RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 98 EUGENE COOPER Following the vice-chairman's speech, the business part of the meeting ended and the entertainment began, performances being given by a patriotic troop hired for the occasion. One number was performed by the children of the school at the Woodwork Carvers' Union premises. The evening was capped by a pro-union play of the Waiting for Lefty agit-prop type, in which a worker injured on the job learns how really insecure his position as a proletarian is with nothing but his own labor to sell. Unless he stands united with his fellow workers in a union, he really has no chance of supporting his family with his now injured arm, as his boss refuses to take him back on the job. He is attended to by a union doctor and two union members, having no money to afford a private doctor. Gradually he and his wife come to see the benefits of union membership, and the play ends happily with all setting out to attend the union meeting. There were also dances to revolutionary themes with dancers dressed in costumes of Chinese people in various walks of life, and one dance depicting the victories won by the Chinese People's Liberation Army. The troop had its own Chinese style orchestra which rendered the tunes to accompany the dances. A Broadsheet was published for the occasion in which the yearly budget was printed and circulated to all who attended. Selection of officers, discussions of rising prices and increases in standard of living, announcements of wage demands, reports on relations with other guilds, reports of income and expenditures were all common items of business at traditional Chinese guild meetings (Burgess, 1928:145-6) and their presence in the proceedings of the yearly membership meeting of the Woodwork Carvers' Union is noteworthy in that regard. While a religious service honoring the guild founder or a patron saint was often part of the traditional program, both Burgess and Morse had already noted the decline or absence of religious ceremonies or common guild worship in the early twentieth century (Burgess, 1928: 176; Morse, 1909:17). Thus the absence of such services at the yearly meeting of the Woodwork Carvers' Union is not of any singular importance. Of interest, however, is the preservation in the program of musical performances, dances and plays which were typical items in the program of traditional guild yearly meetings (Gamble, 1921: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 126 D.L. MICHALK by governors and generals striving to grasp independent power, and China was plunged into bloody civil war. Guangdong Province, the birth-place of the republican movement, immediately proclaimed itself independent. Sun Yat-sen, the "Father of the Republic", was elected generalissimo, and in 1924 the Kuomintang (the People's Party) was formed. Upon the death of Dr. Sun in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek, backed by his modernized army, emerged as the Kuomintang (KMT) leader, and with assistance from Communist factions began campaigns against the north which culminated in the fall of Shanghai in 1927. Choosing not to expropriate the capitalist bankers in Shanghai as demanded by the Communists, the KMT and Communists became bitter rivals which re-ignited armed struggle in south China. Fuelled by Communist propaganda, there came a genuine uprising of the peasantry against the KMT for failure to deliver promised tax and land reforms throughout the southern provinces. As part of this general uprising, the first group of “freedom fighters" appeared on Hainan in 1927 and staged guerilla warfare on the island until Liberation, twenty-three years later (Fairfax-Cholmeley, 1963). Although armed conflicts between Peking and southern forces had occurred previously on Hainan such as those which led to the capitulation of General Lung's army in 1918 (Moninger, 1919), fighting was confined to the soldiery. However, the Communist tactics brought the conflict to the common citizens by inciting peasants to take up arms against the oppressive gentry and greedy merchants. The effects of lightning raids caused havoc in northern Hainan: numerous villages were abandoned, others sacked and reduced to ash-strewn rubble, and large tracts of farming land were deserted (McClure, 1934b). In fact, the revolutionary play, Red Detachment of Women, was loosely based on incidents which occurred in Hainan in 1931. At a bridge about one kilometre south of the present Xinglong Overseas Chinese State Farm, a guerilla band led by Hong Chang-qing assassinated Nan Ba-tian, a cruel landlord. In reprisal, the landlord's forces captured and executed the guerilla leader. However, a slave girl, Wu Qing-hua, took his place as commander and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 128 D.L. MICHALK 1940 and 1941. Troops trained on Hainan included part of the 18th Division which was later landed at Kota Bharu and which pushed southward along the Malayan east coast, the 5th Division which was landed at Singora and Patani in Thailand, the Guards Division which was lent to the XV Japanese Army for the early part of the invasion of Thailand and Burma, and then reverted to the XXV Army to support the advance of the 5th Division (Wigmore, 1957). In fact, the 5th Division was shipped in troops transports from San Ya in December, 1941, to the Thai peninsula (Wigmore, 1957). Another attraction for the invaders was the rich mineral resources of the island. Industrialists quickly developed a large, open-cut mine at Shi Lu Shan to provide the much-needed iron ore for the Japanese war effort. This necessitated construction of ports at Ba Suo and Yu Lin, and a railway link to transport the annual ore production of 2 million tonnes to these ports. To achieve the development targets demanded by Tokyo, Chinese were indentured and mustered into work-camps. Later Australian and Dutch soldiers captured in Indonesia were transported to a camp at Ba Suo to help with the work (Wigmore, 1957). A total of 267 Australians from the 2/21st Australian Infantry Battalion (or Gull Force as it was known) and 233 Dutchmen captured at Ambon were transported in the "Taiko Maru" to Hainan, arriving at Ba Suo in October, 1942. Conditions at the camp were harsh, and only 110 Australians remained when liberated by American forces on August 26, 1945. The opening of Hainan to foreign tourists enabled ten former Australian prisoners to return to Hainan in 1985 specifically to seek information on the fate of ten Australians who escaped from the camp and joined Communist forces in guerilla campaigns against the Japanese army (Nelson, 1985). Liberation and isolation After the defeat of the Japanese, the KMT regained control of the island, and when Chiang Kai-shek retreated from the mainland to Taiwan more than 100,000 of his loyal soldiers fled to Hainan. This meant that although the "People's Republic" was ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 129 proclaimed in October, 1948, it was almost a year later that units of the People's Liberation Army from the Leichow Peninsula joined the 10,000 Communist guerillas already on Hainan in routing the KMT forces and liberating the "Shore of Pearls" (Fairfax-Cholmeley, 1963). Due to twenty-seven years of civil unrest and Japanese occupation, the island was in a terrible mess: there was no industry to speak of because post-war forays between the KMT and Communist guerillas destroyed many of the enterprises established by the Japanese. Communication and transport networks were in tatters with highways and ports in a state of dilapidation, while the railway link between Ba Suo and the southern port of Yulin was completely destroyed. The situation on Hainan improved somewhat after Liberation. Like the mainland, mass land reclamation campaigns were the hallmark of the post-1949 regime in Hainan. Teams of land reclamation specialists dispatched to Hainan developed 120 state farms and 308 communes with the help of the local people and the 100,000 Chinese who returned from overseas to build the “New China”. Over a thirty year period, investment by the Central Government in agriculture and industry totalled 4.33 billion yuan (US$ 2 billion) for which the island has returned an abundance of iron ore, timber, salt, pepper, rubber and coffee (Wu and Zhi, 1981). Some 14,000 km of roads were built to link all but one remote commune (Chin, 1962), and the surviving sections of the Japanese railway grid were converted to standard gauge in the late 1950's (Anon., 1982a). Of the agricultural activities commenced, rice growing was emphasised in the hope that self-sufficiency in grain production could be quickly attained. By 1958, a total area of 190,000 ha was under paddy (Iskoldsky, 1958) which increased to 157,000 ha of early rice and 225,000 ha of late rice by 1965 (Kirk, 1965). The remainder of Hainan's arable land was used for production of sugar, rubber, coconut, sisal hemp, cotton, palm oil, jute and tropical fruit. Rubber trees occupied the largest area of cultivated land after rice with the estimated tree population of 4 million present in 1965 doubling since 1954 (Kirk, 1965). The new gov- --- --- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 The two walled villages that our Group did walk around, in this basically Hakka Chinese region, struck the author as being, both in layout and construction, similar to the Hakka Tsang Tai Uk walled village in Hong Kong's Sha Tin. All, for example, have communal soul tablets above their altars in their ancestral halls, unlike Cantonese ancestral halls which have individual soul tablets for passed leading members of the community. The walled villages we inspected also have wok i gables which are supposed to denote scholarship among the persons living there. In these walled villages in China, there was also the odd coffin or two stored in their ancestral halls. These are sometimes bought by old people and kept in storage ready for when the last trumpet call sounds. The author has read of coffins being bought and stored in this way but has never actually seen it practised in Hong Kong. Except for bad pockets of pollution, including both dust from construction sites and smoke from factories, parts of the countryside in the Huizhou region reminded the author, very much, of the Hong Kong he knew in the 1950s. As we sped along a new highway with many tollgates and little traffic, a wide variety of vegetables were being grown occasionally by the People's Liberation Army which has to earn its keep. On one occasion, our minibus was held up by a column of ducks waddling, single file, across the road! But, in addition, there was a great deal of paddy with rice harvesting in progress. Winnowing machines were being used similar to those you sometimes see today stored in ancestral halls in Hong Kong's New Territories where they are no longer required. Although there are some small tractors in the Huizhou Region, in the main, the water buffalo is still the beast of burden. On one occasion, the author counted a herd of over 20 out grazing. We saw, of course, many fish ponds on our trip in 1997, and, although we did not see any salt-pans as one could see in Tai O, on Lantao, in the 1950s, and even up until the early 1960s, they still exist in out-of-the-way places in China. The small group of RAS members that visited this eastern Guangdong region, in 1995, did see salt being harvested at a place called Ping Hoi. Before World War Two, salt farming in Hong Kong was usually undertaken by Hakka Chinese, and, in addition to Tai O (previously the most important place for salt farming ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 255 Laya and to assist in the Korean War. In 1957 the Royal Artillery lost one of its major stations in the colony described as "the last of the great Gunner bastions on the island," when 27 Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment RA, which was stationed at Stanley Fort, was sent back to the United Kingdom for reorganisation. From then up to the handover to the Hong Kong Government in 1994, Stanley Fort was occupied by British infantry battalions on 2-year tours of duty. In 1997 it was handed over to the People's Liberation Army who are the present occupants. NOTES 1 Lord Stanley, Edward Henry, 15th Earl of Derby, Secretary of State for the Colonies, 1845. REFERENCES "Stanley, Hong Kong - The First Three Years" by Lieut. G.P. Shearer, R.E., Royal Engineers' Journal, June 1938. "British & Indian Armies on the China Coast 1795 - 1985", by Alan Harfield, A&J Partnership, 1990. "The Guns & Gunners of Hong Kong", by Denis Rollo, The Gunners Roll of Hong Kong 1992. "Eighteen Days", by Col. D.R. Bennett, R.A.P.C., The Royal Army Pay Office, Hong Kong, 1976. "Lyemun Barracks: 140 Years of Military History", by Phillip Bruce, 1987. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 279 1970 1971 1973 1974 1977 1978 1986 1989 1994 1995 1997 1st Bttn. The Royal Welch Fusiliers at Gun Club. Death of "Billy" Regimental Goat on 8 June. Buried behind Church. (The "gravestone" was salvaged, prior to excavation work for the new PLA Hospital, & removed to ASD Property Services Branch Antiquities Store at APB Centre in Cheung Sha Wan. No remains of "Billy" were found.) 1st Bttn. The Black Watch at Gun Club. 1st Bttn. The Royal Hampshire Regt. at Gun Club, Alanbrooke Block (British MQs) & Infants' School (Block 27) demolished. New Gurkha MQs, Temple, Clinic & School build started. 10 Int & Sec Coy moved into Colony Club (Block 36) from Argyle Street Camp. Gurkha Transport Regt. & Gurkha Signals moved into Gun Club from Shamshuipo Camp. Victoria Junior School moved over from Victoria Barracks. New Classroom built at Gun Club Primary School. Skeleton said to date from Japanese occupation unearthed during excavations. Severe flooding on May 2 to MT compound causing considerable damage to vehicles, buildings and equipment. Compound again flooded on May 20 during Typhoon Brenda. Colony Club (Block 36), St. Eligius' Church, and the old gun shed (Block 29) demolished to make way for the new military hospital. Banyan trees transplanted to elsewhere in the barracks also to the new Kowloon Walled City Park. Barracks vacated by the British Army and handed over to Hong Kong Government. Barracks occupied by People's Liberation Army following handover of Hong Kong to China. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 346 By the time dinnertime came, we had finished dinner. Let me explain. Dusk fell at about five o'clock, and the guide said that we were now going for dinner. Of course, there were howls of protest, but we were assured that this was perfectly normal. At least, we demanded, can we have a change from Chinese food. We all enjoy Chinese food and the quality had been consistently on the good side, but we craved a bit of variety. So we were treated to a Korean BBQ buffet, and it was absolutely excellent - masses of fresh meat, seafood, and vegetables and gas-fired hotpots to do your own cooking in. A real eye-opener and tummy-filler, but all was finished by about seven o'clock, leaving some of us in desperate need of a cream cake or two back in the hotel. Port Arthur On the 40-odd mile journey to Port Arthur, we were treated by Philip Bruce to an introduction to fortress-building and sacking, just so that we could be prepared. However, I have to say that the visit to Port Arthur, or Lushun as it is now known, was the closest we came to a disappointment. We were all experts on the place from the time Captain Arthur first dropped his anchor there until the early part of this century, but none of us was prepared for the present day Lushun. To be fair, the guide had told us that the whole place is still dominated by a naval base - but this time, of course, one operated by the People's Liberation Army. We tried to explain that we were not interested in any of the naval installations or hardware, but the old buildings that remained to be seen, and in particular the railway station. However, we were told that as we were foreigners, we could not even go into the town at all. Only half-jokingly, those of us that could produced our Permanent Hong Kong Identity Cards, demonstrating that we too were citizens of the People's Republic. But this did not impress the guides. It was suggested that it might be a case of us not looking all that Chinese that was the problem. The guide assured us that this was not the case - it was simply a matter of not wanting foreign nationals wandering over highly sensitive military facilities. However, when it was pointed out that four of our number did indeed look very Chinese (despite their Canadian, Malaysian, and other passports), the guides agreed that these four could indeed visit the town. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 288 consul was nearly hit by a bullet that entered his office through the window. This same consul was involved during student protests later the same year when the police quarters were set alight and the students rampaged through the town intent on killing foreigners. He and his family were only saved by the timely arrival of Chinese soldiers, and escaped by river down to Shanghai. Today the Zhenjiang Museum occupies the former British Consulate at 85 Boxian Lu in Boxian Park at the heart of the old town. Amongst the items on display in the grounds is an anchor said to have been from H.M.S. Amethyst, the frigate of the British Yangtze Flotilla, which, after weeks of being blockaded, stuck on a sand bank, escaped downstream despite having been badly damaged by shell fire from the PLA [People's Liberation Army] during their thrust south across the River in 1948 to liberate China from the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek. British efforts to seek a diplomatic solution involved Edward Youde, a twenty-four-year-old third secretary at the Embassy, who volunteered to reach the senior PLA military officer at Yangzhou to seek a safe-conduct pass for the Amethyst to sail unmolested downstream back to Shanghai. He first had to obtain passes to permit him to cross the line between the Nationalists and the Communists. After several days of adventures and lengthy cross-country hikes, sometimes under fire, Youde reached the senior PLA officer and his request was forcibly rejected. His mission a failure, he returned, again amidst numerous adventures to report to his Ambassador in Nanjing. He later became better known as Sir Edward Youde, one of the last Governors of Hong Kong. Christian missionaries There were Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries, Anglicans and the 'faith missions', Baptists, Presbyterians and the Lutherans, and so on, as well as the individual evangelicals, zealous saviours of souls. The most important aspect of this work, though most would not see it in this light, was by setting an example, though this in no way belittled their social, medical and educational work. Medical missionaries, another dedicated breed, were an exception with their professional abilities being widely welcomed not only by Chinese but also by the Europeans within both treaty ports as well as in the remoter parts of China in which they lived and worked. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 397 The result of the Confucian education is supposed to be the formation of a highly virtuous character....The chief energy of those who have taught it has been expended in the endeavour to give it practical effect on the individual, the family, and the nation.1 In regard to the depopulation at Shek Pik, it is curious how this was repeated at Tong Fuk, another old village four miles to the east, where the 198 persons recorded at the Colony Census of 1911 were survivors of the much larger population of some 700 persons claimed before the onset of disease sometime in the second half of the 19th century. Interviewed in 1971, the elders had been most emphatic about this, on the basis of information handed down by their fathers' generation... 'There was not a single empty or ruined house [before the epidemics struck],' or so they claimed. Later on, in the 1910s, when my oldest informants were then in their teens, the situation worsened again, with two persons dying every day. 'No sooner had we taken out one body for burial, than we had to start all over again.' As at Shek Pik, altered, meaning adverse, fung-shui was blamed for these disasters. 'For we Cantonese, fung-shui is vital,' stressed one of their number. The caption to Plate 25, the rebuilt Tianhou Temple at Chiwan, Shenzhen, can be extended here. I omitted to mention the famous well, prominent in the foreground, with adjoining plaque, As mentioned in the related text, the temple's long history and cultural importance had not saved it from destruction. By the end of the ten-year period of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) only the foundations survived, and what remained of its historic buildings had been reduced in height and roofed over to provide barrack accommodation for a unit of the People's Liberation Army, still in occupation at the time of my first visit in 1983. The temple's fine stone and wood carvings had gone, along with the many donated fittings and repair tablets that would have been kept within its walls. However, one tradition had survived the decades of Communist ideology. 'This was both the theory and the aim. However, Edkins concluded that despite the intention, 'it has not made them (the Chinese) a moral people. Many of the social virtues are extensively practised among them, but they exhibit to the observer a lamentable want of moral strength. Commercial integrity and speaking the truth are far less common among them than in Christian countries. The standard of principle among them is kept low by the habits of the people.' ================================================================================