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 RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 63 There are two examples of translations of Chinese plays, again by a French scholar, Antoine-Pierre-Louis Bazin (1799-1863), Théâtre Chinois ou choix de Pièces de Théâtre composées sous les Empereurs Mongols, 1838 and Le Pi-Pa-Ki ou l'Histoire du Luth, Drame Chinois de Kao-Tong-Kai. A last example of the work of French sinologues of the early part of last century is Dictionnaire des noms anciens et modernes des villes et arrondissements de premier, deuxième et troisième ordre compris dans l'Empire Chinois, by Edouard Biot, 1842. Some examples of books published by the press established by Morrison and his colleagues at the Anglo-Chinese College established at Malacca are in the Library. The most interesting from the point of view of the history of the mission is William Milne's A Retrospect of the First Ten Years of the Protestant Mission to China. Accompanied with Miscellaneous Remarks on the Literature, History and Mythology of China, etc., 1820. William Milne was sent to join Morrison by the London Missionary Society and arrived in China in 1813. After encountering many difficulties about obtaining permission to stay in Canton he went to Malacca and finally founded the Anglo-Chinese College there, whose primary object was the establishment of a Chinese free school in the hope that it would prepare the way for a Seminary. Another interesting example from this press is Notitia Linguae Sinicae by Joseph Henri Marie de Prémare, S.J. (1666-1736), printed in 1831. There is a letter of March 1825 quoted in the Memoirs concerning the Latin MS of this book from Lord Kingsborough to Morrison. It states that the original MS is in the Royal Library of France, describes the book as giving rules for the composition of Chinese in both classical and modern style with many examples from Chinese texts and says that he is having it transcribed at a cost of sixty guineas for Morrison. He also says that Rémusat had made an index for it and suggests that 'by the publication of a work of this learned Jesuit-confessedly the most profoundly versed in the genius of the Chinese language of the Roman Catholic Missionaries who visited China-he will be doing a thing useful to the friends of science, and creditable to themselves.' Elsewhere in the Memoirs it is recorded that Viscount Kingsborough also gave the College £1,500 to defray the cost of printing the book. This then is the brief history and description of a collection of books gathered together to perpetuate the memory of Robert Morrison. But his name is remembered in the most fitting way by his two major contributions to Chinese studies, a record of which is thus written on his tombstone in the Protestant Cemetery at Macao: ================================================================================ 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 RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 105 Because of their limited resources monasteries in Hong Kong have never been able to act as is'ung lam, that is, public monasteries which on the mainland made it their obligation to accept all wandering monks. There has been and is no religious obligation for Hong Kong monasteries to receive refugees or visitors. They are private institutions and a stranger, even though he is an ordained monk in good standing, can be refused admission. There have, however, been some monasteries here (notably the Tung Pu Toh) that did manage to shelter hundreds of refugee monks in the years immediately following 1950, and they have been much admired for so doing. Most of these monks have since emigrated to Taiwan. One of the problems facing the Sangha in Hong Kong is how to maintain its size. While the number of lay Buddhists is growing, the Sangha is not. Only the Po Lin Tsz performs ordination. Other monasteries do not have the equipment and personnel required. The South China Buddhist Academy (at the Wong Faat Tsing She), which was the only seminary in the Colony, has ceased to function because there were not enough candidates for the rigorous training it offered. It may be that the atmosphere in Hong Kong does not favour the development of the attitudes that best lead a young man to take refuge in the Three Jewels. If his only reason for accepting the hardship of monastery life is to escape greater hardship outside the monastery, he is unlikely to have the diligence necessary for seeking enlightenment or to contribute much in the way of helping others to seek it. The Sangha faces the danger of decline both in size and quality. IV. GOVERNMENT SUPERVISION The Chinese Temples Ordinance, passed in 1928 to protect the public from extortion and fraud which were then becoming more prevalent in the urban areas, deals with places of Chinese worship open to the public where fees or other charges are levied. Such temples are placed under the control of a statutory Chinese Temples Committee, consisting of leading Chinese citizens with the Secretary for Chinese Affairs as the chairman and the only government member. The Committee can require the transfer of any temple falling within the provisions of the Ordinance and all its property, without compensation, to the Secretary for Chinese Affairs' titular ownership. Five old temples are specifically excluded from the operations of this Ordinance; a sixth one, the Man Mo Temple in Hollywood Road, often used by film companies, has for over 50 years had a separate Ordinance of its own placing it under the control of the Tung Wah Hospitals; the administrative and financial supervision of seven others is delegated by the Temples Committee to the Tung Wah Hospitals. The Temples Committee at present directly administers 36 temples, ================================================================================ 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 RASHKB and author Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 107 V. WELFARE ACTIVITIES OF THE SANGHA Generally speaking, the monasteries of the Colony do little in the way of public service, except in so far as a few of them provide food and, in some cases, accommodations for visitors (the most famous in this regard being the Po Lin Tsz near Lantao Peak). An increasingly active role in welfare work, however, is being played by the nunneries of Hong Kong. First mention should probably be given to the 30 nuns and 50 lay devotees of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen A, a Pure Land nunnery established by Lady Clara Ho Tung in 1935. Housed in a handsome set of buildings, it operates: (1) the Colony's only Buddhist "seminary" for nuns, which provides an eight-year course in Mahayana Buddhism; (2) a primary day school; (3) a primary night school; (4) the Po Kok Vocational Middle School; and (5) a branch primary school in Ping Shan F, New Territories. The total enrollment (all girls) at these various schools is 1,256,* ranging from 503 for the primary day school to 26 for the seminary. All the schools except the seminary receive a government subsidy, which according to the regulations of the Education Department means that they must charge the standard tuition fees of HK$50 a year at primary level and HK$320 at secondary level. Only 10 per cent of the enrollment in the case of a primary school, and 30 per cent in the case of a secondary school, may be free of tuition. The subsidy covers all operating expenses not covered by tuition, that is, about 80 per cent of gross expenditures for urban schools, and over 90 per cent for rural schools (where tuition is only HK$10 a year). The Education Department does not object to having the tuition partly or wholly donated by the school or its supporters. Thus, in effect, the tuition requirement is only for the purpose of computing the amount of the subsidy. In the case of the Tung Lin Kok Yuen, pupils all come from poor families and pay HK$20 a year at primary level and HK$40 a year at secondary (which means that most of their tuition is donated). About one-third of the operating expenses comes from gifts and the nunnery's general income on the real estate that forms its principal endowment. About two-thirds comes from a government subsidy. The study of Buddhist sutras forms part of the curriculum for all pupils (other main subjects being Chinese, English, history, and mathematics, plus vocational training in the middle school). Pupils attend Buddhist services in rotation at least once a week; and before each year's graduation they all are given a lecture by a prominent dharma master. After graduation a small number * Here and below all school enrollment figures are as of June 30, 1960. ================================================================================ 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 108 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 usually decides to transfer into the seminary and become nuns. The educational standards are high: in 1959 and 1960 over 90 per cent of each graduating class of the middle school passed the Chinese School-leaving Certificate examination, nearly a third with distinction. Other institutions of the Sangha that are noteworthy for their welfare activities are: (1) The Chi Lin Tsing Yuen, a nunnery established at Diamond Hill in 1945, where 68 nuns now operate a subsidized primary school (opened in 1953) for 236 underprivileged boys and girls; an orphanage with 24 girls from 6 to 15 years old; and the Chi Lin Home for Aged Women which has 100 inmates who live there free of charge. Both the Home and the orphanage were built in 1956 with funds donated by Aw Boon Haw 胡文虎, (2) The Po Yeuk Tsing She, a nunnery in Shatin where about 30 nuns operate the Po Yeuk Home for Aged Women. The Home was built in 1955, also with funds donated by Aw Boon Haw, and has 100 inmates, who live free of charge. in Shatin, where a group (3) The Ts'z Hong Tsing Yuen of about 30 women lay devotees, under the direction of an ordained nun, operate a co-educational subsidized free school with 216 pupils (tuition actually paid is HK$10 a year), (4) The Taai Kwong Nunnery near Tai Po, where about 10 nuns operate a co-educational subsidized primary school with 309 pupils (established in 1945) and are planning to open a middle school in 1961. This nunnery also runs a small orphanage, which now has 4 girls and 5 boys from 1 to 15 years old. Visitors get a very pleasant impression of the atmosphere created by the abbess, who has all these enterprises in her sole charge. Financial support comes from Buddhist laymen. VI. LAY ORGANIZATIONS 1. HONG KONG BUDDHIST ASSOCIATION 香港佛教聯合會 This is the leading Buddhist organization in the Colony. It was originally founded in 1932 as the Hong Kong Buddhist [Studies] Association, to foster solidarity among Buddhists, dis-seminate the dharma, and promote social welfare. During the Second World War it became inactive, one reason being that its members did not wish to have it exploited by the Japanese, who had become adept at using Buddhism for political penetration abroad. It was revived, however, in 1945 under its present name and incorporated on May 2, 1959. Its membership has risen from 1,500 in 1952 to 3,850 in 1960. Of the latter number, 116 are monks, 324 are nuns, and 20 are institutions (e.g., the Po Lin Tsz and the Hong Kong Lotus Association). The rest of the membership is composed of laymen, among whom the purely devout probably outnumber those who take a more intellectual approach to Buddhism. Dues are HK$10 a year for most members. 7 Tuition actually paid is only HK$24 a year. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f THE BUDDHIST CAREER 43 meditation. I know of a monk who tried the latter for about a year and a half and then gave up. He changed to T'ien-t'ai meditation, which is somewhat easier. He did this for nine years, but still did not feel that he was getting anywhere, and so for the last eighteen years he has been reciting Buddha's name, which is the practice of the Pure Land sect. Notice that there was no set career. A monk could meditate; he could recite Buddha's name; he could study. He was not committed to the practice of any one sect. It is as if in the West a Christian could be a Quaker this year, a Roman Catholic next year, and a Baptist the year after, regarding them all as complementary. Much of the Buddhist monk's time, of course, was spent in ritual which was common to all sects: chanting the scriptures morning and evening, rites to celebrate the anniversaries of buddhas and bodhisattvas through the calendar year, masses to release the souls of the dead from hell, prayers for the sick, prayers to avert disaster, and other ceremonies designed to assist the faithful with practical problems of life and death. The newly ordained monk was, as I say, supposed to meditate and study for five years after ordination. Study was usually carried on in a seminary. The seminaries (there were about thirty-five of them) were established in the nineteen-twenties as a part of the general revival of Buddhism in China. I shall not go into the seminary curriculum, but it lasted from three to twelve years, depending on how much education the monk had already had. It began with secular subjects (history, mathematics, etc.), and ended with studying how to expound the sutras. Some seminaries had a tough programme: one monk I know got T.B. from overwork. ** After the seminary the next stage of the monk's career was peregrination. I use this word because it properly means making pilgrimages. A monk would start off from the place he had been trained and wander up and down China. He might spend a week in one monastery, a few months in another, many years in a third. But in theory there could be no final settling down. Peregrination was a hard life, and this was one of the reasons it was considered essential. It rubbed off superficialities—from interest in personal comfort to feelings of self-importance. More than that, it enabled a monk to learn each text and doctrine ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY 13 of conventionalized T'ao T'ieh is also highly prized. There are also fine specimens of both glazed and unglazed pottery decorated with the "Double-F" pattern, a design thought to be unique in the Hong Kong area and not so far found elsewhere, even around Canton. The design was quite new to such an eminent authority as Professor Paul Pelliot. Much study and conjecture was given to this design by Father Finn (7). Apart from exhibits of Lamma archaeology at the British Museum and locally at the City Hall and the Fung Ping Shan Museum there are other smaller ones held in Ricci Hall (a University Hostel) and the University Team Working Centre. Further away there are collections in Honolulu at the Bishop Museum and at Harvard University. There are without doubt also many other good private collections that have not been recorded, Following the historical sequence of discovery in and around Hong Kong come the Hoifong sites located about eighty miles away in northeast Kwangtung. All these sites are fairly close to the indented coastline and near well-established ports such as Swabue. It was a student in the Jesuit Seminary at Aberdeen (Hong Kong Island) who first reported the presence of remains in Hoifong that were similar to those in the Seminary collection. He brought several pieces to Father Finn who was soon convinced that he should visit the area for an on-the-spot examination. This he did in 1934 and very quickly established the fact that there were many rich sites with remains probably the same in age and culture as those in Hong Kong, especially Lamma. Father Maglioni, an Italian priest in the Pontifical Institute of the Milan Foreign Mission accompanied Father Finn on much of his fieldwork, especially around Swabue where he was stationed in a Catholic Mission. During this time he learned much from Father Finn and when Father Finn died it was natural that he should continue collecting and studying the remains. Father Maglioni modestly proclaimed himself as being strictly an amateur archaeologist without any scientific training. However, while this amateur status was correct, when he took over ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g gramme of lectures, seminars and excursions and I should like to record our grateful thanks to those both members and visitors who contributed so willingly and so successfully to this fundamental part of our activities. Of these I should like to draw particular attention to the excursions. It takes not a little time and trouble to organize these, and a special word of thanks is due to those members who so willingly undertake these duties for us. The following is the full list of our activities arranged during the year: 12 January Professor S. Y. Teng "Hung Jen-kan, Prime Minister of the Tai-ping Kingdom and his Reform Plans." 16 March Commander F. Warrington-Strong, DSC, RN (Ret'd). "Porcelain Manufacture in 18th Century China." (An Illustrated Talk) 22 March All day excursion Visit to Tsun Wan Temples and Monasteries. 24 March Captain Roger Pineau, USNR "The Japan Expedition 1852-1855 of Commodore Matthew Calbraith Perry." (An Illustrated Lecture) 6 April Mr. Frank Chippindale "The Influence of Chinese Art and Furniture on Chippendale's Design." (An Illustrated Talk) 18-19 April A week-end Symposium arranged by Professor L. B. Thrower of the Department of Botany, University of Hong Kong. 3 May Mr. Roland W. K. Chow "The Vegetation of Hong Kong: Its Structure and Change." (Demonstration and Talk, illustrated by slides) Peking Opera ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g NOTES AND QUERIES VISIT TO THE TUNG LIN KOK YUEN, TAM KUNG TEMPLE, HAPPY VALLEY, AND TIN HAU TEMPLE, CAUSEWAY BAY, SATURDAY, 7TH NOVEMBER 1970 Tung Lin Kok Yuen The Tung Lin Kok Yuen(t) is a Buddhist nunnery situated at Shan Kwong Road, Happy Valley, not far from the Royal Hong Kong Jockey Club stables. It was founded by the late Lady Hotung (1878-1938), wife of that well-known Hong Kong figure, Sir Robert Hotung. The Yuen comprises a Buddhist temple and the Po Kok Vocational Middle School. The main building was completed in mid-1935 when two other institutions founded by Lady Hotung, the Po Kok Free School in Percival Street and a Buddhist seminary in Castle Peak were moved to it. The Yuen is said to be the only place in the Colony which provides a seminary for Buddhist nuns, and the study of Buddhism forms a major part of the curriculum. A new school building was opened in November, 1951 and an extension for teachers' quarters in 1954. Although the Yuen is not very old, it is of special interest in that the religious images, furniture and other fittings survived the Japanese occupation when so much else in the Colony was dispersed or destroyed, so that we can see today, more or less, how the Yuen looked when it was completed in 1935. Readers of Mrs. Jean Gittins' recently published book Eastern Windows Western Skies (Hong Kong, South China Morning Post Ltd., 1969) pp. 106-7, will recall how many of the internal fittings for the Yuen were carried out by Shanghainese craftsmen in Sir Robert Hotung's house on the Peak. Of particular interest are two halls devoted to the maintenance of memorial tablets for the dead. One of these, named after one of Sir Robert Hotung's sons who died early, there is a painting of him in the hall is part of the original building, whilst an extension was added about 10 years ago. The persons depositing memorial tablets in these halls are said to pay a once-for-all donation to the Yuen. Besides memorial tablets kept under glass-fronted altars, there are also lists of names written on pink paper. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h ARCHAEOLOGY IN H.K. AND SOUTH CHINA 163 quartz and jade, and stone beads, adzes and lance heads were discovered. Some of the pottery bore makers' marks, which seemed in some cases to resemble archaic Chinese characters. To deal with the problems raised by these and the ornaments on much of the pottery, the chief of which was a symbol resembling a long f and showing several variations, Prof. Shellshear invited the collaboration of the late Father Finn, S.J., a distinguished scholar in the Regional Seminary at Aberdeen, Hong Kong, and a lecturer at the University of Hong Kong. Father Finn devoted himself thenceforward to a careful study of this site and its culture, and published thirteen papers in the Hong Kong Naturalist on the subject, basing his work on a profound study of archaeological literature in neighbouring countries, Japan, China, Indo-China, the Straits and elsewhere.* This study was greatly aided by the decision of the Hong Kong Government to have the site excavated at its own expense. In five weeks' work about half the undug portion of the sandbank was excavated to a depth of 6 to 7 feet, and some thousands of pottery fragments, a large number of other objects of stone, quartz, jade, bronze and even two or three partly of iron, were unearthed. Father Finn conducted this excavation, and included the description of the results in his articles. Father Finn also worked at other sites on Lamma and Hong Kong islands, and during visits to St. John's Island (where St. Francis Xavier died), and the Swabue district near Swatow, discovered more sites. The latter district gave very interesting and important results, which have recently been outlined in a paper by Father Maglioni in the Hong Kong Naturalist. In 1932 Professor Shellshear brought the facts then known about Hong Kong's prehistory before the scientific world at the Prehistorians' Congress at Hanoi, whose proceedings were published by the École Française d'Extrême Orient as the Praehistorica Asiae Orientales (Hanoi, 1932). Father Finn summed up the results of his work at the Lamma Island site at the Manila Congress of the same body in 1935.† * A list of publications on local pre-history that includes those mentioned at various places in this article can be found at the end. † Whose proceedings were not published. I have Mr. Schofield's notes and can make them available to anyone who may wish to consider filling a gap in our published records. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h 208 NOTES AND QUERIES it is easy to see what it was like in 1841 when Britain occupied Hong Kong. University Hall began life in the early 1860s as Castle Douglas, the fanciful creation of Douglas Lapraik, an early Hong Kong ship-owner (see J. Llewellyn's article from Volume XI, (1967-68) of Outpost, the annual magazine of University Hall Students' Association). The house and estate were sold to the Société des Missions Étrangères de Paris (hereafter called the French Mission) in May, 1894, rebuilt and extended, and renamed Nazareth House. The Mission figures prominently in today's tour, since we shall visit the Maison de Béthanie, opposite Castle Douglas, that also belonged to it. Before proceeding further to describe Nazareth House and Béthanie, I shall mention something of its work and history. According to Samuel Couling's Encyclopaedia Sinica (Shanghai, Kelly and Walsh, 1917) p. 378, the Société, all of whose members were French, was, at the time he wrote, a society of secular priests who, without being tied to any religious vow, devoted themselves to the propagation of the Catholic faith in the Far East. It originated in the middle of the 17th century by some French priests proceeding by invitation to Tonkin to assist the work of the Jesuits there. Its first missionary to reach China proper was Mgr. Pallu in 1681. It had no Superior-General but was administered by the heads of the different Missions, and by the Directors of the Seminary in Paris. The Society provided more workers and more martyrs than any other of the bodies that evangelized the Far East. At the time Couling wrote, it had under its care 12 Vicariats with 462,321 Christians, and more than 160 of its members had been made bishops. Besides its Missions in China, the Société had in Hong Kong a famous printing house, the Nazareth Press, which began its work soon after the first Nazareth House was opened in Macau in December 1884. Nazareth House soon moved to Hong Kong, to Tai Ku Lau, Pokfulam, (see below) 1885-1891, then to Richmond Terrace above Kennedy Town in the Western District of Hong Kong (1891-1895) and then to Castle Douglas, renamed Nazareth (1895-1953). The printing press went with it in all these removals. The Nazareth Press was a notable achievement. It occupied a special building at Tai Ku Lau, with the presses on the ground floor and the setting rooms above. A special extension was later built ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 190 DAVID FAURE of gendarmes was stationed at what is now the Lok Yuk Seminary. After this, there was no more trouble from the bandits.78 According to Mr. Lei Shiu Yam, Hui was an interpreter for the Japanese. According to Mr. Uen Chiu Ming of Mok Tse Che, who worked for Hui during the War, Hui was a former school teacher, who then began to work in a seamen's recruitment house. At the formation of the K'ui Ching Shoh, Mr. Uen was asked by Hui to join his staff, and he worked there throughout the War. According to Mr. Uen, this district office was divided into four sections, under the Director, Mr. Hui, and the Deputy Director, Mr. Lei Yung Shang. The four sections were: Economic Section, responsible for rationing; Registration of Households Section; Hygiene Section; and General Affairs Section. Altogether, there was a staff of about twenty-one or twenty-two people. At first, the Director had authority to appoint his staff, but soon the Japanese Government required that all local staff be selected through an examination held at the New Territories headquarters in Tai Po. When Mr. Uen began his service at the K'ui Ching Shoh, he was paid forty dollars Military Currency per month.79 At the time of the establishment of the K'ui Ching Shoh, the Japanese Government also instituted the appointment of village heads. In some villages, these village heads were responsible for collecting the ration for the entire village. When the Japanese Government needed labour for its construction projects, it was also the responsibility of the village heads to produce the labour.80 It is important to point out that members of the K'ui Ching Shoh were not looked upon as collaborators with the Japanese. Rather, it was widely recognized that members of the K'ui Ching Shoh were caught in a difficult position between the Japanese Government and the anti-Japanese forces. The K'ui Ching Shoh, by and large, concentrated on local administration. Only those people who worked for the gendarmes were considered collaborators. Meanwhile, the Chamber of Commerce continued to function, in fact if not in name. It came to be responsible for purchasing provisions for the Japanese Government in Sai Kung from local ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46 NOVEMBER 33 Pat Wong, an old Maryknoll friend from our first days in Hong Kong, and now visiting the Colony from his new home in Honolulu, took the new men to their first Chinese banquet with no casualties reported. The Kongmoon contingent among the new men, with Father O'Melia as guide and teacher, take off for the Tan Chuk Seminary in the Wuchow Mission as the new site for the Language School; a safety precaution in view of the worsening conditions between the Japanese and the British-American bloc. Father Siebert, assigned to Kaying, will leave for there later on. The Stanley staff went to the dock to greet the S.S. Van Buren and the other new missioners but they were not on board - a mystery! Brother William arrived from Shanghai where he has been staying with Father Whitlow for some time. He is unable to return to Korea at present. Father Don Hessler arrived from Kweilin by plane for a rest after his recent bout with typhoid. Father Barney Meyer goes to the Paris Foreign Mission compound, "Nazareth," for a retreat preparatory to his coming jubilee. Father Feeney and Father Bauer arrive, the latter for treatment at St. Paul's for a bad case of dysentery. The end of the month brought Passionist Bishop Cuthbert O'Gara by plane from Kweilin. PART II: WAR AND OCCUPATION, DECEMBER 1941 -- AUGUST 1945 With the proximity of the Japanese across the border, the atmosphere in the Colony was rather tense. When Canton fell to the Japanese, there was a mass flight of refugees to Hong Kong. It was then estimated that some one hundred thousand came in 1939, bringing the population of the Colony at the outbreak of hostilities to approximately one million six hundred thousand, and it was thought that at the height of the influx, some half a million were sleeping on the streets. Then, on the fateful date of December 8th, the quiet of the Maryknoll House was rudely broken by the events of what was, no... Page 60 Page 61 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 68 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS only the masonry shell of a building stood, mute witness to the horrors of war. Whenever a building was left untenanted, it suffered this same fate. The area around St. Paul's Hospital was pretty badly scarred, and the Hospital itself received many direct shell hits. A few Jesuits and some Salesians were kept prisoners for a while close to the Hospital, but were released after a few days. While engaged in driving an ambulance in the city, one of the Christian Brothers, Brother Peter, was killed; otherwise, the clergy and religious of Hong Kong were uninjured, though I believe Father Tournier, Assistant French Procurator, was slightly wounded. One shell hit the Maryknoll Convent School in Kowloon, and though the Sisters had a trying time, they were unmolested. After the armistice, the Japanese began immediately collecting all vehicles, cars and trucks. Along the road at Stanley, on our return from the garage, we saw a number of trucks and cars on the road, either having been damaged by machine-gun fire, or abandoned by their drivers. These were all towed into town, in many cases by British army trucks which had been captured, and hundreds and perhaps thousands of cars, trucks and buses were corraled on the Happy Valley and Deep Water Bay recreation grounds. It is also thought that the Japanese took many of these vehicles to Japan, as it is reported that they took food supplies out of the Colony to Japan. Gradually, a few bus lines were started up, as was a ferry or two to Kowloon, but the only cars on the road were Japanese trucks and official cars. All business was at a standstill; shops and department stores were closed and boarded up; what business there was, was done by hawkers on the streets. All foreign enemy property was promptly taken over by the Japanese and strips of wood with Chinese characters painted or stenciled on them bore the motto: "Imperial Japanese Government Property." Our house at Stanley was likewise placarded and Father Troesch was appointed guardian for the Japanese Government. The French Fathers at Pokfulam were treated rather roughly, and were kept in a small room for several days, while their buildings were ransacked and looted. The Christian Brothers' College suffered the same fate, even though they were of mixed nationality and their head an Irishman. The Jesuits lost Ricci Hall but managed to keep Wah Yan College and the Seminary at Aberdeen. The beautiful French Procure was finally confiscated and the Fathers had to move ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46 121 lyze our feelings. We regretted leaving our many friends in Camp, yet were glad to get out to freedom. What would we find in Hong Kong? Would we be allowed to go to the interior of China? Where are we going to stay in Hong Kong? There had been some talk of our staying with the Bishop in his "Little Seminary" and again some mention of Bethany at Pokfulam. So there was an element of mystery and of adventure in our trip that day. All went well until our truck reached the top of the Wongneichong Gap on the Happy Valley Road. Here there was a barrier and we were stopped by a gendarme, who demanded that we get out of the truck and have our baggage inspected and examined. We were preparing to do this, when Mr. Yamashita, the young Japanese gentleman in charge of Camp affairs, who was sitting with the driver, got down and tried to explain the situation. It seems that the gendarmes had not been informed by the Foreign Office that we were being released, and the officer in charge of this post gave Mr. Yamashita an unmerciful tongue lashing while he, Mr. Yamashita, being a civilian, stood at attention, bowed repeatedly and never answered back a word. At length, when the officer ran out of breath, we were allowed to proceed, without having our baggage examined. We then went into the city, stopping finally at the Queen's Road entrance to the former Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank Building, one of Hong Kong's newest and most imposing structures, and now occupied by the Japanese Foreign Office. Once inside, we saw Sister Paul and Sister Famula who had already very kindly arranged for our temporary passes. The Sisters were most helpful to us during our first free days in Hong Kong as we felt just like innocents abroad. After securing our passes and arranging for our baggage, Sister Paul told us that our new home is to be Bethany with the French Fathers, but that before going there we were to have tiffin at the Holy Spirit School. We walked up Queen's Road and then up onto Caine Road, feeling rather strange and out of place, but we reached our destination without any misadventure. At the Holy Spirit School we sat down to a real dining room table, with real dishes and knives and forks and most important of all, with some real food, for which we have to thank the Sisters and Mrs. Leong, the wife of our genial friend, the manager and owner of the Metropole ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 128 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS going its trial run. Quite a string of small landing barges were once seen leaving the harbor. At Aberdeen in the narrow channel there are a number of small river steamers sunk or scuttled, and the Japanese are attempting to salvage them. They have also succeeded in raising the river gunboat Moth, and its recommissioning was given quite some space in the local English paper. During our stay at Bethany we had a number of visitors: the Jesuits from Wah Yan College, as also from the Seminary at Aberdeen; Father Haughey from the Salesians, some Italian Fathers from the Cathedral and the French Fathers, as also a few laymen, friends of Camp days, among whom was our genial chef, Mr. Gingles, with his side-kick, Dr. Molthen. Across from Bethany is Nazareth, the polyglot printing press establishment, and there we found the Superior, Father Biotteau, still holding the fort, along with one companion, Father Morel. Needless to say, the Printing Press is not now in operation, and the other Fathers normally stationed here left some time previous to our arrival for Indo-China. Later on, also, a number of French Sisters left St. Paul's Hospital for Indo-China. Shortly after the occupation of Hong Kong, the Japanese announced that they intended to build a large shrine just above the Botanical Gardens to commemorate the heroes of Hong Kong. They began surveying the site, beginning quite close to the Cathedral, and evidently it was to be a wonderful affair. Subscriptions were asked for from the local Chinese and everybody was expectant. However, as time wore on, the project seemed to have gotten out of the limelight, and now it seems it has been abandoned. However, a small monument was erected on one of the small hills facing the harbor. The 25th of October was the Feast of Christ the King. On that day, there is an outdoor procession at the Cathedral to which the faithful come from the various parishes both in the city and from Kowloon. As we had received an invitation to participate, we started out for the city. As we neared the city we noticed an unusual number of Japanese planes in the air. This was not out of the ordinary as planes were more or less constantly flying about for various purposes, and we did not attach any special significance to this increased number on this glorious afternoon. As the Holy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 THE MARYKNOLL MISSION, HONG KONG 1941-46 135 many of our friends were on the wharf to see us off, and promptly at twelve noon we pulled away from the bund. The day before, while at Bethany, we saw a large liner of the Asama Maru class, slowly enter the harbor, and wondered what it portended. The next day, as we left the harbor for Macao and Kwangchauwan, this majestic ship, painted a war-gray, was still in the harbor, but just as we started, it also got underway and our ship had to slow her engines so that the liner could pass us on her way to sea. Ranged on her decks we could see the familiar military uniform of the Canadian soldiers who were, no doubt, being taken to some other internment camp outside of Hong Kong. A few hours' run brought us to Macao where we met Sister Paul and made some visits, the first of which was to the Maryknoll Sisters' new orphanage for homeless and destitute children. It was quite a sight to see 400 little tots making away with bowl after bowl of rice, furnished by the kindness of the Portuguese Government. We then called on the Jesuits, formerly of Hong Kong, who had gone to Macao to open a school for boys, and at the Seminary, and the next day at noon pulled out of the Macao fairway for Kwangchauwan, a run of some twenty hours. By this time Bishop Paschang and the Kongmoon priests, Frs. Paulus, Smith and North, had already slipped back into "Free China." Travelling on an enemy ship in wartime made us naturally a little apprehensive. Some of the passengers told us of the occasional presence of submarines in this area, and we hoped that we would not meet any, even if they were from our homeland. However, we reached Kwangchauwan the next morning safely at 10 o'clock, and went ashore to the French Procure where we met the Procurator, Father Lebas and Father Moran, a Jesuit from Hong Kong, assisting him. With their assistance, we arranged for our travel inland. At Kwangchauwan, we met some of our other Hong Kong friends, one of whom was the wife of Andrew Tse of the Clover Flower shop, and Father Downs baptized her baby, Teresa Elizabeth. At Kwangchauwan, Father Toomey left us to proceed to Fachow in the Kongmoon Vicariate, and the rest of us engaged chairs for a six-day trip to Watlam, the first of our Wuchow stations. At Watlam, we again separated, Fathers Troesch, Moore and McKeirnan and Brother Thaddeus, and also one or two Sisters, going to Wuchow. The remainder of the group, consisting of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 KEITH G. STEVENS Temples and monasteries can be classified as follows:-- a. By religious belief-Buddhist, Daoist, Confucian and traditional folk religion,5 b. By the contents of the altars - deities, ancestral tablets or charms. c. By their typological features such as the size and shape of their plans (square or rectangular); by their elevation into floors; by divisions and sub-divisions; whether free-standing or not; and whether the courtyard is enclosed or in front of the main building. d. Whether residential or non-residential. e. Whether permanent or temporary. f. By ethnic grouping (regional traditional types),6 Within Hong Kong and Macau, there are about four hundred and fifty Buddhist, Daoist, and folk religion temples, Buddhist and Daoist monasteries and nunneries, and ancestral temples. A few pre-date the advent of the British and Portuguese whilst the majority, built since 1840, have been established as specialised temples with a specific deity on their altars well known for a unique function such as destroying demons, protecting seafarers, foretelling the future, protecting mothers during childbirth and children during childhood, and the like. It is unfortunate, out of interest in such historic places, that neither Hong Kong nor Macau have the large national temple or temples at which the official state religion was worshipped. This is due to the fact that before the arrival of the British and Portuguese, neither territory contained a county town and were primitive rural areas. Nor are there in Hong Kong or Macau the large City God temples which in Imperial China were to be found in all provincial and county capitals. Whereas the Chinese government in 1928 closed many temples throughout China during their campaign to suppress superstition,* the practices condemned by the Chinese authorities continued in Hong Kong and Macau where British and Portuguese administrators treated native susceptibilities with great caution. Hong Kong and Macau temples therefore, retained deities and practices which have probably long since disappeared on the Chinese mainland. * described in some detail by C. B. Day in his Chinese Peasant Cults (Nanking Theological Seminary English Publications, 1938), pp. 190-195. Page 30 Page 31 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 6 yelled at her 'are you in charge here?' 'O no,' said she, ‘not me'. The officer demanded that she bring out the in-charge. Sister went in and the mother superior came out. When she came up to the officer, he yelled at her: 'aren't you afraid of me?' 'Of course not' she replied 'I know you have come to protect me.' It seems that protecting Sisters was not in the Japanese handbook for battle, and when the Japanese don't know what to do, they stand there and suck in their breath loudly. Well the officer stood there sucking in his breath for a long time, and finally turned to the soldier with him and said. 'In that case, you write out a notice and put it on the front door of the convent that nobody can come in here without my written permission!' Carmel Convent was untouched for the rest of the war! All the other places for miles around were looted from top to bottom. After the war, the house resumed its original purposes, headquarters, language school, and rest house. When the Communists took over China, our priests as well as practically all the other foreign priests stayed here. At the same time, the house became the headquarters for a massive relief effort providing all the primary necessities to the huge deluge of refugees that poured into Hong Kong from China. The house has now been made into two sections, one section for public use for retreats, meetings, seminars etc. The other section's for our own headquarters and rest house. The back part of the property towards the mountain has been sold off for a housing project known as Stanley Knoll. But we still have the glorious and spectacular view of the sea to the South. I thank you for taking the time to come to see the house, and I thank you especially for your kind attention. As the Chinese are wont to say: the first time you come, you are a stranger. The second time you come, you are a friend. I hope we will be friends. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 206 the Dutch had arrived as a power in Asian waters. In their attacks on Cochin and Malacca the two relics there of the saint were lost. But the missionary effort in Japan continued and the Macau fragment was taken there in 1619. However, persecution worsened and it was brought back to the territory shortly afterwards; it was popularly believed that its presence lessened the frequency of the terrible typhoons to which the coast of China was, and is, subject. The relic was housed in Macau's famous St Paul's church, destroyed in a fire in the early 19th century and of which now only an impressive facade remains. Then it passed to the church of St. Joseph's seminary. In 1952, on the 400th anniversary of Xavier's death it was taken to Malacca and there were celebrations there and throughout Malaysia. The last time the piece of bone left Macau was in 1965, when, at the request of Cardinal Francis Spellman, it was taken to Newark, New Jersey, where it was seen and venerated by more than 100,000 people. The relic thereafter went back to its normal resting place in the seminary in Macau. However, soon afterwards Father Acquistapace was given charge of the dilapidated little chapel on Coloane, one of two small islands which with a peninsula form Macau. The relic is now kept at that church. During his decades of service in Asia as a member of the Salesians of Don Bosco, Father Acquistapace served in Vietnam, Hong Kong, Manila, Formosa and Macau. He spent much of his life teaching in technical schools. A man of immense good humour, he is delighted to find visitors interested in his relics. Along with the fragment of bone of Xavier there are relics of 58 Japanese martyrs and 14 Vietnamese martyrs. The Japanese perished in the brutal suppression of Christianity which took place in the first half of the 17th century. According to one historian: "The descriptions of the ways in which the Christians of Japan were forced to meet their deaths rank among the most horrifying and degraded reading matter to be found anywhere." ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 313 teachings of the mission are Christian, the appearance of the eight-sided church and its surroundings are uncompromisingly Chinese, a gesture to the Buddhist pilgrim monks who found shelter there. Karl Ludvig Reichelt was born in 1877 at Bardu, near Arendal, Norway. The son of a sea captain, who died when Karl Ludvig was a child, he trained as a teacher at Notodden. He taught for a short period in Telemark and became a lay preacher in his spare time before entering the Norwegian Missionary Society training college at Stavanger. Shortly after his ordination, Reichelt sailed for China, where, after language study, he was appointed to Ninghsiang, Hunan, where the Norwegian Missionary Society was active. It was his experience at Ninghsiang that influenced the rest of his missionary career. The impressions gained while on a visit to the famous Weishan monastery remained with him for the rest of his life. “I got a glimpse,” he wrote, “of a peculiar and exclusive world, a world charged with deep religious mysticism, a world full of tragedy and heart-rending but also marvellously rich in points of contact with sacred religious material.” In response to what he felt to be a call from God, Reichelt decided to prepare for “special work among these people by the cultivation of friendly intercourse with the monks and enlightened lay people.” From that time Reichelt devoted himself to the study of Far Eastern religions and became in time one of the greatest contemporary authorities on the subject. Reichelt's influence grew and he was later appointed to the staff of a Lutheran Theological Seminary at Shekow, near Hankow. His ideas on a Christian-Buddhist relationship matured sufficiently for him to submit to his home board a proposal for special work among Buddhists in China. He received support from his own missionary society, from the Church of Sweden and the Danish Missionary Society. He also toured Germany, Finland and the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 314 HUGH WITT United States to arouse interest in his new venture. Reichelt later established himself in rented quarters in Nanking and did not have to wait long before the first wandering Buddhist monks found their way to his new Christian monastery. But differences arose between Reichelt and the Norwegian Missionary Society and there were misunderstandings and criticisms of his methods. Facing a choice of closer co-operation with the society and going it alone, Reichelt decided on the lone path. Reichelt continued to work in Nanking until 1927, when the "Nanking Incident" took place. His premises wrecked during this period of political unrest, Reichelt was lucky to escape alive and he based himself in Shanghai for two years before moving on to Hong Kong "fully determined to locate the mountain which we know Providence had prepared for our future work in south China." That place he found on a hill overlooking Shatin. Reichelt stayed there until his death in 1952 and his grave is to be found there still, in the grounds of the mission he built in 1931. The design for the monastery was produced as a result of a meeting in America between Reichelt and the Danish architect Johannes Prip-Moller, who had long been interested in Chinese building and was an authority on Buddhist architecture. Prip-Moller's book "Chinese Buddhist Monasteries" published by Hong Kong University in 1937, is a standard work on the subject. The design of the church itself is seen as an outstandingly successful blend of Christian and Buddhist influences and the architect's work is commemorated by a plaque mounted on the church wall. Today the Tao Fong Shan Christian Mission to Buddhists continues its work yet has adapted to changes in religious needs. Church groups attend seminars and lectures and accommodation is available for those who seek it, just as there was originally for pilgrim monks. The mission has also changed its name to the Tao Fong Shan Ecumenical Centre, in order to integrate earlier... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 317 Dr. Lee commented: “This organisation was not interested in conversion or evangelism; it became a study centre, trying to relate Chinese religious background to the work and service of the church. It was not just bookish learning. It also provided a meeting place for people and ideas through seminars and other activities. And through it all the spirit of Reichelt carried on, although there was no direct organisational link.” Now the study centre has in turn given way to the Tao Fong Shan Ecumenical Centre, a further indication of the centre's ability to relate to changing times and needs. It is supported financially by various bodies and is optimistic that it can in time become self-supporting. There is one aspect of life at Tao Fong Shan that has, however, remained unchanged - its porcelain workshop. In the past this was used by wandering monks stranded without money, who found that they could work in the shop to earn the means to continue their pilgrim lives. The shop is still operating today, sometimes employing handicapped people, encouraging them to become self-supporting in much the same way as it helped those wandering monks. Some of the artists, who paint the porcelain with exquisite Chinese patterns for sale to tourists and other countries, have worked in the shop since the time Karl Ludvig Reichelt was there. The teachings and leaderships of this Norwegian visionary continue at this peaceful spot overlooking the new town of Shatin. As they continue, they will also adapt with time. Said Dr. Lee: "We cannot see ourselves drifting with tradition. We must also concentrate on contemporary questions, internationally and locally here in Hong Kong.” NOTES On Reichelt's life, see S. Holth Karl Ludvig Reichelt and Tao Fong Shan, Tao Fong Shan Christian Institute, Shatin. 2 Personal comment to the author from Dr. Lee. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 161 religious purposes, recommended that no charge be levied against the lots, thus somewhat redeeming officialdom in the eyes of the missionaries. Dr. Legge describes the site as in the healthiest part of town. This was important when there were daily deaths due to “Hong-kong fever.” The lots were up the hill a distance from Queen's Road, hence removed from its bustle and noise. The premises were bounded to the south by Staunton Street, to the north by Hollywood Road, to the east by Elgin Street and to the west by Aberdeen Street. While being in the European section it was within five minutes' walk of the centre of the Chinese population. The main building for the site was planned as a residence for missionaries and a school. Two rooms were reserved on both the lower and upper floors for classrooms. The building was typical of the colonial architecture of Hong-kong, substantially built to resist typhoons with large airy rooms and wide verandahs to shade the interior from the summer sun. While plans for the large Mission House were being prepared, smaller outbuildings were erected on the lot. One of these was finished in July 1844, and Dr. Legge was planning to move his family into it as he had given up his rented quarters. Dr. Benjamin Hobson advised, however, that it would be unwise to occupy the building while the plaster was drying and paint fumes were strong. The school, however, was able to take up temporary quarters in another of the outbuildings until the Mission House was finished. In addition to problems regarding land, building and students, there was the matter of a name for the relocated institution. Some thought it not wise to retain the name it had borne at Malacca. It had come into disrepute and its past reputation would not serve to promote the reorganised school. The name adopted by the missionaries at a formal meeting in 1843 - The Theological Seminary of the London Missionary ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 165 sess qualifications which will make them highly prized and liberally salaried, as interpreters, clerks, and in other services. They cannot and ought not to be treated on the same plan of rigid economy as mere boys. To ensure the prosperity of the institution there ought to be an annual allowance of £25 each, to cover all expenses and support the young men in a manner respectable and befitting the position in life which they are intended to occupy. The school at the London Mission House in Hongkong could now become what the missionary meeting of 1843 intended it to be, the Theological Seminary of the London Missionary Society in China. The meeting had dropped the designation of college as being too pretentious for the character of the reorganised school. In adopting the name Theological Seminary, they intended to let the world know their labours were all directed to one end, the preparation of Christian workers. This did not mean the abandonment of a general education in literature and science, but it did mean the inclusion of definite theological studies. If the name college had been too ambitious, so had the name Theological Seminary. From 1843 to 1847 there were no theological students. Now with the three young men Dr. Legge had brought back from England, the long delayed plans for his school could be realised. But the future was filled with disappointments. HIGH EXPECTATIONS, THEN DEFECTIONS AND SETBACKS Dr. James Legge returned to Hongkong from England in August 1847, renewed in health and with high expectations for the future of his school. He now could organise a theological class in addition to his other classes. The three boys, baptised during their visit overseas, would be the foundation for advanced studies. They showed every evidence of the sincerity and dedication necessary for the achievement of their announced intention to become preachers and evangelists. Their enthusiasm was infectious. The school took on new vitality. There was an increased interest in its religious objectives. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 155 I remember crying in pain and rage because adults and children gathered around me to watch. Mother also used some of the ointments that Grandfather Jong brewed for us. One white jar contained a blackish, gummy substance, a bit of which in warm tea was for gastro-intestinal discomfort, and which I later learned contained a little opium. A jar of pink ointment was for drawing influence to a head after it had been warmed over a small flame and applied as a poultice. Mother was so pleased when Uncle Yim sent us a dried gall bladder of a bear because of its "cooling" effect on an infected area. Once she dissolved some of it in water and applied it to me. When I fell and cut my head, what Mother did was to press some tobacco, which Grandmother Jong used for her water-pipe, on the wound to stop the bleeding. As we grew older and Mother began to learn more Western practices from some of her new-found friends, in particular Mrs. Lam Quan, a neighbour who had studied at Kawaiahao Seminary, castor oil was the first order of treatment when any of us got sick, followed by a dose of Chinese herbal tea to “cool” our system. According to Dr. Joseph Lam, the herbs served as a diuretic. Diet for the sick would always be congee, or sweet potatoes boiled in water and sweetened with cakes of brown sugar from China, or a thin sweetened gruel of white-flowered sweet potato flour, also imported from China. For a congested chest, she would rub the area with warm peanut oil and the feel of her soft, warm hand would give me comfort and reassurance. Mother's health was always fragile, but she took very good care of herself. I do not know what her early ailments were, but she used to buy "Vivai" from a Mrs. McAllister upon the advice of Mrs. Lam Quan. Mother would drink the liquid and have either Ruth or me massage her back with the ointment at bedtime. Young and tired, I would often doze off while trying to do the boring task. Fortunately, this did not last long. In addition, Mother would use all kinds of Chinese medicines, often referring to a handbook of medicine. Soon after Helen was born, she suffered such severe gastric pains that a herbalist was called in to treat her. When I was in high school, it seemed that every time I planned to go to a football game, she would get so sick that I would have to be home with her. Later, after Father's death, when women were ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author Vol. 28 (1988) ISSN 1991-7295 David Faure 203 THE ARCHIVES OF THE BASEL MISSION In June 1988, I visited the Archives of the Basel Mission located in the Mission House at 21 Missionsstrasse, CH 4003 Basel, Switzerland. This archive is rich in material on the Hakka communities in Kwangtung Province. These archives are not as well known as some other mission collections. The earlier records are written in the old German script and present difficulties to those who have not been trained in reading it. Along with missionary matters, the correspondence from China also contains much material of anthropological, sociological and historical interest. In my visit my chief interest was to gather data on the work of the mission in the San On and Tung Kun Districts of Kwangtung, particularly their school and seminary at Li Long. I did not have time to transcribe items of more general interest, but I did copy the following. My translation was checked and corrected by Rev. Dr. Richard Deutsch, a close friend and a former colleague in the Theological Division of the Chinese University, Hong Kong, who is now on the staff of the Mission House. A Revolutionary Plot at Canton A-1.29 No. 51, 28 November 1895, Rev. Mr. Kircher, Hong Kong. “A few weeks ago, a Christian in the Berlin Mission House at Canton told the missionaries to seek safety as a revolution would break out in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 188 evaluation of Legge's overall scholarship would consequently demand expertise in a wide range of Chinese history, literature, and religion as well as awareness of his Christian background. Very few scholars have the background to provide a balanced account of Legge's achievements, especially given our modern love of specialisation. The second pragmatic problem is that there are major obstacles in gaining access to all the materials. Oxford's Bodleian does not own all of Legge's library, because much of it was bought by Mr. Wilberforce Eames in 1899 for the New York Public Library. This, however, does not solve the problem, for in 1909 the New York Public Library sold more than half of this collection to the Case Memorial Library of the Hartford Theological Seminary in Hartford, Connecticut. These materials remained in Hartford until the mid-1970s, when most of them were sold once more to Pitts Theology Library of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The total number of titles in this divided collection is nearly two thousand, including a large number of Chinese multi-volumed sets as well as a large number of sinological works and serials in many European languages. Many of these important sources still have Legge's notes in the margins, making them particularly valuable for revealing Legge's sources and his responses. Yet, for obvious reasons, there is no easy way to obtain access to these materials without travelling to all of these different locations. Furthermore, almost all of the earlier texts employed by Legge in the theological education of Chinese students in Hong Kong have apparently been destroyed by the humid climate. The anti-missionary bias mentioned earlier has led to a third problem of some practical significance: Legge's lengthy professional career with the London Missionary Society has caused some scholars to suspect Legge's academic standards and competence in Chinese translation and in the evaluation of non-Christian traditions. A close look at his texts does show the strong Christian commitments underlying his work, but they are present in ways which do not substantially hinder a generally sensitive translation. Certainly Legge's philosophical commitments reflect the limitations of his age, but he was remarkably free of the conventions and biases which left far more disturbing marks in the work of some other scholars. Finally, a basic dilemma involving all sinological work in the 1990s is still the inaccessibility of many basic texts. Gradually, since ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 192 a transformation as did the revolutionary activities of Legge's own lifetime. Buchanan, a convert at first reluctant in tone but later adamant in commitment, could not have left a more profound influence on his impressionable Scottish student. Legge began to recognize his own need for conversion—a conclusion drawn as much from Buchanan as from his family's involvement in the relatively new Non-Conformist movement. In his autobiography, Legge spoke of his need to resolve this issue as a matter involving his passage into maturity. 37 As a Scotsman of the nineteenth century, Legge rediscovered his Scottish uniqueness through the pen of Buchanan. In addition, through him, Legge gained a perspective on the rise and fall of clans and nations, a perspective broader and more reflective than usual in the sixteenth century. At the end of his life, James Legge must have been a remarkable religious figure. Yet what his own statements suggest is that there was as much of the scholar in his early life as there was a missionary. Perhaps it would be more correct to say that it was the scholar who discovered his spiritual need, at least in part, through identification with the conversion of his Scottish predecessor. The religious and scholarly were intimately intertwined, but, as with Buchanan, it was the scholarly route which first awoke Legge's mind to greater things, leading later to the spiritual conversion which was the primary motive force for Legge's mature life. III. Legge's Educational Philosophy James Legge's first job was to teach Mathematics in Blackburn, England. He was quickly able to demonstrate his competence in other fields and was soon afterward also given responsibilities in teaching courses in his strongest subject, advanced Latin. It was during this period that the young Legge pursued the “question of religion”. The headmaster under whom he worked was also a Non-Conformist and so not only permitted him exposure to the Latin Church fathers, which he taught to students, but also involved him in weekend trips to nearby villages for preaching. Through these experiences and relationships, James Legge became convinced that he should become a missionary, and so after one and one-half years of teaching, he entered Highbury College, a Non-Conformist Seminary, to prepare for service in the London Missionary Society. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 19.3 During the two years of theological training, James was directed to take initial Chinese lessons at the University of London under the recently returned missionary from Malacca, Samuel Kidd.1 The lessons made the new student aware of the difficulties of the language, of the unrefined nature of some of the tools, and of the unusual context (Malacca rather than China, among expatriated Chinese) within which they were prepared. Having completed seminary training in 1838, he was delegated by the London Missionary Society to replace Samuel Kidd in Malacca. Legge was presented with the task of being a teacher, and then, mostly because of the limited personnel, made the administrator-principal of the Anglo-Chinese College (#18) which the pioneer Protestant missionaries, Robert Morrison and William Milne, had established in Malacca in the second decade of the 19th century. Legge interpreted Morrison's and Milne's original intentions as including plans to remove the school to China whenever the opportunity arose. This attitude threatened others in the institution, but in the end the Society supported a move to Hong Kong when it became possible in 1843.40 In spite of the fact that the administrative task was not much to his liking, Legge achieved rapid progress in language studies and so was considered worthy of the new position. (In fact, the strain on his health during the first ten months of intense language preparation brought him to the edge of a physical breakdown.) His first major literary task was editing the translation of a long novel, but his concern for teaching was fulfilled in the production of his Lexicogus, which rendered for College students sentences in parallel English, Malay, written Mandarin, spoken Hoklo, and demotic Cantonese.1 It was apparently for these efforts that the twenty-five-year-old Legge gained enough of a reputation to be awarded in absentia an honorary Doctorate from New York University in the United States on July 13, 1841. Having demonstrated his competence even further after he arrived in Hong Kong in 1843, Dr. Legge was designated the President of the London Missionary Society's Theological Seminary. This further promotion into an authoritative position occurred after an extended sick leave in Scotland (1846-1847), during which the thirty-one-year-old seminary president designate gave serious thought to his future. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 197 because, after Legge himself had remarried back in England in 1858, Rengan arranged for his relatives to stay with the Legge family until he called for them from Tianjing. The final demise of the rebellion included the capture and execution of Rengan by the Qing armies. In spite of the personal training given and closeness felt by Legge, the power of blood relations carried more influence than the power of Christian care. This made the need to understand the Chinese heart and mind all the more concrete to Legge. A more direct influence was the inability of Legge and his teaching staff to produce through the Anglo-Chinese College and its Seminary a continual supply of Chinese pastors and teachers. The government licensed the school with the understanding that some of those who graduated would be sent on to government placements as translators. Since the pay from the government was far more than any pastor could receive while working with a very small community at best, most students were drawn into government and business. There is no doubt that there were also strong theological reasons behind the change. Legge's missionary service was directed toward the Chinese population. In order to know them and to be accepted by them, he felt he had to display a knowledge which they would honour: a knowledge of the Confucian Classics. Convinced that the earliest Chinese did know the true God named Shangdi, as found in The Book of Documents (HK) and the oldest portions of The Book of Odes, Legge was all the more concerned to discover how Chinese themselves responded to these religious dimensions of Confucianism. This attitude informed Legge's educational philosophy. Thus, Legge supported the provision of general education for selected Chinese students, rather than requiring them to follow any rigidly missionary curriculum. He closed his own parochial school in 1858. He was the head of the education committee for the Hong Kong government which developed the new public educational system in Hong Kong. This is remarkable, since general education was not standard even in many European countries at that date. Legge arranged to have Frederick Stewart, a fellow Scotsman, come to act as headmaster of Queen's College, the new school designed to provide a higher-level general education for Chinese boys. Early in his career as the London Missionary Society representative ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 213 and older brothers, discussing the possible future vocation he might take up. Becoming a minister or missionary was considered, but that was "dependent on my becoming a true Christian, and I knew that I was not then such". He decided to put off all final decisions and become a teacher (9) "till my mind should become in a more settled condition on the great subject of religion”. Living with his older brother, George, in London in the interim, James went to hear many preachers, but was particularly impressed by the minister of Weigh House Chapel, a Mr. Thomas Binney. (Two years later, when he entered seminary and studied Chinese at the University of London, he made the extra effort to hear Binney's sermons "frequently and always to my benefit^^.) Later, he heard a message by a famous Congregational minister, Dr. Me'all, on the vow of Jacob in Genesis 28. This encounter set in motion the determination on James' part to be a "truer and more consistent servant of Christ'. These events took place in 1835 and 1836. Finally, while teaching mathematics and Latin in a school in Blackburn, James joined the Congregational Church in Blackburn. His comment on this commitment reflects his sense of duty and spiritual fulfillment: "The doing what is right always brings with it an exhilaration of spirit, and gives concentration to the powers of the mind". There is no note here of an emotionally ecstatic experience, but there is the overcoming of a deep and pressing burden of spiritual accountability. He completed this autobiographical account with the quotation of Biblical passages (predominantly Philippians 3:13-14) and with the Christian witness' simple statement; now he was following Christ, and Christ, he was assured, would not leave him. See James Legge, "Notes of My Life", op. cit., pp. 58-67. In his eighteen months at the Blackburn school, James taught the upper class boys, who were only a few years younger than himself, mathematics and passages from a number of classical Latin sources. The young teacher later admitted that two texts he taught during this period left a deep impression upon him: Lactantius' Institutiones Divinae (Antwerp, 1539) and Boethius' Consolatio Philosophiae. The latter is particularly important because of the Augustinian commitment to which Boethius was bound: that philosophy could be an aid to and lead one on from the search for human understanding to a humble acceptance of a guiding trust in the living God. In addition, the well-structured poetic strains of Boethius may also have had a continuing impact in Legge's rendering of Chinese poetry, but by his own statement, it appears that George Buchanan's style was more often in mind as a model for translating. See "Notes Of My Life", op. cit., pp. 65-66, 72. T For details on Legge's Highbury College experience and first studies in Chinese, see "Notes Of My Life", op. cit., pp. 80-87, 102-105. 411 Brian Harrison has written about Legge's attitudes at the Malacca site, arguing that he was a young and inexperienced missionary who stubbornly refused to adopt an older missionary's and other administrators' attitudes toward the College. Other research has challenged this opinion, showing Legge to have been stubbornly opposed to practices which he believed were not only religiously and ethically unacceptable, but also more aligned with both the London office and the original plans of Morrison and Milne. See Brian Harrison, Waiting For China: The Anglo-Chinese College At Malacca, 1818-1843, And Early Nineteenth-Century Missions (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1979) and R. L. O'Sullivan, "The Departure of the London Missionary Society from Malacca," Journal of The Malaysian Historical Society 23 (1980), pp. 75-83. 41 See The Rambles of the Emperor Ching Tih in Keang Nan, A Chinese Tale. (Vol. 1, 320 pages; Vol. 2, 322 pages) trans. Tsin Shen, ed. James Legge (London: Longman, Brown, Green and Longman, 1843). The second work was attributed to Legge by Alexander Wylie, who [according to Dr. R. Gary Tiedemann, currently of the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London] was also tutored in elementary Chinese by Legge during the latter's first furlough (1846-1847) See A Lexilogus of the English, Malay, And Chinese Languages; comprehending the vernacular idioms of the ================================================================================ 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-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 162 The South China Research Circle In 1988, a small group of scholars - historians, sociologists and anthropologists - founded the South China Research Circle which is now very much centred upon the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Among other things, it promotes the study of Hong Kong in the larger context of South China. In using Chinese (both Cantonese and Putonghua) rather than English as the main working language, it caters to the local community and scholars from Mainland China and Taiwan in a way the RAS has so far been unable to do. In this way, it fills a crucial gap. Drawing much of its strength from visiting scholars, the locally-based members remain small in number, but that does not prevent them from exerting their influence through their newsletter, journal and seminars. It is worth mentioning the Hong Kong History Society as well. While this society is interested in history in general rather than Hong Kong history, it does organize local visits to places of historical interest and has published. 1990s: Recent Developments School Curriculum Changes One of the major developments in the 1990s was the change in the school curriculum. Since 1994, Hong Kong history has been included in the A-level and AS level (matriculation level) History examination syllabus. Moreover, from 1998, Hong Kong history will also be taught at the lower secondary level (about 12-14 year olds), and here the local history element will be more conspicuous. We may foresee a rush of text books and other reference materials emerging to meet the demand of the thousands of students involved in the curriculum change. It is important to point out that teaching Hong Kong history at the secondary school level is only possible with a mature infrastructure based on the accumulated knowledge and understanding resulting from the research by several generations of scholars and the collective efforts of the various institutions. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 While on the subject of acknowledgements mention should also be made here that in January 1997 your Council presented a letter of appreciation and a signed copy of Beyond the Metropolis to Best Year Enterprise Ltd, a real estate company, for donating funds to assist in the restoration of Poon Uk. Their efforts to help restore an outstanding example of Hakka architecture, in Yuen Long, is a significant gesture and sets an example to other organisations which we hope they will follow. Conclusions To some degree changes in Hong Kong during the year of transition and beyond will affect our Society, which, in effect, is a United Kingdom organisation with a branch in Hong Kong. In January and February 1997 your Council discussed, yet again, the question of whether we should drop the prefix 'Royal'. A small survey was conducted. The conclusion was that a limited number of members were in favour of a change and that, at least for the immediate future, the 'Royal' should be retained. With a relatively large institution it is not possible, naturally, to satisfy everyone all the time. Our Society has been criticised for not being sufficiently academic, for not being sufficiently selective in membership, and for having too few young members. Jean Sibelius (1865-1957), the Finnish composer, said: Pay no attention to what the critics say; no statue was ever put up to a critic. We do, however, listen to what our members say, and while we agree there is a need for us to organise some academic-style seminars, there is also a need for lectures with a more general approach. In the main, we feel we have got the mix about right and that our Society plays a useful role in its existing form. To counterbalance the above criticism, may I add that during the past year we were delighted to receive (among others) the following bouquets from two members who have left Hong Kong. Rosemary Lee, comparing us with other organisations, wrote: xix ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x And yet in spite of all the publicity, there are some who still inform us, to their regret, that they lived in Hong Kong for many years before they heard about the RAS. One newly joined member told me that she worked in academia, in the Territory for 10 years before she heard. This puts the onus firmly on all members to spread the word. Please tell others. In more recent years new organisations have been established in Hong Kong which provide a certain amount of 'competition' (if that is the correct word). For instance, many young Chinese scholars now prefer to join the South China Research Circle, where most functions are conducted in the medium of Chinese. This is understandable. However, in spite of a number of 'new' societies having sprung up in Hong Kong in recent years, we like to think that our RAS Branch is rather special. We also like to think that we complement (rather than compete with) our sister institutions with which, I hasten to add, we are on splendid terms. Indeed our Branch has invited members from other institutions to its functions as they have invited us to attend their functions. We have also, in the past, conducted joint seminars together with the South China Research Circle. There are many societies with which we have contacts all of which we value. In some cases such organisations are mainly concerned with staging social functions, although, within a local or expatriate environment, quanxi (networking) is accepted as being important. Social functions do have a part to play. Publications Volume 38 of our Journal will shortly be published and, as a special Millennium and 40th Anniversary edition, it will be fitting for the occasion. In addition, we extend a vote of thanks to Dr Lauren Pfister and Josephine Wong, as well as the City Hall Library staff, especially Agnes Lee and Joseph Chan, for their hard work in preparing an extended and consolidated index for our annual journals. After a slight delay we were pleased that our new book, In the Heart of the Metropolis: Yaumatei and its People, was launched successfully in December 1999. We owe a big vote of thanks to Dr Patrick Hase, the editor, for a job well done. We also thank the many contributors, photographers, Joint Publishing (HK) Company Ltd, as well as the Chairman, David Ensor, member Ulana Switucha and other xiv Page 15 Page 16 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 242 Appendix A list of RASHKB day or weekend seminars organised by the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch is as follows: * 1964: 'Aspects of Social Organization in the New Territories' • 1966: 'Some Traditional Chinese Ideas and Conceptions in Hong Kong Social Life Today' * 1968: 'The Changing Face of Hong Kong' • 1970: 'The Vegetation of Hong Kong-Structure and Change' • 1972: 'Hong Kong: the Interaction of Traditions and Life in the Towns' • 1973: 'The Fauna of Hong Kong' • 1982: 'The New Territories and Its Future' • 1988: (RASHKB) 'Looking Ahead/Reorganisation' Note: For those seminars listed above marked with a bullet, booklets containing papers presented and other details may be obtained from the RASHKB Assistant Secretary. Prices vary from HK$75.00 to $100.00 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n to escape the madness, the melancholia and, yes, the panic, which sometimes surrounds the human situation. Activities Another of the fields where our Branch has made significant contributions over many decades has obviously been with our lecture and visit programme. These may be described as the backbone of our Society. Over the past year these have consisted of lectures, averaging about one a month, mainly at and jointly with the Hong Kong City Hall. These sessions are open to the general public free of charge. This is a form of community service. At the Chi Lin Nunnery talk well over 90 people attended. Over the past year we have in addition mounted visits locally and two visits outside the Hong Kong SAR. All these had leaders - sometimes more than one working as a team - who had a thorough understanding of their subjects (see Appendices One and Two). In some cases, because some of our members have good connections, it has also been possible to call upon the assistance of knowledgeable local people: for example in the case of Dr Ting who was able to invite people to assist with our visits to the China Mainland. Records show that, in the 1980s and the early 1990s for example, our visits outside Hong Kong were not well supported. Planned trips sometimes had to be cancelled. In the 1960s and '70s, it was not easy for various reasons (for government servants for example) to visit China. Over the past few years this situation has changed. More recently, on our tours outside Hong Kong it has not been possible, sometimes, to enroll everyone who wanted to join. It is interesting to mention here that our first overseas tour was to Thailand back in 1973. Although full day or weekend seminars, especially during the 1960s and the early '70s, were a fairly regular feature of Branch activities, they have not played such an important part in recent years. This was partly why our conference, titled Hong Kong: Forty Years of a Growing City, held during our 40th anniversary year as a joint function with the Museum of History, was so welcome. It consisted largely of our own members as speakers, persons on whom we rely so much. They included the Reverend Carl T. Smith, Dr Patrick Hase and Mr Tim Ko. Tim's family has lived in Kowloon for five generations, since the 1850s. These three speakers are outstanding examples of members who have put, Page xviii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 160 M. Hugo-Brunt, "An Architectural Survey of the Jesuit Seminary Church of St. Paul's, Macao", Journal of Oriental Studies, Vol. 1, No.2, July 1954, University of Hong Kong, pp.1-21. J.B. Bury, "A Jesuit Façade in China", The Architectural Review, VI. CXXIV, No. 743, London, Dec. 1958, pp. 412-3. "Macao's St. Paul”, in Actas do III Colóquio Internacional de Estudos Luso-Brasileiros, II, Lisbon, 1960, pp. 30-6. A version of the latter, first delivered in 1957, is found in J.B. Bury, "A Igreja de São Paulo”, Arquitectura e Arte no Brasil Colonial, São Paulo, 1991, pp. 154-61. With few exceptions Chinese gazetteers of the Ming and Ching Dynasties seem to have ignored the façade altogether. 3 Guillen-Núñez, Cesar, "Some observations on the architecture of the Jesuits in the Orient", in St. Paul's Ruins. A Monument towards the Future, (bilingual Portuguese-English exh. catalogue, directed by F.A. Baptista Pereira), Lisbon-Macau, September-December, 1994, pp.49-53. Unfortunately, in this catalogue part of the original English text is corrupted by numerous typographical errors. There is however an excellent Portuguese translation, although a few lines of the original have been misinterpreted. + For the dimensions of St. Paul's façade vid. Hugo-Brunt, op. cit., p. 9. plates 2-10, and plate 13. 5 The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia, 1608-1667, Hakluyt Soc., London, 1919, III, Part I, pp. 162-3. 6 Reynaldo dos Santos, Historia da Arte em Portugal, III, pp. 34-6. R.C. Smith, The Art of Portugal, p. 86. The literature on Spanish and Portuguese retable-façades is extensive but often only found piecemeal in more general works on Spanish and Portuguese architecture. Two pioneering researchers were B. Bevan, History of Spanish Architecture, London, 1938, p. 135; and G. Kubler, in Kubler and Soria, Art and Architecture in Spain and Portugal and their American Dominions, 1500-1800, Penguin Books, 1959, p. 1. It should be noted that in the latter San Gregorio's façade is wrongly described as that of the chapel, rather than the College of San Gregorio. The following is a selected sample of other important writing on these structures. A. Rodriguez G. de Ceballos, La Iglesia y el Convento de San Esteban de Salamanca, Salamanca, 1987. F.Checa, Pintura y Escultura del Renacimiento ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 242 Several months later on 2nd April 1842, another piece of land adjacent to the burial ground was allotted for internment of Roman Catholics.7 It was recorded that during the leveling work, because of heavy rain, a landslide obstructed Queen's Road. A letter from the Inspector of the Land Office, dated 20 June 1842, required the building of a retaining wall and the immediate clearing of the road. Burials started as soon as the site formation was over. On the same compound, two brick houses were also built, one at the bottom used as a seminary and the second at the top of the hill as the residence of Father Luke Poon8 who had just arrived from Macao to assist the work in the seminary.9 10 Epidemics of fever, which visited Hong Kong each summer in its early years of development, retarded its development and gave it an evil reputation for insalubrity. 1841 and 1842 had been bad summers, but 1843 was even worse. In 1843 the annual death rate among European troops in Hong Kong was 22 percent and among Indian troops even higher. One regiment alone, at West Point, lost a hundred men between June and the middle of August.11 The Royal Army Medical Corps history records 'Hong Kong proved a costly acquisition, as in spite of good barracks and hospital as the men continued to fall sick and die.”12 Almost all contemporary public, private and regimental records had similar entries in regard to the terrible cost in lives, particularly among the troops, in the early development of Hong Kong.13 The popular Illustrated London News had the following account in 1845: Its diseases are endemic fever, diarrhoea and dysentery...The British Commander, General D'Aguilar, has declared, that to retain Hong Kong will require the loss of a whole regiment every three years... The grave yard was soon filled and another was required form14 the Surveyor-General, who found it difficult to point out a proper spot. The burial ground in Wan Chai had only been in use for a short period's15 as space was running out. It became necessary for a new burial site and the Wong Nai Chung Valley,16 soon to be named as Happy Valley, quickly provided the answer, 17 Yet the last graves and monuments in Wan Chai were not removed until 1889. By then it had become surrounded by a dense population of Chinese of the poorer classes, it is difficult to keep it in a condition of decency and cleanliness.18 The ground was sold for development. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society reviewed that all the major public libraries which include Hong Kong Central Library, libraries at City Hall, Kowloon, Shatin, Tuen Mun, Tsuen Wan and even the RAS Collection have incomplete holdings of the Journal. Since it is important to keep the Journal up-to-date, copies of all missing volumes, including the Indexes and Seminars, were provided to all the public libraries at the Society's expense. While Hong Kong Central Library will continue to receive one free copy that comes with the Library's institutional membership, payment will be made for renewals for the Journal for the other five branches. It has been the normal practice of the Hong Kong Public Libraries to record subject talks conducted at their venues. Prior consent is sought from the speakers to do this. For legal protection, Council Members agreed that RAS speakers will also be requested to sign the same form for RAS lectures. In order to better preserve the content, it was decided that tapes of RAS speakers will be digitized if permission is granted. The Hong Kong Central Library has kindly offered, free of charge, to digitize these tapes since they are produced by the Library. The digitized version will be stored in the Multimedia Information System, available for convenient access in the larger Public Libraries via the System. The RAS Library will also be given one audio CD for each of the tape digitized for borrowing or archival purpose. Hong Kong Central Library has also sent us a list of past recordings of all the RAS lectures held at City Hall Library, 78 in total dating back to 1988. Since none of the speakers had given consent to record their talks before and it would not be feasible to seek retroactive consent, it was agreed that while these tapes will be digitized for preservation purpose, the CDs will be placed in the RAS Collection in Rare Book Room, available for use in the Library but not for loan. The audio tapes will also be stored in the Rare Book Room, serving as back-ups. Another digitization project that will be undertaken by RAS is a collection of old RTHK radio programmes related to the history of Asia and Hong Kong. Due to limited resources, these tapes probably will not be digitized by RTHK. In order to preserve the culture and heritage of Asia, Council members expressed interest and investigations will be conducted into the feasibility of digitization and projected demand for the finished project. 1 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 156 : Sinn has written extensively on the history of modern China and Hong Kong, in both English and Chinese, and was awarded a Bronze Bauhinia Star in the SAR's 2000 Honours' List for her work in the field of heritage. She has edited many books and with Dr. Hase was co-editor of the RAS publication to mark the 35th anniversary of Hong Kong branch, "Beyond the Metropolis: Villages in Hong Kong." She is proud of her introduction to the book. 1 "It's hard to remember which of my articles I enjoyed writing most. I guess I rather enjoyed writing 'Kowloon Walled City.' [But] '1884 riots' was much too serious, and if I were to be writing it again today, I would take a very different approach—a more relaxed approach. The 'Study of Local History' is very informative, but I don't think it's particularly exciting! In the long run, I think the last one will probably have the greatest impact." Sinn joined the Council in 1982, and is currently serving as vice-president and has been for the last 10 years. "I was invited to join the Council—I don't remember by whom, but it is most likely to have been James [Hayes]. I joined because I thought the RAS did interesting things. Before I joined the Council, I had attended some of the lectures and seminars and also read the journal. I felt I was learning a lot from it. According to Hase, Sinn was the number one choice for the presidency two years ago, when Waters first wanted to retire, and again this year. "I'm still very doubtful as to whether I was the best choice [for president]. Elizabeth Sinn would have been the best choice. We asked Elizabeth to be president, but she said no,” said Hase. "My ambition in life is to be a really good historian and write a few great books," said Sinn. "And I wouldn't be able to do that if I tried to do too many things. A good president really needs to invest a lot of time in the job—like Dr. Waters. I respect him so much because he really gives it his all. Since I know I won't be able to spare the time, it's best that I don't take up the presidency." ================================================================================