RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g THE TRAVELLING PALACE OF SOUTHERN SUNG 37 "the back seat". But before accepting this interpretation, one must verify the identity of the Yunnan Lao with the aboriginal tribe dwelling in Kow-Joon speaking the same language. 6 See my article "The Southern Sung Stone-engraving at North Fu-t'ang" in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 5, 1965. At line 17 of the article "before this date" should read "after this date". The Chinese text on the engraven rock was given in my article, but was not accompanied by a literal translation, which now follows: [I] Yen I-chang of Ku-pien (K'ai-feng, Honan Province), being the administrator of this Field (namely, Kuan-fu Ch'ang), accompanied by Ho T'ien-chuch of San-shan (Foochow, Fukien Province), come to visit these two mountains (North and South Fu-t'ang). In the course of investigation, [I found, first, that] the stone pagoda (shih-ta, or colloquially called Ku-shih-ta and abbreviated to Ki-ta) at South T'ang was constructed in the 5th year of the reign of Ta Chung Hsiang Fu (i.e., of Emperor Tsen Tsung of Northern Sung, A.D. 1012). Next, Cheng Kuang-ch'ing of San-shan, piling up stones and chopping down trees, renovated the two T'angs. Again, T'eng Liao-chuch of Yung-chia (Wen-chou of Chekiang Province) continued the work. The ancient stone-tablet at North T'ang was established by Hsin P'o-ting of Ch'uan-chou (Fukien province) in the year wu shen but the reign [of what Emperor] cannot be ascertained. Now, Nien Fa-ming of San-shan and Lin Tao-i of this native place (i.e., Kowloon) continue the work. Furthermore, Tao-i can expand the former plan requesting [me] to establish another stone-engraving for commemoration [of the renovation]. Inscribed on the 15th day of the 6th lunar month in the year chia shu [i.e., 10th year] during the Hsien Shun reign (Emperor Tu Tsung of Southern Sung, A.D. 1274). 7 Yuan Yuan, Kwangtung T'ung-chih, Haifang lüeh, chuan 2, kx. Ak Ma. 40%. Shu Mou-kuan, Hsin-an Hsien-chi, chuan 7, Chien-shu lüeh 建署累 8 Ta-ch'ing Hui-tien, Kuan-chih kao. 76. 9 Research notes by the late Sung Hsueh-p'eng (4) who had done much research work on the local history and geography of Hong Kong and Kowloon. A portion of the notes was generously recopied and given to me. 10 Ibid. 11 T'u-shu Chi-cheng, Chih-fang-tien (811A.AZ) records that "This was the old engraving of Yuan times”. 12 Chuan 18, Sheng-chi-lüeh BAY. 13 Before 1941 there were three streets at this place, called "Sung Street", "Ti (Emperor) Street" and "Ping Street". (Apparently Emperor Ping was mistaken for Tuan Tsung (Shib). As the history of Southern Sung in Kowloon had been rather obscure, the mixing up of the two names was not very unlikely; even the Hsin-an Gazetteer made the same mistake. This whole area including the three streets was levelled during the Japanese occupation to facilitate the extension of Kai-tak airfield. 14 See Jao Tsung-i, Kowloon yũ Sung-chi shih-liao ✯‡, ^*‡‡‡£ #, Hong Kong, Universal Book Co., 1959, p. 105. 15 Wu Pa-ling, Sung-t'ai kan-chiulu 4*. *4434 in Sung Wong Toi, a Commemorative Volume, p. 108. 16 By the side of the cliff a low-cost housing estate has been recently constructed south of the new Fu-ning Street (3##), east of the now Fuk- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 184 NOTES AND QUERIES that the bay presented for boats taking shelter in bad weather, these pirates were gradually displaced by fishing people and shopkeepers, leading in time to a permanent settlement. (See 香港百年史 Centenary History of Hong Kong 南中編譯出 Hi Ep 7 n.d. pp. 74-75). The name Ngo-yan-wan appears to have been used officially, too. Government Notification No. 69 of 1857 which appears in The Hongkong Government Gazette for May 9, 1857 describes District No. 2 Show-ke-wan as being "from Hoong-heung-loo to the village of Ngo-yan-wan, taking in Wong-kok-tsai, Chut-che-mooey, Shui-cheang-wan, Show-ke-wan and Ngo-yan-wan," but it is not clear to which part of the present extended Shau Kei Wan Ngo-yan-wan belonged, The oldest part of Shau Kei Wan, where original settlement took place, is along the Main Street East which we shall visit today. Many old houses probably dating from the 1850's to 1870's are still in existence. It is likely that the style of building followed that in contemporary Victoria and the Western district, though successive waves of redevelopment have left few traces of them there. They are all shop houses, and a count of the present shops in old premises shows besides groceries and general stores 9 Chinese herb shops, 7 josspaper shops, 7 fishing suppliers, 5 goldsmiths and 5 rice shops, indicating long established lines of trade with a predominantly fishing clientele*. In Main Street East is the Tin Hau Temple. The existing building dates from the 1870's, but since the inscription above the entrance states this to be a reconstruction, it is likely that a smaller building stood on the same site for many years before. A stone tablet dated 1876 states that it was badly damaged by the famous typhoon of 1874, necessitating a major repair. In this connection there is an interesting parallel with the Tam Kung Temple below which had also to be rebuilt a short time after its first construction owing to a more than usually destructive typhoon. The temple contains two other major shrines to Kwun Yam (Goddess of Mercy) and Lui Cho (one of the most prominent among the later Taoist patriarchs). see * A prominent local shopkeeper has told me that, pre-war, fishermen would not go outside Main Street East for business or pleasure. The shop houses are shown in plates 21-22, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 192 NOTES AND QUERIES eleven players representing China at the Berlin Olympic Games in 1936 were Tai Hang men, including the team captain. Near Tai Hang is the Lin Fa Kung (E), a temple of unusual shape which is unique in Hong Kong and the New Territories. This temple, formerly like Tai Hang situated on the seashore, is over one hundred years old in its present form. The construction date over the entrance is the mid winter months of the second year of the Tung Chi reign i.e. 11 December 1863-8 January 1864. Old Main Street, Shau Kei Wan (*****) For this section of the visit a shortened version of the extended programme notes now at pp. 183-188 was provided. It is not repeated here. Chai Wan Military Cemetery Opened in 1947, this cemetery, which is managed by the Imperial War Graves Commission, contains 1,558 graves, mainly those of officers and men killed during the Defence of Hong Kong against the Japanese in 1941.* Set high on a once remote hillside in rural surroundings, it now overlooks a heavily populated resettlement estate and industrial area. Nearby is the New Military Cemetery and the Chinese Permanent Cemetery, Cape Collinson, with its 8,027 graves set in 20.5 acres of hillside administered by a Board of Management: also the new Crematorium. Stanley Fort This peninsula was set aside for military use in the 1930s and the barracks date from then. The parade ground was formerly the site of the village of Wong Ma Kok (⇓⇓) from which the peninsula takes its Chinese name. The inhabitants were removed to Stanley Village where a row of red-brick houses (still standing) was built for them by the Hong Kong Government. This village was the scene of the spectacular murder of two British officers in 1849 (see John Luff's book The Hong Kong Story (Hong Kong, South China Morning Post, 1959) chapter 8). * Information provided by the Urban Services Department, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES 181 It is an ancient custom in China when a man passes a Government degree examination or is appointed as a Government official, for him to have his new official title carved on a wooden tablet and hung in the Hall of his ancestors. By this means the good news is reported to the ancestors that their descendant has become a man of rank, and at the same time an example is set to future generations to encourage them to do their best to rise to the same honour, as the tablet is left hanging in the hall permanently. There are many of these title-tablets hung in Sz Shing Tong, put there not only by Kam T'in men, but by other descendants of the Tang family who have sent their tablets from places far away, where they have gone to live. The oldest among them is the "Man Fui” or Kui Yan degree put there by Tang Ting Ching who passed it in the 7th year of Shing Fa, A.D. 1471. The most highly honoured title-tablets are the two from Tang Yung Keng from Tung Kwun district. He passed his Kui Yan degree in the 3rd year of Tung Chi, A.D. 1864 and became "Hon Lam Yuen Shue Kat Sz" (H.K.N. VIII, p. 110) in the 10th year of T’ung Chi, A.D. 1871. He held the office of On Ch'aat Sz (Provincial Judge) of Kiangsu province, and in 1900 during the Boxer trouble he was appointed by Lei Hung Cheung, the Prime Minister and then Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces, to be the Superintendent of volunteers in Kwangtung. Tang Ts'ing Lok's eldest son, Tang Wan Kuk was a very rich man, and he owned a lot of cultivated land in San On District. During his time there were twenty-eight Sau Ts'oi (B.A.'s) and nine very rich men all members of his family and living in the same street where his house was situated in Shui Mei village. His house was called Kam Ts'un Tong "ornamental stream hall"; it has long since been destroyed and a vegetable garden is on the site of where it once existed, but the remains of a large stone gateway can still be seen (plate 20). Tang Wan Kuk owned a large library in this house, and a fine stone fish-tank, made of pink coloured stone, 2 Chinese feet high, 14 wide and 24 long. (Plate 19). Two scholars of the Tang Family have written inscriptions about this tank, speaking very highly of it, but it now lies in a destroyed school building in Shui T’au village, and no-one cares about it. The dates of Tang Wan Kuk's birth and death are not recorded, but we know that his grave, which is in Noh Mai Ham about seven li from Kam T'in was made before the 8th year of Ching ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 188 DAVID FAURE There is little doubt that at least for several months, Leung Shuen Wan was a central bandit hideout. Mr. Lau Shang of Pak Lap Village on the island said that there were bandits who came there from the mainland, but they did not rob the villagers for they were themselves stationed in Tung Ah Village nearby. Villagers from Tung Ah and Pak Ah confirmed that there were bandits on the island and that the island villagers were not disturbed. Mr. Chung T'in Fuk of Pak Ah added that this might be because the bandits were from P'ing Shan (in China) nearby, and were afraid that the villagers might take reprisals against their own villages.73 Mr. Kong Ts'eung of Tung Ah knew that the bandits used the T'in Hau Temple of Leung Shuen Wan as their headquarters. The first group that arrived was Hoklo. Then came Hoh Shing Nin, from Aau T'au in China. Hoh was well-known among Sai Kung villagers as a bandit chief. But other bandits also came, and they began to fight among themselves. Hoh quarrelled with a certain Chan Nai Shau. According to Mr. Tse Koon K'au, for a short while Hoh had to leave Leung Shuen Wan for Tap Mun, and later Chek Keng. Chan took his guns with him in pursuit.74 Villagers from Leung Sheun Wan and nearby Kau Sai were apparently quite favourably disposed to Hoh Shing Nin. Mr. Chung T'in Fuk of Pak Ah thought that Hoh was a guerrilla, who was maintaining order in the area. Mr. Loh Kai Faat, a boatman from Kau Sai, made a distinction between Hoh and Chan. Hoh maintained order here, according to Mr. Loh, but Chan was a genuine bandit.75 The Wai Ch'i Wooi and the K’ui Ching Shoh The only government in Sai Kung in the very turbulent months immediately after the coming of the Japanese was the Sai Kung Market Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Lei Shiu Yam was its chairman. It was recognized by the Japanese Government as the Wai Ch'i Wooi, the local governing body that was set up in all local areas of Hong Kong and the New Territories in the early months of the occupation. The Sai Kung Wai Ch'i Wooi was located on the first floor of No. 34 Main Street, Sai Kung Market. It had little formal authority and no military power, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 NOTES AND QUERIES 211 Queen's Road West. These are the 4 churches founded by Chu's disciples, the largest of which is the Ming Tak Tong. However, the most famous Chun Hung Kau church in Hong Kong is the Fuk Poon Yuen Tong (...) in Tai Nan Street founded by Lee Ting-ho (*) of Ng Wah. There are other Fuk Poon Yuen churches in Hong Kong, one in Hennessy Road, Wanchai founded by Tang Choi (*) of Chiu Ning (##), another in North Point founded by Cheung Hin-ying (Mik), another one in Kam Tin. Southeast Asia The religion's preaching work in S.E. Asia started in the early 19th century. The number of Chun Hung Kau churches in S.E. Asia is as follows:- (a) Singapore and (c) Sumatra Federation (d) Kalimantan 2 of Malaysia about 260 (e) Sarawak 6 (b) Thailand 10 (f) North Borneo 1 Regulations of the Chun Hung Kau The most important item in the "Regulations of the Chun Hung Kau" is the "Ten Commandments” These are:- (a) Do not indulge in lustful desires (b) Do not steal (c) Do not gamble (d) Do not be extravagant (e) Do not be proud (f) Do not smoke opium (g) Do not tell lies (h) Do not believe in idols (i) Do not believe in fung-shui (j) Do not forget the good others have done to you, and do not violate moral obligations. Doctrines At the very beginning Liu announced the "Five Belongings" and "Four Tests”. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 ORDINARY LOCAL MEMBERS CHISM, Mr. Michael, South Kowloon Magistracy, KOWLOON. CHIU, Mrs. Carol C., Twin Brook 11B, 43 Repulse Bay Road, HONG KONG. CHU, Mr. Lee, 48 Haven Street, 4/F, Causeway Bay, HONG KONG. CHUA, MÀ Fi Lan, 1903 Hang Chong Building, Queen's Road Central, HONG KONG. CLIMAS, Mrs. Jane, Flat D18 Pearl Gardens, 7 Conduit Road, HONG KONG. CLIMAS, Mr. D. John, Flat D18 Pearl Gardens, 7 Conduit Road, HONG KONG. COCHRANE, Mrs. Valerie, Apartment 9, 23 B Shouson Hill Road, HONG KONG. COLBOURNE, Prof. M. J., Dept. of Community Medicine, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. COLLINS, Mr. A. J., c/o Legal Aid Dept., 13th FL., Sincere Building, 173 Des Voeux Road, HONG KONG. CONNOLLY, Miss Moira, 5 Wylie Gardens, King's Park, KOWLOON. COOK, Mr. Ian R., Hong Kong Hilton, Queen's Road Central, HONG KONG. COOPER, Dr. Eugene, Dept. of Sociology, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. COOPER, Mr. Roy, E & M Office, Caroline Hill Road, HONG KONG. CRABBS, Mr. P. I., Property Dept., Local Property Co. Ltd., Baskerville House, 13, Duddell Street, HONG KONG CRAIG, Mrs Peggy, 21 Bisney Road, Pokfulam, HONG KONG. CRISSWELL, Dr. Colin N., King George V School, KOWLOON. CROSBY, Mr. A. R., Flat B32, 10 Caldecott Road, Pipers Hill, KOWLOON. CUMINE, Mr. E., F.R.I.B.A., 28 Yun Ping Road, 2/F, HONG KONG. CUNNINGHAM, Miss Margaret, Flat 27, Block 43, Baguio Villas, Victoria Road, HONG KONG. DAIKO, Mr. Paul, P.O. Box 201, HONG KONG. DAVIES, Mrs. C. E. G., 1201 Luginsland, 18 Old Peak Road, HONG KONG. DAVIES, Mr. S. N. G., Dept. of Political Science, HONG KONG. DAVIES, Mrs. L. R., **The Gums** No. 4 Chuk Kok Village, Hiram's Highway, Sai Kung, NEW TERRITORIES. DAVIES, Mrs. Mona, "Sailing Look", 6 Lloyd Path, Barker Road, HONG KONG. DAWE, Mr. Jock, c/o Travelove Ltd., Suite 823 Star House, KOWLOON. DAWSON, Prof. John L. M., Dept. of Psychology, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. 243 Page 270 Page 271 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 244 ORDINARY LOCAL MEMBERS DE BURE, Mrs. Ursula, 550 Victoria Road, Block 29, Floor 30, HONG KONG. DE SILVA, Ms. Minette, Dept. of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. DER, The Rev. E. B., Holy Trinity Church, 135 Ma Tau Chung Road, KOWLOON. DIAMOND, Mr. A. L., Public Records Office of Hong Kong, 2 Murray Road, HONG KONG. DOHERTY, Ms. Kathleen Rose, 11 Coombe Road, Flat 1A, HONG KONG. DOLFIN, Mr. John, III, 155 Argyle Street, KOWLOON. DRAKEFORD, Mr. Louis S., 124 Miles Clearwater Bay Road, KOWLOON. DYER, Mrs. C. E., 233 Prince's Building, HONG KONG. ELSOM, Mr. Graham, J. B., G.P.O. Box 11508, HONG KONG. EVANS, Prof. D. M. E., School of Law, University of Hong Kong, HONG KONG. EVANS, Mr. C. J., Flat 9. 8 Mansfield Road, The Peak, HONG KONG. FABRY, Mr. K. G., Rural Retreat, Taipo Kau, NEW TERRITORIES. FABRY, Mrs. R. G., Rural Retreat, Taipo Kau, NEW TERRITORIES. FAN, Mr. Jack F. S., 1-25 Shu Kuk Street, May Lun Apartment 14/F, North Point, HONG KONG FITZPATRICK, Mr. John, c/o Jardine Matheson & Co. Ltd. World Trade Centre, 30/F, Causeway Bay, HONG KONG. FORSYTH, Mr. A. H., c/o Stevenson & Co., 821 Central Building, 3 Pedder Street, HONG KONG FORSYTH, Mr. James J., Flat 102, 80 Macdonnell Road, HONG KONG. GAILEY, Mr. H. G., 81 Mt. Nicholson Gap, HONG KONG GAILEY, Mrs. Norah, 81 Mt. Nicholson Gap, HONG KONG. GAMLEN, Mr. Richard, 62 A-D Robinson Road, 19th Floor, Flat B, HONG KONG. GARCIA, Mr. Arthur, Victoria District Court, HONG KONG. GARRETT, Mrs. Valery M., 19 Vivian Court, 20 Mount Kellett Road, HONG KONG. GATELY, Major Charles, c/o Environment Branch, Colonial Secretariat, Lower Albert Road, HONG KONG. GHOSE, Mrs. Rajeshwari, St. Paul's Convent School, Causeway Bay, HONG KONG. GIBB, Mr. Hugh, c/o Hong Kong & Shanghai Banking Corp., P.O. Box 64, HONG KONG. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 119 duties each year; but old residents have supplied information on this point. A Heung Shan (Chung Shan) man who was a tai chik lei (Chairman) for the Sau Hing Fong, in the 11th to the 20th years of the Chinese Republic (1922-1931) and knew of past practice, has said that in his time there were within the Fong one tai, aided by three fu chik lei (Vice-chairman) and some 8-10 ordinary chik lei (managers). Together, when it came to their Fong's turn to arrange for the temple rituals, these men would make all the arrangements for celebrating all three major religious occasions on the island on behalf of the whole community. The body of chik lei came together because of their interest and willingness to contribute, and to spend their time and effort on the work. The selection of the four senior chik lei was done in the Hung Shing temple, by casting the divining blocks (kau pui) before the altar. This was described locally as man Hung Shing or as man pui; that is 'asking Hung Shing god' or 'asking the divining blocks'.18 In another of these bodies, the Fuk Hing Fong of San On residents, an old member (born in 1897; and interviewed in 1966) confirmed the mutual coming together by the body of chik lei with a view to selecting a leader, but in this Fong they met in the shop of one of its leading members. The leaders were not chosen by using the divining blocks in the temple, but were selected by the leading shopkeepers and manufacturers of the Fong from among themselves, on the basis of their business success, good reputation and interest in the work of securing a continuance of blessings through the faithful performance of religious observances in each lunar year. Whichever method was adopted—and it may have varied from time to time—the selection of persons as senior chik lei was celebrated by the preparation and presentation of an ornamental tablet described as a (*). This was a red painted wooden board, draped with a red cloth and surmounted by golden flowers or tassels. Black characters on the board gave the name, post and date of the senior chik lei. When the board was ready, it was borne along the street in procession accompanied by Taoist priests or nam mo lo and musicians and fixed ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 135 14.8.1897, all three Ap Lei Chau residents belonging to the old Luk Hing, Sau Hing, and Fuk Hing Tongs respectively. Their evidence enlarges and confirms the information obtained from the record of the Squatter Board's proceedings. "Hayes 1977, pp. 99-101. The Tai O information is more explicit on this point, but the Cheung Chau practice was the same. ** See E.G. Pryor, Housing in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 1983) pp. 15-17. These new urban districts were very susceptible to contagious disease. It is well to recall Governor Des Voeux's report of 1889 in which, describing the City of Victoria, he wrote: "Going ashore our visitor would see in the Chinese quarters houses, constructed after a pattern peculiar to China, of almost equally solid materials, but packed so closely together and thronged so densely as to be in this respect probably without parallel in the world.. It is believed that over 100,000 people live within a certain district of the City of Victoria not exceeding 1⁄2 square mile in area. It is known that 1,600 people live in the space of a single acre." (Sessional Papers 1889, pp. 303-304). 15 ** Victoria had seven officially-approved sub-districts in 1857, as listed and described in the Hong Kong Government Gazette for 9 May 1857, GN No. 69. They included "No. 1, or SEI-YING-POON — From the small village westward, called Cowee-wan, to the end of Circular Buildings, including all the houses on Bonham Strand, west of No. 1 Police Boat Station. The historical development of this area is given by Revd. Carl T. Smith's note at pp. 211-218 of JHKBRAS 14(1974) in "Programme Notes for Visits to Older Parts of Hong Kong Island (Urban Areas....) See also Chapter 3, Sheung Wan, of Frank Leeming's Street Studies in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1977) pp. 45-66. 24 Sheung Fung Lane itself is situated between Second and Third Streets in that section bounded by Centre Street to the East and Western Street to the West. ** An account of pao wui at the Tam Kung festival in Shau Kei Wan from a Secretariat for Chinese Affairs' file of 1958 is typical: "There were about 15 Kaifong elders in the Tam Kung temple who were enrolling pao wui (K), there were about 18 pao wu's from the sea and about 10 from the land. The wul's who brought their own roast-pigs with them had to pay "oil money" and "worshipping fees" from $10 to $30 to the elders before entering the temple. It is learned that the worshippers have no objection to pay these fees. In addition the temple keeper also charged $5 or $10 for each roast-pig brought into the temple plus $5 to $10 "oil money". 20 A recent account of the proceedings at Sheung Fung Lane is given in the article "Everyone's festival" in The Asia Magazine issued weekly by Asia Magazines Ltd., Hong Kong, Vol. 21, Number V7, 4th January 1981, pp. 3-6. 3-6. For a very well illustrated account of a similar old neighbourhood in Singapore, and its community festivals, see "Singapore's Vanishing Chinatown" by Joan Ogden in The Asia Magazine 25th July 1976. * "No. 3, or TAI-PING-SHAN From the end of Hollywood Road near Circular Buildings, to Gough Street steps, including all the houses on the south side of the Queen's Road between these two points." See the plan opposite p. 124 of Marjorie Topley (ed) Some Traditional Chinese Ideas and Conceptions in Hong Kong Social Life Today (Hong Kong, Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch 1967). This was drawn in 1882 (ibid, pp. 123-124). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 330 Shayuchung: just as it took the Northern pundits half a century to recognize that the Cantonese (ex-Yao) word "I" was to be rendered "zhun" and not "ch'uan", so they will not yet be told that in Cantonese usage "東" and "北" are not, as they are in North China, the same word, but different words of which the latter is pronounced like "dung4)". Likewise, to write Blacksmiths' Street (p. 80) "Ta T'ich Chich" is, pardon me, sheer barbarism, and a mixture of two systems like "Po Kat in ... Paoan" (p. 40, for either "Po Kat in Po On" or, if we must have this wretched Northern jargon, "Buji in Baoan") is ridiculous. And if there be any who will take up the challenge for Sha Tau Kok, & c., they cannot do better than emulate Dr. Hayes's Chapter 2 (Peng Chau) and Chapter 4 (Tai Tam Tuk — even though he does mistranslate the second word of the name). Both chapters are models of how this kind of study should be written up. And the same applies to nearly every part of the book. I wish I had written it! The quotation with which I opened is, by the way, in one local variety of Naam T'au dialect, and means One shagoo (small humped cattle) is worth 20 piculs of unhusked rice; One water buffalo is worth a house, Such mnemonic jingles used to be common in the rural areas. Can anybody be found to collect them, while they are still remembered? I read recently that the Hakka "shan-ko" had been rediscovered in N.E. Kwangtung. Is anybody collecting them? And how about itinerant story-tellers? All right, all right, I was only asking. There is so much to be done. K.M.A. BARNETT i ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 116 The dragon boat procession reformed and set off in the direction of the groom's home where the newly weds would live. Two women in front were wearing funny hats: one banging the gong while the other thumped a plastic oil drum. They were followed by eight pairs of women rowing in formation, while at the back were the two women with the rudder of tin cans and the woman representing the dragon's tail. Above the bride's head was held the sieve of pomelo leaves and ginger root, carried by the 'fortunate' woman. One attendant, wearing a Western style short evening dress, was carrying a pink umbrella held over the bride, to which was tied a sprig of cypress and pomelo leaves with red cord. A second attendant carried the red and gold patterned tin suitcase known as gar chong (#), containing the jewellery the bride had been given, while a further attendant brought a large suitcase with the bride's belongings. Another woman carried a white enamel basin decorated with red characters for double happiness and flower motifs. In the basin food and other items were wrapped in red cellophane paper, and decorated with cypress leaves. The procession stopped briefly in front of the earth god and again firecrackers were set off. At the Ma Jo temple the young couple paused and bowed three times before continuing to their new home. Cymbals rose to a crescendo; the couple, followed by other relatives and the Chilin, went into the house, and a long string of firecrackers was set off. The rest of the procession now dispersed as those inside the house settled down for a cool soft drink. It was now 2.15 pm and in the street women were feasting on food prepared that morning, especially on a salty vegetable soup known as ham choy cha (**), chicken, and for dessert, sweet dumplings which are only served at Lunar New Year and special occasions such as wedding ceremonies. These are considered a lucky symbol of getting together. Later that afternoon the newly weds would offer tea to the groom's parents, and then at 6.00 pm all who had taken part in the ceremony were invited to a restaurant in the village of Sha Tau Kok for a large feast to round off the day's festivities. Plates 19-23 illustrate this article. They were taken by the author. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 16 Sham Chum Tsuen Ferry De Weng Tau Street Ta Yue Tin Ta Pang Upper Street Upper Street Lower (Main) Street Market Tower Old Street Upper Earthgod Babault's House Lower East Gate Map 2: Sha Tau Kok (Tung Wo) Market, 1853 Sha Tau Kok (Tung Wo) Market 1853 * 220 40 0 Tower 152 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 153 was dangerously exposed to storms behind low and flimsy buns. This little temple almost certainly dates from the original reclamation for the saltpans. The ferry pier and the Tin Hau Temple were built on the foreshore, about 200 yards from the town proper. Chan Hip-tsun and the other elders of the Shap Yeuk had designed the town proper as an approximately square walled enclosure, with two east-west streets, joined by a north-south street somewhat east of the centre of the town.* The town had four gates, two each to the east and the west. The most important was the Upper East Gate, which faced the fine three-span granite bridge built by the Shap Yeuk over the often violent waters of the Sha Tau Kok River, The Shap Yeuk had built the walls and roads of their new market, but the shop units were built by investors from villages of the Shap Yeuk area willing to take them up. These investors then built over their lot, from the road back to the already completed wall. Once the Shap Yeuk had succeeded in their political aims of freeing their district from the influence of outsiders, and had founded their market and its temple, they thereafter ran the district and market through the Council of the Shap Yeuk (the Tung Wo Kuk, "The Council for Peace in the East"). The day-to-day management of the market was handled by a Headman, appointed by the Tung Wo Kuk. He adjudicated minor disputes, and had at his disposal certain trust funds, and the income from the ferry tender, and from rent of the town weigh-beam. He let tenders to sweep the streets (the street-sweeper was expected to reimburse himself from the sale of the wastes as fertiliser), and supervised the Town Watch, recruited from youngsters of the surrounding villages, whose job was to maintain order, especially at night. The Council of the Shap Yeuk, the Headman, and the Town Watch, are all mentioned by the Basel missionaries in the 1850s, and there can be no doubt that the management structure of the town and district was in place from the first foundation of the town. The market founded by the Shap Yeuk was called by them Tung Wo Market, “Eastern Peace Market”, but it was more usually 1 * See Map 2, taken from a map of 1853 prepared by the Basel missionaries. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 160 Chung Ferry. Finally, the Japanese attacked Sha Tau Kok in 1938, 1939, and 1940, before taking it over late in 1940, 41 These periods of disturbance caused serious problems to the Sha Tau Kok villagers. Their sole desire was to sell their vegetables and firewood, and buy their salt and household goods, but this was, year after year, interfered with by political problems. Sha Tau Kok was rarely - except during the Boycott - the centre of the disturbances, but it was almost always "in the front line", full of intrigue, nervous military, and difficulties. A market shop-owner in Sha Tau Kok was executed by the military in about 1935, in an event still a talking point in the villages, probably for being involved with the rebels to the east. An underground Communist cell was established in the 1930s in the market, centred on one of the teachers in the Tung Wo School, with the job of encouraging smuggling of strategic goods to Sha Yue Chung and the guerrillas, and of indoctrinating suitable youngsters, to prepare for an extension of rebel activity to the immediate Sha Tau Kok area. 41 The elders of the Shap Yeuk continued to function throughout this troubled period as the managers of the market at Sha Tau Kok, but less effectively than before. The strong military presence in the town, the close Government interest in it, and the elders' inability to control the Customs, greatly weakened the Shap Yeuk as the effective local administration. The guns which had been placed by the Shap Yeuk in the gun-towers they had built to guard the bridge were confiscated very soon after the 1911 revolution, and the eastern gun-tower, at the front of the Tung Wo School, was taken over as the military barracks at about the same time. The warlord and Kuomintang administrations were usually unwilling to discuss problems with the local elders - noticeably so compared with the District Officer in the New Territories - and so the elders and their Council declined to having responsibility, effectively, only for those things the officials could not be bothered to interfere with, especially the running of the market night-watch and cleaning services. By 1910, the elders were already talking of moving the market over the frontier into the New Territories, with its better security, better villager-administration relationships, and absence of Customs problems. Nothing, however, was done until 1925, when the chaos of the Boycott started to push the market across the frontier. Shops began to be built on the New Territories side of the border street in 1925, and this process ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 161 continued without break until 1932, when the street was completely lined with shops on the New Territories side. The border street, however, could not provide sufficient space for all the shops of the market. In 1931, a reclamation project began just west of the town, along the frontier, to allow a second border street to be built. This was completed, and the shops on San Lau Street built, in 1933-1934. This project included a new pier and fish market, and allowed the fish wholesalers in the market to cross over into the New Territories as well. By 1935 only a few shops were left operating in the old market in Chinese territory, mostly those (like the pawnshop, the boatyard, and the opium divan) which could not move because of physical or legal restraints. A terrible typhoon and storm-surge on 2nd September 1937 destroyed most of what was left of the old market: it never recovered. The effect on the market of the new frontier was not, however, entirely negative. In 1899 it is unlikely that the town housed more than about 500 people; the 100 Customs staff, 30 or so soldiers, and 25 or so Hong Kong Police who became stationed there represented a significant increase in the town's population. The local market for fuel, vegetables, and daily necessities grew sharply, bringing benefits to both the market shopkeepers and to the villagers. Uniforms required repair, bringing work to tailors and cobblers. Even blacksmiths and carpenters found increased work opportunities. The Customs steam-launch brought new engineering skills to the town, and provided a new market in coal. Shortly after the Customs steam-launch was domiciled in the town, the Sha Yue Chung Ferry took advantage of the presence of these new skills and converted to a steam vessel - one of the earliest regular steam ferries in the New Territories area. Other modern developments reached Sha Tau Kok early because of the needs of the frontier. Thus, the telegraph line reached the town in 1899, and the telephone in 1900. Electric light was provided to the town in 1933. While the construction of the railway was predominantly due to economic factors, again the needs of the frontier were among the reasons for this early extension of modern facilities to the town. 47 As in most garrison towns, however, it was the entertainment industry which most benefited from the new frontier. Very soon after the new frontier was established, prostitutes from Hong Kong saw the opportunities, and set up house in the market. From the present-day elders' recollections ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 168 China through the centre of the area caused some of the routes to reduce in importance, and made others more important, reflecting the new political realities. From the late 1920s, and especially from the 1930s, the new motor roads and other new routes, which ran on very different lines from the old roads, also caused major changes to traffic flow in the area. After about 1925, the old carrying trade to Sham Chun rapidly declined away to almost nothing, and the market at Sha Tau Kok began to decline in importance as a result. In 1926, a new ferry to Sha Yue Chung, direct from the mainline railway station at Tai Po Kau, was introduced, which immediately took a great deal of the traffic away from the Sha Tau Kok to Sha Yue Chung ferry. After 1949, when the border was effectively closed to local traffic, Sha Tau Kok became far less important as a traffic nodal point. Nonetheless, from the establishment of the market at Sha Tau Kok down to about 1925, the prosperity of the town rose from its location at the junction of the district's land and sea traffic routes. Sha Tau Kok Market in 1925 Topography The aim of this section is to outline what the market was like in 1925, about a hundred years after it was first founded, on the eve of the move of the market across the frontier. It is drawn principally from the oral testimony of village elders who can remember the old market. This oral testimony is supplemented, in particular, by the 1924 aerial photograph, which forms the basis of Map 4. In 1925, the market consisted essentially of four streets. These were the three streets of the original market - Upper Street (E), Lower, or Main Street (下街, 正大街), and Old Street (老街) - together with Wang Tau Street (王頭街).* In 1853, this last had been an open track leading past the western edge of the market, and running down to the Ferry Pier. By 1925 it had become lined with shops on both sides, all the way to the seafront. At some stage, the three or four shops at the western ends of Upper and Lower Streets had been demolished and rebuilt facing into Wang Tau Street. This gave them a far shorter depth of building lot - only about 45 feet instead of the 65 or more of most shops in 1853. On these shorter lots, two or three storey shop-houses had been built, with a * See Map 4 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 171 However, the move towards Wang Tau Street had only led to building on the area immediately west of the old walled market by 1898. When the gambling house was established in Sha Tau Kok (about 1904), it found the area immediately south of the walls empty and ready for development. This area was quickly built over - a row of houses for prostitutes being built to the east, connected by a new alleyway through the walls with Lower Street, and the gambling house nearby to the west, closer to Wang Tau Street, was a long wooden building, set awkwardly at an angle to the street, which was used as a restaurant serving noodles (especially dog-meat noodles, for which Sha Tau Kok was famous). Between the noodle restaurant and the gambling house Wang Tau Street formed a small irregular triangular open space. None of the elders claims to know anything of what the prostitutes' houses were like inside, except to say that it was generally believed that the prostitutes also offered opium to their customers. The prostitutes' houses were small, however, and probably consisted of two main rooms only: a front room where guests could take opium, and a bed-chamber. 4). This More is remembered about the gambling houses. It was approximately square - about 40 feet by 50 - and two-storeyed. The western part of the ground floor was one big square room, of about 40 feet square. This had doors leading directly to the street on the north (leading to the street of the prostitutes' houses), west (leading to Wang Tau Street), and south (leading to the guesthouses and Customs Station). Of these, the west door was the main one. This ground floor square room was the main gambling hall. It contained four tables, where the game offered was Po Tau (which consisted of the manipulation of small, nested brass boxes). The game was very popular, and the room was often crowded. The eastern side of the ground floor comprises stores, service rooms, and the staircase up to the second floor. This contained (on the east) the residence of the manager, and, on the west, a second gambling hall, with wide windows overlooking Wang Tau Street. This second gambling hall was half the size of the ground floor one, and had two tables, at which Tsz Fa (七花) was offered. In addition, tables for Pai Kau (牌九) were set up in the street outside the main entrance, under an awning. The gambling house was a very prosperous business, and the little open space in front of its door was one of the central spots of the town - wood and grass for fuel were sold here. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 172 The guesthouses (), lower down Wang Tau Street from the gambling house, were three-storeyed shop-houses. The ground floor was the residence of the owner; sometimes a small shop was run as well. Above, on the first floor, was a dormitory for villagers and poor travellers staying the night in town. A few large beds stood here - for one or two cents, you could share a bed with whoever else was looking for a place to stay. For the more fastidious and wealthy, small cubicles on the top floor offered privacy and an unshared bed. Military officers visiting the town would stay in these private cubicles. The guesthouses did not serve meals; guests took food at the adjacent noodle restaurant. The 'totally comfortless' guesthouse used by the Basel missionaries in 1859 must have been of this type. There was only one full-time opium divan in the market, although opium could be taken in the prostitutes' houses as well. Up until 1917, there had also been several low-class opium divans in sheds in British Sha Tau Kok - these were closed in that year, as part of the agreement to end trade in opium between Hong Kong and China which, it was hoped, would allow the Chinese Government to end all opium imports, and to control the sale of opium in China. The chaos in the border area, however, made it impossible for the trade on the Chinese side of the frontier to be effectively controlled, and the Sha Tau Kok opium divan continued to trade unmolested until 1951. Opium could also be bought for home consumption from the two tobacco shops in the market. These shops were also heavily engaged in smuggling opium into Hong Kong. Next to the opium divan was the market barber. In 1853 there had only been itinerant barbers in the town. This shop should be seen, to a large degree, as one of the service trades attracted by the opportunities brought about by the new frontier and garrison, like the prostitutes and the gambling house. Beyond the guesthouses, near the sea, Wang Tau Street was occupied by the fish laans and the Kowloon Customs Station. The Customs Station was rebuilt several times during this period. The Station building in existence in the 1920s was a solidly built, European style, single-storey structure, with a verandah, built of brick and tile. One end was the residence of the Assistant Superintendent. In the middle were the offices, and the barrack quarters for the junior staff were at the further end. The Customs also rented some nearby houses for stores and quarters. After the Station ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 175 Opposite the saltpans, on the bund, each saltworks had a small hut. These were used to store the salt before it was carried to Sham Chun. They also functioned as retail shops; villagers wanting to buy salt bought it here, not at shops in the town. There were also several lime-burners, making lime from coral dredged from Mirs Bay, operating in the Yim Liu Ha area. 65 The most important building in British Sha Tau Kok in the 1920s was the Railway Station. This was the terminus of a narrow-gauge (2 foot) railway which linked Sha Tau Kok and the main-line station at Fanling, and which operated from 1912 to 1928. While it was slow, expensive and uncomfortable, it nonetheless linked Sha Tau Kok more effectively with the outside world than had ever been possible before, when every traveller had to make a long and weary journey by sea and mountain pass. The Station was built immediately on the frontier. When traders started to migrate across the frontier, it was the hawkers, with no overheads, who moved first - they moved to the area around the Station and its forecourt. Most hawking in Sha Tau Kok was carried out here from about 1925. When the railway was dismantled in 1928, following completion of the motor road from Fanling in 1927, the hawkers moved to the area at the end of the road - a permanent market hall for them was built nearby as part of the San Lau Street development in 1933-1934. Before 1925, hawking had taken place mostly in Wang Tau Street - vegetable hawkers using the upper part, near Upper Street, and fuel hawkers the lower part, near Lower Street and the gambling house. Itinerant cooked-food sellers (mostly selling noodles), and villagers selling things like brooms, bamboo poles, etc. were also found here. But most of them moved to the Station forecourt in about 1925. The only sizeable shop in British Sha Tau Kok before 1925 was the main town carpenter's in Tsoi Yuen Kok. This shop had moved there from Upper Street a few years before 1925, mostly because of the need for more space for its timber stores and saw-yard. The rest of Tsoi Yuen Kok was used for market gardens, where vegetables were grown for sale in the town. What did the town look like in 1925? Photographs are few and unrevealing. There is, however, one short description of the town at this date: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 Villages, especially mountainside villages, often had customary handicrafts which the women hawked in the market. Brooms, made from the twigs of a certain mountain bush, were a hawker monopoly, as were the hand-woven ribbons used to tie up the traditional Hakka headcloth. The special leaves used to tie up steamed rice dumplings were similarly prepared and sold by women from the mountain villages. Some products could only be got in the mountains - game, some medicinal herbs, tea, and some other special products. Only a few households, mostly mountain ones, kept bees and had honey for sale. Honey was usually sold from the street by retail - few villagers would ever have had more than a small quantity for sale at any time. Honey was mostly used for medicinal purposes. Villagers with tea to sell, or medicinal herbs, would usually sell to shops in the market if they had a large quantity, but otherwise they would sell by retail from the street. Game was usually sold by men. Some villages kept packs of hunting dogs, and caught wild boar, the meat of which was then sold in the market-town streets, while porcupine, civet cats, and wildfowl were trapped live and then sold. Markets like Sha Tau Kok, with substantial areas of mountain in the market district, were famous for the game trade. These trades were specialties - only those villages able to keep hunting dogs could catch wild boar, and the skills of finding and preparing medicinal herbs, or trapping wild fowl, were a jealously guarded secret, known only to a few villages, and within those villages, only to a few households. One specialist mountain product was Shue Leung (#), a tuber which, when sliced up and macerated in water, provided a juice which water-proofed ropes. This tuber was needed by the boat-people, who would treat their tackle and nets with it once or twice a year. When boat-people needed it, they would look out for a mountainside villager known to them, and order a load for the next market day. Mountainside villages were as concerned to preserve their Shue Leung from illicit harvest by outsiders as they were to preserve their stands of fuel trees - outsiders found poaching would be driven off with violence. Poultry were sold live in the streets by villagers, especially from the lowland villages near the market - buyers took them home and slaughtered them themselves. Poultry was not always available, but the market would be full of sellers just before a festival. Seed-pigs and day-old chicks were usually sold on the street by any villager who happened to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 189 APPENDIX 2 Shops in Sha Tau Kok Market. 1925 = (WTS = Wang Tau Shek), UP = Upper Street, LS = Lower Street, OS = Old Street, SLH = Sha Lan Heung (= Fish Laans) TYK = Tai Yuen Kok, SH = Sam Heung LH = Luk Heung, WH = Wo Hang, YT = Yim Tin, YSQ = Yung Shue O, FH = Fung Hang, TT = Tong To, ST = Shan Tsui, HL = Hoklo, KLH = Kwun Lo Ha, LK = Luk Keng, JMK = Jat Muk Kiu, LL = Lai Long, AH = Au Ha, SNT = San Tsuen, NC = Nun Chung, SC = Sham Chun, STK = Sha Tau Kok A = in 1894 Shan Tsui Tablet, B = Cheung Shan Kwu Liu Tablet, C = in Oral Evidence, D = in 1906 Budd's Pool Tablet * = The largest shops) = in 1920 No. Name of Shop Address of Shop Name of Owner Village of Owner Source Comments General Stores 1 WTS Sold saws, bowls, plates, pottery, ropes, nails etc 4 LA ABC JAWN MHL WTS C C YSO BCD Donated Bell to Wu Shek Kok Temple, 1922 PL Pottery Basel missionaries, 1853 (A)BCD Occupied lower floor of gun lower Probably donated to 1898 Tai Po YSO TH BC BC Kwong Fuk Bridge sold gram, pig slaughterer, winemaker etc Pawnshop fli THI PS H YT 7 Growery X* W WTS WTS 12 I WTS China BCD sugar dealer, etc WTS + WH BC r 1 WTS $1. TTC) ABCD IS ST BC IS 7 WH AC pig slaughterer, winemaker etc 1HI WTS ΥΠ BC [4* Other Goods 15 16 FEE # WTS China BC THI IS THE C 20 AC winemaker. grocer. etc Basel missionaries, 1853 winemaker baker, probably connected with ↑ FI 21 22 ze aza夤èsa a 4 WH C dogmeal WTS SIK BCD baker Lishmongers 20 FHC WTS THE BC WTS BC ƒ SLET SI BC נו 23* SLET YT BC main donor, 1894 واع 24 26* Aumal 01 临 WTS China вс THI SETI LA BC SLEE SIK ABCD SLET! BC IS IT C = WIL C ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 194 14 The oldest surviving dated object is the bell, of 1922 (D Faure, A Ng B Luk, F. M. Xianggang Beiming Huabian, Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, Urban Council, Hong Kong, Vol 3, p 733) The temple, however, appears in the Block Crown Lease (1905), and the local villagers believe it is old 15 The Sam Heung villagers have recently elected a tablet at the resited replacement temple, stating that the temple was first built in the Chia Ch'ing reign (1796-1820), and that the Ta Tsiu was instituted as soon as the temple was built While the grounds for these statements are not given, they are reasonable, and probably correct, although a date late in the reign is likely 16 D Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society, op cit. p 107 17 A copy of this genealogy is in the collection of New Territories historical documents at United College, Chinese University of Hong Kong I am indebted to Dr D Faure for drawing my attention to this reference Our information on mid-nineteenth century Sha Tau Kok comes primarily from documents of the Basel Mission, which had a Mission Station in the town 1849-1854, and whose missionaries regularly visited it in the late nineteenth century The missionaries rented four houses from a local village elder, near the western end of Upper Street, backing onto the wall The missionaries drew a map of the town in 1853, plans of typical shop units in 1849 and 1853, and wrote a long description of the town and district in 1853 – Map 2 is a re-drawing of the missionaries' map of 1853, corrected by measurements taken from the 1924 aerial photograph of the town (13 November 1924 original in the Department of Geography, University of Hong Kong) The written description of 1853 is Basel Mission archive, doc Al-2, Nr 44, “Half-Yearly Report of the missionary Rev P Winnes, from 1st January to 1st July 1853", printed in translation in P H. Hase. "Sha Tau Kok in 1853”, in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol 30, 1990, pp 281-297 See PH Hase, "The Alliance of Ten", op cit, for redrawings of the plans of mid-nineteenth century shop units, and also for a drawing of a cross-section of such a shop unit I am indebted to Rev Carl Smith for drawing my attention to the importance of the Basel Mission documents to the history of Sha Tau Kok, and for allowing me to use his transcripts and notes I would also like to thank Mrs W Haas, and the staff of the Basel Mission archive in the preparation of this article 19 The Tung Wo Kuk was so named in direct emulation of the older Punti Council in Sham Chun, which was also known as "The Council for Peace in the East", PA, Tung Ping Kuk - the choice of the name Tung Wo Kuk must be seen, in these circumstances, as a marked sign of local pride and self-confidence 20 See n 11 21 The villagers believe that the name Sha Tau Kok is taken from a poem by a Ch'ing official who passed by and was so impressed by the beauty of the sun rising above the sand-dunes that he wrote a poem on it ADV AEAA. "The sun rises from the sand-dunes the moon hangs where land and ocean meet" I have heard this story from a Sheung Wo Hang elder, and see also Shatoulaode quwer xuanguanbu (Sha... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 177 scheme a success. The hospital and the tomb established in 1878 are still in existence to this day, and a memorial tablet for the deed was mounted on the front wall of a shop near the hospital. It is still in existence, too. NOTES 1 Ch 2-7, A Brief Record of the Pacification of the Kwang-tung Rebels. A 1865 edition. 2 Ibid. Ch 8. 3 Ibid. Ch 9-10. 4 Thick, Ch 1-12. 7 Ch 72, Fung Kwan Gazetteer. 45, 46. By that time, Lai Chun-hot was the commander of the 'Shung' Naval Battalion stationed in Chikrang. In the 5th Moon of the 2nd year of Tung Chi reign (1863), he found that his Battalion had only a few sloops but too many officers. Thus, he transferred his brother Lai Chun-pin back to Kwang-tung. During his time in Kowloon, he had dedicated a memorial board to the Hau Wang Temple in the Kowloon City in the 6th year of the Kuang Hsu reign (1880). The board is still hanging inside the temple today. As per note 6. The charitable hospital was called the Fong Bin Hospital. The tomb was called Yee Chung Yuen, and was situated on the slope facing the sea at Tai Shek Flat, not far from the Tin Hau Temple of the region. To my knowledge, Jar O on Lantau Island had one, formed by charitable subscription, and indeed, there was one at Lai Chi Kok, Sai Ying Pun and at Lai Ping Shan Street on Hong Kong Island. It was known as Kong Fuk Yee Charity Hall but in 1851, also formed by charitable subscription. It was taken over and extended as the Tung Wah Hospital in 1870, after which it became a hospital in the western style. Detail of the story of the scheme can be seen on the memorial tablet established in the 4th year of the Kuang Hsu reign (1878). It is still in existence. Because of recent development on the island, the slope with the charitable tomb was levelled. The tomb has been moved to the cemetery which lies on the north of the island. The shop, with the one next to it, were purchased with the charity fund at the time of the establishing of the Fong Bin Hospital. They were rented, and the money so got was used as the expenses of the hospital. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 158 of Ta-shih-wang E, the keeper of ghosts who maintained order, provided food and clothing to the hungry ghosts, and then took them back to the netherworld." Vegetarian fast was required during the chao period of three days and four nights. Puppet shows were also performed for several days to entertain both human and divine participants. Chanters hired from outside were responsible for the liturgy, which included scripture reciting, praying, and the burning of paper offerings. As for local villagers, they mainly came to enjoy the free vegetarian feasts and puppet shows. As pointed out by David Faure, the festival is an occasion for popular entertainment, as much as for worship." An important ritual of the chiao ceremony was a gala parade called hsing-hsiang † (walking through a neighbourhood of villages) held on the third day. The image of Houwang was carried in the procession led by chanters and followed by male villagers. Firecrackers were set off to clear the road and when passing a village, joss sticks, candles, and paper offerings were burnt to expel all ghosts and leave the local population safe and flourishing with Houwang's blessings. "As the principal local deity, Houwang obviously played a crucial role during the chiao festival. Deities from other districts, such as the Empress of Heaven from Ma Wan Island or Chak Lap Kok, were not invited to the ceremony." Thus, the parade embodied the strong territorial sense of the community, publicly affirming the hsiung as a neighbourhood of specific villages. Villages passed by paraders, including Shek Mun Kap, Mok Ka, Shek Lau Po, Ngau Au, Nim Yuen, San Tau, Ma Wan Chung, Ma Wan, Ling Pei, Wong Ka Wai, Lung Tseng Tau, and Ba Mei, were all considered members of the Tung Chung community. While village representatives took charge of preparations for the chao days, a body called the Chieh-fang-chu-hui (Neighbourhood Association) was assigned responsibility for the preparatory work for Houwang's Birthday Festival. From the mid-1920s, however, the Neighbourhood Association had to also assume responsibility for preparations for the chiao festival, replacing the village representatives. Concomitant with this change, Tung Chung Street, where the number of shops had increased with time, replaced Shek Mun Kap as the local social and economic centre. Various goods, including groceries, medicinal materials, cooked food, coffee and tea, coffins, and even opium, were now sold on Tung Chung Street. "As the position of Shek Mun Kap and the role of village representatives in the chiao festival declined, 36 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 243 2. Wanchar Built in 1860, repaired in and 1966, No bell. 3. Ap Lei Chau: Built in 1891*, repaired in 1914*, 1930 and 1966*. No bell. 4. Tai Ping Shan Street, Central Built in 1841, rebuilt in 1885, repaired in 1971. No bell Tam Kung Temple 譚公廟 Shaukiwan: Built in the late Ching period, repaired in 1905*, 1909*, 1944*, 1966* and 1976. Bell 1903 Pak Tai Tam Kung Temple Wong Nei Chung. Bell in 1901, repaired in 1928* and 1971. Bell 1901. Man Mo Temple Hollywood Road, Central. Built in 1847, repaired in 1894*, 1908*, 1961*, 1966* and 1975. Bell 1847 Shui Sin Temple Stanley: No information. No bell. Hoi Sun Temple Shek O. Built in 1975*. No bell Yuk Wong Temple Shau Kei Wan: Built in 1912. No bell. Fuk Tak temple 1. Shau Kei Wan. built in 1877, repaired in 1895, 1928 and 1974*. Bell: no information. Now known as Shing Wang Temple 廟 2. Stanley: No information. No bell. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 87 of the Island This was completed in 1904, partly with filling material obtained from Chinese territory. The limits in Victoria of these two earlier major reclamations are marked by Des Voeux Road and Connaught Road respectively. During the next 30 years reclamation continued on the Island, the largest schemes being those at Tai Koo for the dockyard (21ha which included 13ha of land site formation, completed 1908), Wan Chai (36ha, completed 1929) and around North Point (nearly complete before the Pacific war), together with a smaller reclamation at Shau Kei Wan. Soon after the cession of Kowloon under the Convention of Peking in 1860 there was some reclamation adjoining deep water in Tsim Sha Tsui, primarily for wharfs, and at Hung Hom for the dockyard, to be followed by extensive reclamation in Tai Kok Tsui and Yau Ma Tei and, to a lesser extent, at To Kwa Wan, Sham Shui Po and Lai Chi Kok, the latter two both lying just to the north of Boundary Street. Subsequently an important reclamation was formed by the Kowloon-Canton Railway in Tsim Sha Tsui and Hung Hom bays (16ha, completed 1910) primarily for its own use which included three deep sea berths on the extreme south-east tip of the Kowloon peninsula. In the period after 1922 there was considerable reclamation in and near Kowloon just as there was in Wan Chai on the Island. Large areas were reclaimed at Sham Shui Po (26ha, completed 1928), Kai Tak (83ha, completed 1931) and Lai Chi Kok (c35ha), all these areas lying in the New Territories close to the old Kowloon/China boundary with much of the filling being obtained from Kowloon Tong, then being developed as a garden city. Just before the Pacific war, reclamations were also started in three other areas of Kowloon Bay, at Ma Tau Kok, Ngau Tau Kok and Kwun Tong. Roadworks Construction of Queen's Road in Victoria was started in May 1841, only four months after the British landed on the Island, by the Royal Engineers following the alignment of a narrow bridle/tow path high above the beach which extended some 7 kilometres from the water's edge at Kennedy Town on the west to within a short distance of Happy Valley on the east. Another road, from Wong Nei Chong to Shau Kei Wan was built at the same time, a causeway with two bridges being constructed to carry it across what is now known as Causeway Bay. Page 120 Page 121 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 90 water with a swinging or lifting central span. Nevertheless, the scheme was not proceeded with, and Hong Kong had to wait another 70 years before a fixed cross-harbour connection was constructed. The main road network in Kowloon continued to expand, with Sham Shui Po being linked to the then-existing road system in 1916 with a 6m-wide, 700m-long road, part of which was formed on a 3.4m-high embankment. The first section of Waterloo Road, Argyle Street, and much of Prince Edward Road were completed by 1924. At this time, Nathan Road had already been extended by Coronation Road (later also part of Nathan Road) nearly up to the old international boundary. By the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, part of Kowloon Tong, then a garden city, was developed to the west of Waterloo Road together with an adjoining section of Boundary Street, and extensive additions were made to the subsidiary road networks, in particular, in the Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po, and To Kwa Wan districts. When the New Territories was leased in 1898, it was a quiet rural area with a scattering of small market and fishing towns which depended on a network of footpaths and ferries for access. Shortly afterwards, a good deal of road construction was begun, partly for military and civil governmental purposes, and partly to enable farmers to bring their produce more easily to the urban areas. The first section of the New Territories ring road, that from Kowloon to the administrative centre Tai Po, comprised a 4.3m-wide carriageway following the zig-zag course of the old footpath and was completed in 1900. Au Tau creek was bridged in 1916 with an 11-span, 95m-long reinforced concrete structure supported on hollow 340mm concrete box piles, where previously a local punt service was available, to join the 6m-wide stretches of road from Fan Ling and Castle Peak (Tuen Mun). Two years later, the coastal road from Sham Shui Po to Castle Peak was started, which at the time was aptly considered to be Hong Kong's La corniche, and, in 1920, the whole of the 90km-long New Territories ring road was finally completed. About 1927, the Tai Po road bridge adjacent to the railway was reconstructed with a 7-span reinforced concrete structure. Improvements were carried out to the Fan Ling/Sha Tau Kok road in 1929, much of which had only been in service for two years, generally making use of the disused railway formation. Subsequently, a new road was built from Au Tau to Shek ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 270 connection, as my mother was a Yip from Chan Uk Village, also at Nam Tau. There were over ten families of Ng in Kowloon Tsai, but we had no ancestral hall there. There were two parts to the village, an upper and lower part - Sheung and Ha Wai. We lived in the Ha Wai. There was a Tin Hau temple at the village, and we had puppet shows on the goddess' birthday every year when I was young. We also had a Ta Chiu in the village every ten years. 'I was married to a Li of Sheung Sha Po Village when I was 18. My husband was a revenue officer in the Customs service. We had three houses in the village, but they were all demolished for the airfield extension. We were sent first to a vacant tenement house in Cheung On Street [not identified in a modern street guide, but very likely to have been in nearby suburban Kowloon] whose owner had left. We were there for 4-6 months, before moving to Model Village. 'I am Shing Sung, now 55, a Hakka. I was born at Nam Tau and came to Kowloon when I was 18 to join my uncle who owned a wooden house at Tsat Kan Uk [The Seven Houses], a place north of old Kowloon Tsai Village. I later built a wooden hut there for myself. I came to Model Village after the war. I remember that there were private fields in the general area, as well as government land. People named Fung, Hui and Tsang owned fields there before the war. 'I am Madam Law Mui, aged 57, also Hakka. I was born at Nam Tau, and came to Kowloon when I was 20, to marry Shing Sung's elder brother - also to The Seven Houses. We farmed government land there, for which we had a permit and paid fees, both before and after the war. There were many people at Ap Tsai Wu (Duckling Pond), the name of the general area where we lived and farmed. They were scattered here and there, because we were all vegetable farmers and you built your own house beside your own plot of land. Like Shing Sung, we moved to Model Village after the war. 'I am Madam Kwai-fung, aged 64. I am a Hakka, born at Sha Po Tsai, Kowloon, where my family had lived for several generations. My father kept a store in Lower Sha Po, near Blacksmiths' Street in the Kowloon City suburb. When I was 22, I was married to Ng Sam-hong, a Punti, of Old Kak Hang Village, next to Nga Tsin Wai, when we had gone to live in a newly repaired house. We had two houses of our own at the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g It's no doubt advisable to have every plague patient properly isolated but I fail to see how this can be done in practice as the Chinese do not like to part with our sick until there is no hope of saving them, and it is only in extreme cases, especially in the case of husband and wife and mother and child that they should do so. It has been amply known from experience that the Chinese rather conceal their sick until the last moment and dump their dead in cases where their fellow lodgers would be involved in trouble in order to avoid detection than to submit to forcible removal. Would it not therefore be better to give them the option of treating their sick in their own houses or in some places where the relatives can tend their sick or soothe the mind of the sick by being present oftener, thus ensuring the disinfection of every infected building and placing every plague patient under proper surveillance. The bye-law as to isolation has proved to be a failure; it is time that some new scheme should be tried. In an early step towards resolving the problem, it was decreed that infant corpses could be brought to dispensaries, no questions asked, and a $1 reward given. Street Committees were appointed and coordination and funding entrusted to the Directors of the Tung Wah Hospital. Page 118 [Some text appears to be missing or out of order in the original OCR output, but based on the provided rules, the above response focuses on correcting the text that is reasonably coherent and follows the instructions given.] Founder and Chief President in the Chinese Chamber of Commerce in 1913. Official Member of the Legislative Council (18) and Director of the Po Leung Kuk. An indication of what the Chinese community wanted is provided by the report of letters from Mr. Lau Chu Pak (a member of the deputation at Government House) read at a meeting of the Sanitary Board on Tuesday, 24 December 1907. The dumping of dead bodies in the streets or the harbour had been a life-threatening issue and all efforts to put a stop to it had been ineffective. Suspicions that the practice was the result of infanticide were disproved and the main reason it continued was fear of disinfection of households by the foreign authorities. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 around the world where full sets of our Journal are available to scholars. Members will have seen, in the Newsletter, a growing amount of information about the activities of a number of these other Societies, information reaching us as a direct result of the improved communications we have been seeking. I am glad to say that we have been able to get into improved communication in particular with three of the Branch Societies in India, that is, those in Madras (the Madras Literary Society), Bombay (the Asiatic Society of Bombay), and Calcutta (the Asiatic Society of Bengal), and with those in Colombo (The Royal Asiatic Society, Ceylon Branch), Kuala Lumpur (the Malaysian Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society), and Seoul (the Royal Asiatic Society, Korea Branch). All these Societies have agreed to welcome our Members to any of the events they mount, and we in turn have been very happy to offer Members of these Societies temporarily visiting Hong Kong access to our activities on the same terms as our own Members. We have also improved our contacts with the Siam Society, in Bangkok, and, again, we are now offering their Members access to our events on the same terms as our own Members. We have also been in regular communication with the Parent Society in London. We have not been able to contact the Branch Society in Tokyo as yet, and any Member able to help us in this respect should contact me. As part of our drive to improve relationships with these other Branch and Associated Societies we have agreed to donate sets of our Journal to the Madras, Bombay, and Bangkok Societies, in return for sets of their Journals, which will be placed in our Library. Exchange arrangements with the Parent Branch in London, and with the Korea, Calcutta, Malaysia, and Ceylon Branches are also in place. We have also recently agreed an exchange arrangement with the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden. Following the agreement of Members at the Extraordinary General Meeting of the Society on 4 October 2002, that the Society should have a new category of Member, that is Honorary Institutional Member, we have agreed in the subsequent months to make the Shanghai Library; the Hong Kong Catholic Diocesan Archives; the Zhong-ying Street Historical Museum, Sha Tau Kok (Shenzhen); the National Library, Bhutan; the British Empire Museum, Bristol, England; and the Instituto Cultural of Macau Honorary Institutional Members of the Society. In xxvi ================================================================================