op cit., p. 5 24 For details of the ceremony, see Faure, op cit., p. 71 25 C.K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society. A Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of Their Historical Factors (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961), pp. 11-12, 99 26 For details of the chan festival, see Faure, op cit., pp. 84-86; David Faure, "Hong Kong and China in the Village World,” HKBRAS, Vol. 24 (1981), pp. 76-79; Tanaka ================================================================================