RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972
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THREE CHINESE DEITIES

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from the Imperial Palace. These Chinese expeditions sailed as far afield as the coast of East Africa, the Maldive Islands, Mogadishu, the Persian Gulf, Aden and Mecca, Siam, Champa, Java, Sumatra and Malacca, visiting more than thirty countries in South East Asia, the Indian Archipelago and the Indian Ocean.

Cheng Ho

The most famous of the admirals to command these expeditions was Ma Cheng-ho, a eunuch from the Imperial Palace and the son of a Chinese Moslem Hadji from Yunnan. The Admiral is remembered either as Cheng Ho or by his title, San Po Kung (2) and not by his family name which was the common Chinese Moslem name Ma ( ). The full title by which he was known after his death was San Pao T'ai Chien (2), the Three Jewelled Eunuch, but this in South East Asia has been shortened to San Pao Kung (ET). Cheng Ho's last expedition in 1430 visited seventeen countries from which tribute had ceased to be received, but after he died in about 1431 all official intercourse between these countries and China ceased.*

Where or when he was deified is not known. However, amongst the overseas Chinese communities which are mentioned below Cheng Ho is still prayed to for protection, both in everyday life and on short journeys. In the earlier days of the Chinese migrations to South East Asia, he was prayed to by the junk crews of the southern maritime provinces of China and the South Seas. Cheng Ho himself on his voyages is said to have prayed to Tien Fei, the Heavenly Consort (kt), the Chinese seafarers' goddess, who is now normally called Ma Tsu or Tien Hou. What a good example of Chinese toleration Cheng Ho was: or perhaps a good example of the prudent Chinese who takes the opportunity not to offend, and also backs all horses. Here he is, a Mohamedan who prays to Tien Fei for protection and who during one of his voyages erects a tablet in honour of the local Buddha.

Images of Cheng Ho

Statues of Cheng Ho are to be seen in temples in Singapore; in Malaysia in Muar and Malacca; in Sarawak; in Semarang in Java,

See J. V. G. Mills' edited translation of Ma Huan's Ying-yai Sheng-lan. The overall survey of the Ocean's Shores, Cambridge University Press for The Hakluyt Society, 1970.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077
NOTES AND QUERIES

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Note the offices of the Nam-pak Hong Association on the left-hand side of Bonham Strand; the divided shops of the Chun Lung Sang porcelain business (1878) and the bamboo and rattan ware dealers further along, also the frontage of the Ping Heung Tea-house next to Ching Wah Kok.

During this visit Members are advised to look around them, up as well as down, because there are all sorts of interesting little vistas to have had, often revealed by the removal of a house for redevelopment.

Footnote:

1) We will not be going to the Shun Tak District Commercial Association at 67, Queen's Road, West, as hoped, because a terrible blow; the furniture and fittings have already been cleared out prior to demolition of the building.

2) The Tung Kwun District Commercial Association was founded as the Tung Yee Hop Tong in 1893 for charitable, including educational, work among persons of that district resident in Hong Kong. The present premises were purchased about 40 years ago. There is an interesting commemorative board above the window in the main hall presented by four shops in Liu Po New Market, Tung Kwun in 1912 in appreciation of flood relief work and settlement of disputes and of a defamation case by the Hong Kong Chamber. This shows that its influence extended beyond Hong Kong.

3) The Nam-pak Hong Association in Bonham Strand, though in new premises that are of no appeal, is of great interest. This powerful commercial association was established in 1868 by merchants from different parts of China together with Chinese merchants from South-east Asia. This explains the name of the association which, in Chinese, means South-North Firms' Public Office.

Additional Notes for the Visit to Old Western District Carl T. Smith

(a) The Development of West Point

The area we are visiting today was formerly dominated by two points of land. After the British occupation of Hong Kong they became known as Possession Point and West Point. Between the two was a steep hillside with a bay at its foot. The present Ko Shing Street approximates the original beach.

Dr. Eitel in his history of Hong Kong, Europe in China, pp. 123-124, gives an account of the event which gave Possession Point its name:

On January 24, 1841, Commodore Bremer, having arrived at Lantao, directed Captain Belcher, in command of H.M.S. Sulphur, to proceed forthwith to Hongkong and commence its occupation.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p
Page 362

BOOK REVIEWS

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to provide a succinct general survey of British policy in the Far East with the emphasis placed primarily towards China and Japan; South East Asia is discussed, particularly in the nineteenth century and the period after 1941, when it is more important to assess developments within the pattern of British advance and retreat in the Far East. Within that framework Peter Lowe has succeeded admirably in laying bare the flesh and bones of the subject. And, indeed, so far as the body of the book has been anatomised as a living tissue of encounters, resulting from the impact of one Western civilization upon several Asian societies, the only possible criticism might be that the need to be succinct has forced the author to cut through the nervous system of cultural and diplomatic relations rather too drastically.

However, it must be recognized that there is an awful lot of relevant data — economic as well as political — to be included in this survey. I admire Peter Lowe's skill in compressing these not insignificant details into the narrative. (I suspect that he relieved the pressure of his expositions when the text, presumably, was given as lectures by anecdotal asides to generate a feeling of the period and the place.)

Therefore it would not be appropriate in a short review such as this to raise any particular issues for discussion or criticism. The text, in fact, is supplemented by well-informed references to recent book and periodical literature where the serious university student would follow up the cryptic clues to the problems of interpretation so precisely indicated in the author's presentation. Britain in the Far East, in fact, represents that happy example of a text book which so clearly reflects a mastery of the subject obtained by meticulous research and command over sources in Western languages. The authority so evident will therefore also commend the book to the general readers of Far Eastern History whether they are located in the British metropolis or in the surviving periphery of the British formal and informal empires laid down in the nineteenth century. Again, Peter Lowe puts this perspective into a lapidary concluding remark “In essence, Britain's role in the Far East belonged to history.” All we can add in Hong Kong is the rider that here a certain instalment of that history has yet to be played out.

ALAN BIRCH

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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h
48

One of the more interesting Wang Ch'uan is in the Hai Ling Temple on the Pescadores. In Tainan there are some boats as big as small buses, and at the Ma Tsu temple at Lu Erh near Tainan, there is a multi-storey boat. The captains and crew of the large wooden models are portrayed by small images, the largest being the captain dressed in Ch'ing mandarin robes, seated in an open cabin on the aftercastle overlooking the whole junk. The crew consists of sailors manning the ropes and tiller, and marines with weapons including cannon. The captain (or comptroller) of the Pestilence Wang Yeh junk is sometimes portrayed holding a writing brush and scroll. One such image in Tung Kang is seated on a throne on a small altar table before his large and magnificent boat, smoking a real cigarette which smoulders down to a stub before being replaced by one of the temple staff.

Similar images make up miniature military units representing the armies of the Pestilence Wang Yeh; some dozen or so soldiers in V formation with a senior officer at the apex (see Plate 12). Such armies of the Pestilence Wang Yeh, to be seen only in Taiwan and not in South-East Asia, consist of tamed and therefore 'good' demons and are portrayed on side altars on a few temples only. One temple keeper explained that the Pestilence Wang Yeh soldiers were all difficult spirits of dead humans who had been beyond reform during purgatory, but who had been invited to join the army of the Wang Yeh on condition that they would obey orders implicitly, and in return they had been promised rehabilitation and even the possibility of rebirth to the human world should they toe the line. They are referred to as depraved or evil spirits (Hsieh shen 邪神).

The armies are led by generals and marshals under the overall command of the Wang Yeh. The armies referred to as 'The Office of Military Affairs' (Chung Chun Fu), the main defensive forces for the prefecture in the fight against the demonic forces, are represented in some Pestilence Wang Yeh temples by a single seated image of an anonymous general surrounded by a varying number of soldiers in varying robes and uniforms, each small group of six or eight representing subordinate formations and units. In the Wang Yeh temple at Nan K'un Shen the Wang Yeh army is called “The Grand Defender of the Office of Military Affairs (Chung Chun Fu Chen Shou)".

The Pestilence Wang Yeh army in the temple at Hsi Yu on the Pescadores consists of a general in charge, (Assistant Regional
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x
118

assistance which it might be possible to provide, and, soon after, the Myosa left to return to his country.

In August 1943 British troops were poised on the Assam border at Imphal, Tamu, and Tiddim, awaiting sufficient replenishment of equipment and the cessation of the rains to undertake the return advance into Burma; and there was activity down in the Arakan: while General Stilwell's Chinese divisions, retrained, reinforced, and re-equipped in India after their withdrawal from Burma, were just beginning to feel their way forward from Ledo, away up at the northern end of Assam, down the road which later was to become famous as the Ledo road. General Wingate's first expedition into Burma had just been completed, with heavy loss on our side, but with much success in confusing the enemy and disorganising his effort to consolidate his positions. The shape of future operations depended on the enemy's dispositions, so that any information which could be collected in eastern Burma would be useful: and in Kokang it might also be possible to organise patriot parties to assail his communications.

It was not an easy matter to obtain the consent of our allies for the passage of a British party to Kokang. The Chinese have unfortunately imitated the Japanese in a predilection for red tape; formalities are extended ad infinitum. It was fair enough that any British officer who entered China should require a pass issued by the Chinese authorities - though no such restriction attached to the presence of Chinese officers in India - but was it really necessary that the power to issue the pass should be retained by the highest authority in the land, the Military Affairs Council which would correspond with our Committee of Imperial Defence and that it should have to carry the personal chop of the Generalissimo? It did not make for speed in administration. It should also be remembered that the Chinese refused to serve in Burma under British command: that is how General Stilwell first came on the scene; and I think it is fair to say that our American allies had come to look on the Far East, and perhaps more particularly China, as their own special sphere of operations, where there was no room for any British.

My appointment was from the Army in India, which in those days, before the South East Asia Command had been established, was responsible for the operations in Burma. The proposal for assistance to the Myosa was submitted by the British representatives in Chungking to the Chinese government with a request that the necessary passes be
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In the air the intention was then to apply to the Chinese for permission for a British party to proceed overland from Kun-ming with supplies for the parachute party. The Salween front was really the Chinese front, but in view of the lack of information from that front and its apparent entire quiescence it was thought to be not unreasonable to establish a small British party there, whose first duty would be to organise guerilla-work among followers of the loyal Myosa. To arrange a parachute expedition of this kind took time; the selected personnel had to be trained in parachute work, wireless equipment had to be prepared, and an initial list of stores collected; also we had to wait for suitable weather. The party was not dropped in until early in December.

In that mountainous country it was difficult to discover a flat stretch on which to drop the parachutists and the place where they did eventually land was four miles inside the Chinese border. They walked, without interference, over the border to the first village in Kokang, where they met and were welcomed by the circle-headman; then the local Chinese troops heard of their arrival and not unnaturally expressed astonishment. At the time they were dropped in, the Commander of the Chinese Expeditionary Force had been informed, but it took some time for the news to trickle down to the Chinese troops on the border. The parachutists were provided with identity papers in English and Chinese issued by the South East Asia Command, but the drop used was, of course, unknown to the local Chinese. Of this they made much play and for a few days the wires were hot explaining the situation. Pending clarification the parachute party was held in friendly detention, and when the situation had been cleared up they were provided with a Chinese escort for their protection. In the meantime the application was made in Chungking for permission for the British party from Kun-ming to go through to Kokang. Towards the end of December I returned to Kun-ming and recommenced the work of collecting material and personnel for the trip.

In early January 1944 we heard from Chungking that the necessary permission had been granted. I called on the general commanding the Rear Headquarters in Kun-ming of the C.E.F., who however had no knowledge of it. I was thus kept waiting more days, and meanwhile the parachute party reported that they had found the Chinese so uncooperative that they had decided to find their way out to Paoshan where they would meet me and explain all their difficulties. Eventually my party was allowed to leave for a town down the Burma road, where the Headquarters of the C.E.F. was stationed. The British Assistant Military
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001
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395

correspondent for The Times in southeast Asia, having previously supplied articles to the paper on a freelance basis. One of the last to escape the invading Japanese, he reported the retreat along the Malay Peninsula and the last stand and surrender of the British garrison in Singapore on 15 February, 1942.

After Singapore, Mr. Morrison went to Java before following the campaigns in the South West Pacific under General MacArthur, and later in Southeast Asia under Admiral Mountbatten.

Mr. Morrison was a courageous correspondent who never thought twice about entering a dangerous situation to get a good story. During the Second World War he spent a lot of time reporting from the front and shared the soldiers' life in the jungle. He regularly hitch-hiked on Australian or American army transport planes in order to follow the action and provide authentic accounts of the fighting with the Japanese. He often came close to death. In late November 1942 he was slightly injured during an air raid on the Buna front in Papua, and in December 1943 he was involved in a plane crash which resulted in head wounds and fractured vertebrae. This is how he telegraphed the paper:

'Regret involved in airplane accident enroute obtain eyewitness operational full stop hospitalised injuries seriouser than yestertime hope recover soon Dickson Brown newschronicler kindly consented cover next three days thereafter Curthoys sorry disappoint you good story - Morrison'

His injuries on that occasion kept him out of action until July 1944, when he returned to cover the South East Area Command. He was not out of trouble for long. On 10 December 1945, while reporting from Batavia (now Jakarta) covering a local campaign he was again wounded and cabled the paper:

'Left hospital today. Thumb, in which fragments of Dutch bullet are lodged, will take at least a fortnight to

Ian Morrison and family, circa 1950
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390
ship. His final seagoing appointment was in command of the experimental deep diving ship HMS Reclaim. After retiring from the Royal Navy in 1972, he joined the secretariat staff of Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland administering the 1,800 or so Rotary Clubs in GB&I from which he retired as Secretary to the Association in 1996 (michaelgillam@compuserve.com)

James Hayes, Ph.D., (London), Hon. D.Litt. (Hong Kong), spent his working life as an Administrative Officer in Hong Kong. He is a noted scholar and local historian and has contributed prolifically to the Journal. Among his books are The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911: Institutions and Leadership in Town and Country (Hamden, Archon Books, 1977) and the memoir of his Hong Kong service, Friends and Teachers: Hong Kong and its People 1953-1987 (Hong Kong University Press, 1996). His most recent book, a volume in OUP's Images of Asia series entitled South China Village Culture, was published in 2001. Dr Hayes is a Past-President and former Hon Editor of HKBRAS (mouseh1@bigpond.com).

David Mahoney, is an active member of the Friends of HKBRAS. He joined the Crown Lands Office of the Public Works Department, Hong Kong Government, 1964, and moved to Swire Properties in 1973 where he spent the next 20 years looking after Taikoo Shing and Taikoo Place. A keen collector of medals, he has just celebrated 50 years of membership of the Orders & Medals Research Society. Specialising in awards to Britons who served in China, Mr Mahoney addressed HKBRAS on the subject in 2000. Having previously served on the committees of various societies, his only remaining commitment is to the British Association of Cemeteries in South Asia, an organisation which locates, identifies, records and restores European cemeteries in India, Pakistan and South East Asia (davidwmahoney@aol.com).

Lan Li, Ph.D., is an anthropologist working at Queen's University Belfast as a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Anthropological Studies. She also lectures in Chinese Culture and Society at the Institute of LifelongLearning was corrected to Institute of Lifelong Learning. Her research interests are Chinese popular religion, history, politics, and ethnic minorities. She was a co-organiser of the international conference on 'The Career and Legacy of Sir Robert Hart,' which took place in Belfast between 26 and 27 September 2003 (lan.li@gub.ac.uk).

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