RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f
NOTES AND QUERIES

125

CHINESE BOOKS IN THE LIBRARY OF

THE ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY LONDON

Volume I of the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society contained a short account of a collection of Chinese books presented by Sir George T. Staunton to the Royal Asiatic Society in 1824. In this note I suggested that it would be valuable if a catalogue of these books together with their titles in Chinese was to be compiled. As a result of this note I have now received further information on this subject.

Mr. J. D. Pearson, Librarian of the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, who spent three months in Hong Kong early in 1962, informed me that the Rev. Samuel Kidd, Professor of Chinese at University College London, compiled a Catalogue of the Chinese Library of the Royal Asiatic Society which was printed in 1838.*

Also I received a letter from Mr. P. van der Loon, Lecturer in Chinese at the University of Cambridge, drawing my attention to an article printed in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1890 which gives information on the sources through which the Chinese books in the Library of the Royal Asiatic Society in London were obtained.

Thus my original note fulfilled the intention of this section of the Journal devoted to Notes and Queries, namely that of bringing certain information to the notice of readers and stimulating them to contribute further information on these subjects. It is hoped that other notes printed in this section will provoke similar information in the future.

J. L. CRANMER-BYNG.

* London, John W. Parker, pp. 58. The edition was limited to 500 copies. The Chinese titles are given in a form of romanization but without any Chinese characters.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v
2

marvels of the life under the waters around us in the brilliant colours of Mr. Bromhall's underwater photography could not have been revealed to us a quarter of a century ago.

The lectures last year covered a wide variety of subjects, following the policy advised by the first President of this Society in Hong Kong, Sir John Davis, who stressed the importance of directing the attention of the Society to practical projects and to natural history, ethnology and botany as well as to linguistic and literary pursuits. The wealth of our local talent was strikingly shown by the fact that half of the lectures were given by scholars and experts from amongst our own members. The lectures given during the year were:

January 15th
February 26th
Dr. Herold J. Wiens* "Some of China's 35 Million Non-Chinese"
Mr. J. D. Pearson "Recent Development in Oriental Studies in Great Britain"
"Buddhism in Modern Life"
Sir Lindsay Ride "The Old Protestant Cemetery in Macao"
Mr. Ma Meng "Recent Changes in the Chinese Language"
April 2nd
Ven. Khema "Hong Kong Flowers"
May 7th
Miss B. T. Chiu
June 18th
Mr. J. L. Cranmer-Byng "The Old British Legation at Peking 1860-1959"
July 16th
Professor L. C. Goodrich "The Development of Printing in China and Its Effect on the Renaissance under the Sung (960-1279)"
August 20th
September 3rd

* Printed in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 2, 1962,
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

89

Under the Grant Regulations all the approved Post-Secondary Colleges were to select students for admission to first-year courses from among those attaining an approved standard at a Joint Entry Examination, and to participate in a Joint Diploma Examination. These Examinations were controlled by standing committees composed of members nominated by the approved Post-Secondary Colleges on the Grant List and members nominated by the Director of Education. The Colleges were also required to participate in the formation of a Joint Establishment Board for selection of staff.

As proposed in the declaration of June 1959, a number of experts in university education were invited to the Colony and they gave valuable and encouraging advice both to Government and to the Colleges on their development. Mr. J. S. Fulton, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Sussex, visited the Colony in October 1959 and provided an extremely useful report.

The proposals in the Report for the development of the Colleges towards university status underwent serious study by the Colleges. One of the matters which received very close attention was that of reframing the courses and syllabuses of the individual colleges, both to make them more suitable for colleges of university standing within a federal set-up, and to ensure that they would meet the needs of Hong Kong. The Government, acting upon the Colleges' suggestion, invited three eminent scholars, Sir James Duff, Dr. Kenneth Mellanby, and Professor F. E. Folts, to Hong Kong to study the problems in the spring of 1961. Then early in 1962 Mr. J. D. Pearson, Librarian of the School of Oriental and African Studies in the University of London, also visited the Colony and gave a useful report on library development in the Colleges. The expert advice of these men played a very significant part in the development of the three Grant Colleges toward university status.

Following the 1959 announcement, the Chinese College Joint Council acted as the unofficial agent of the Colleges in raising standards and bringing about uniformity in matters such as examinations and qualifications for teaching staff. To meet these needs three official boards were established: the Joint Entry Examination Syndicate, the Joint Diploma Board and the Joint Establishment Board.
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