RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 212 BOOK REVIEWS TRADITIONAL CHINESE PLAYS, Volume 2, translated, described, annotated and illustrated by A. C. Scott, Longing for the worldly Pleasures, Ssu Fan, Fifteen Strings of Cash, Shih wu kuan, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, Milwaukee and London, 1969, pp. X, 156. The second volume is translated with all the same accompaniments that we find in the first one. But the two plays chosen are not Peking operas. They belong to another kind of opera which was predominant in China from the end of the XVIth century to the end of the XVIIIth. The music was softer than in Peking opera and the main instrument for accompanying the singing was the flute. As in more ancient forms, the sung parts were written on different types of melodies, with verses of unequal lengths. The literary character of these verses made them difficult for a popular audience to understand. And this type of opera, created at K'un-shan, near Suchow, was later overcome by the success of the genre elaborated at the capital and favoured by the court. But this K'un-ch'ü, as it is called, remained for years part of the training of a good Peking opera actor. The famous actor Mei Lan-fang tried to revive it around 1915-16 and again later in 1933 with the great actor Yü Chen-fei. After 1949 a new troupe of K'un-ch'ü was formed, which put on Fifteen Strings of Cash in 1956, with the actor Wang Ch'uan-song as the clown, Lou the Rat. Longing for worldly Pleasures comes from a Buddhist story: a nun, put in a monastery, escapes to find her paramour. Fifteen Strings of Cash is a detective story from storytellers' repertoires: Lou the Rat commits a murder to steal and puts the blame on the stepdaughter of the murdered man. But a good judge, disguised as a fortune-teller, confounds him. The interest of these books lies not so much in the translation of four librettos as in all the information about costumes, make-up, and the movements made by the actors at each moment. Consequently, the work is not just one more translation, but, first and foremost, a handbook; and a good one for anyone wanting to put on and adapt Chinese plays for a foreign audience, instead of being interested in Chinese opera as a museum piece or as an... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r CONTENTS PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1972 - HON. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1972 - THE LIBRARY, 1972 - ARTICLES: Page 1 Transactions of the China Medico-Chirurgical Society, 1845-46 — H. A. RYDINGS 11 The Yaumatei Typhoon Shelter, Hong Kong, 1900-1915 A. J. S. LACK 13 The Kam Tin Gates PETER WESLEY-SMITH 28 Early Steamships in China-A. D. BLUE 41 45 Persians, Arabs and Other Nationals In T’ang China CHIU LING-YEONG 58 Swatow (Ch'auchow) Horizontal Stick Puppets - HELGA WERLE 73 Five 19th Century Kwangtung Art Catalogues CHUANG SHEN 85 REPRINTED ARTICLES Legends and Stories of the New Territories: Kam T'in SUNG HOK-P'ANG (with a memoir of the author by Lo Hsiang-lin) 111 NOTES AND QUERIES Notes on Chinese Temples in Hong Kong — CARL T. SMITH 133 'Ling Chih' at Canton, 27th May 1886 Hai Ju; Ming Patriot, Spark for Revolution and God 139 KEITH STEPHENS 144 Another Volontieri Map? - William Thomas Mercer (1822-1879) Hong Kong's Poet Laureate? HENRY JAMES LETHBRIDGE 146 Old Bills of Lading (McMullen Collection) — H. A. RYDINGS 151 Visit to the Sukhothai Sites in Thailand — MICHAEL SMITHIES 154 Deep Bay Marshes 163 168 BOOK REVIEWS 169 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q A ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN WEST CHINA 1942-46 141 loading and unloading, a week-long trip and turn round with a 24 ton payload. Charcoal powered trucks would, on average, cover 100 km. per day with a payload of 2 tons. One experimental charcoal powered truck took 5 weeks to cover the 500 km. from Kutsing to Kweiyang but, as a contrast, on one occasion Chungking to Kweiyang (490 km.) was covered in 24 days with a full load on charcoal. In addition to cargo, passengers were carried. This was done by all transport organizations since there was no public road transport. Passengers were of three varieties: official, ones who were on the manifest and had paid the organization; unofficial or huang yu (★★) who had paid the driver, and other drivers or mechanics whose truck had ‘pie mao'd' () and were going for spares etc. The Unit endeavoured to carry 'variety one' passengers only. These might be missionaries travelling to or from station, officials of cooperating or friendly organizations such as IRC, CIC, NCC, YMCA and YWCA, and also refugees. In 1942 these included Professor Gordon King and numbers of H.K. University students (including the present Vice-Chancellor) travelling to continue their studies in Szechuan. Passengers, unless with a child or otherwise privileged, rode on top of the load. Plate 19 shows the two Sentinel-HSG trucks on route to Chungking with cargo and the entire staff of the IRC Kweiyang office aboard. The normal procedure on main routes was to run trucks in convoys. This reduced the number of spares which had to be carried and ensured that help was available for extraction from ditches and repairing breakdowns. However, the speed of a convoy is that of the slowest member and optimum results for liquid fuel trucks were obtained with 2 or 3 in each convoy. With charcoal power, because of the variation in performance between trucks and the skill of drivers, single truck operation with a crew of two or three was eventually found best. For long range convoys, on liquid fuel, such as the 5,000 km. round trip to Suchow, there were a minimum of two men per truck. Equipment The original transport equipment, purchased in USA, was 20 Chevrolet trucks with a normal load capacity of 3 short tons. These came equipped with steel cabs and had wooden bodies with hoop ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q Table VI Truck Fleet at February 1943 Truck No. Make Date to China Property of Notes 1456 Chevrolet Dodge 1938 IRC Liquid fuel - laid up & scrapped (7 1943) Dodge 1939 IRC Liquid fuel - laid up? Dodge 1939 IRC Liquid fuel 9 Sentinel 1939 IRC Charcoal 11 Sentinel 1939 IRC Charcoal 13 Sentinel 1939 IRC Charcoal 14 GMC 1940 IRC Liquid fuel. 1943. 16 White 1941 Exec Yuan 17 White 1941 Exec Yuan 21 Chevrolet 1941 IRC Charcoal "Manzi". 22 Chevrolet 1941 Exec Yuan Liquid fuel - Run on alcohol 1943 & 1944 when available 23 Chevrolet 1941 Exec Yuan Charcoal, converted 1942. Liquid fuel. Converted to charcoal later. 24 Chevrolet 1941 Exec Yuan Charcoal. Converted 1942. 27 Chevrolet 1941 Exec Yuan Charcoal. Converted 1942. 31 Chevrolet 1941 Exec Yuan Charcoal. Converted 1942. 33 Chevrolet 1941 Exec Yuan Charcoal. Converted 1942. 36 Chevrolet 1941 FAU 37 Ford 1941 Exec Yuan 38 Chevrolet 1941 FAU 41 Hercules/Ford 1938/42 FAU Hercules diesel engines in a 1938 Chinese Army Ford chassis. 42 Hercules/Ford 1938/42 FAU Major haulage in late 1942 and all 1943. Only two in commission by mid 1944. 43 Hercules/Ford 1938/42 FAU 44 Hercules/Ford 1938/42 FAU Liquid fuel. 46 Hercules/Ford 1938/42 Exec Yuan Liquid fuel. Converted charcoal 1943 "Annboleyn" 47 Chevrolet 1941 FAU Charcoal. 49 Chevrolet 1941 FAU Converted 1942. 50 Dodge 1941 FAU Liquid fuel little used and laid up from mid 1942? 51 Dodge 1941 FAU Liquid fuel. 52 Dodge 1941 FAU Converted charcoal 1943 53 Dodge 1941 FAU Liquid fuel.) Purchased 1942 from Liddel # Co. 54 Dodge 1941 FAU Charcoal. 55 Dodge 1941 FAU Liquid fuel. Some converted to charcoal in 1943 à 56 Dodge 1941 FAU Liquid fuel., 1944 but others formed "Suchow" patrol 57 Dodge 1941 FAU convoys in late 1943, 1944 1945. 58 Studebaker 1941 FAU Liquid fuel. 59 Studebaker 1941 FAU Liquid fuel. laid up. 156 W. A. REYNOLDS ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q Table III FAU Transport Routes and Distances 1942 - 1945 ROUTE VIA. DISTANCE IN KM. Years of Main Use 1. KUTSING — LUHSIEN WEINING and PICHIEH 742 1942, 1943 & 1944 2. KUTSING - KWEIYANG ANNAN and ANSHUN 500 1943, 1944, 1945 3. KWETYANG CHUNGKING TSUNYI and TUNGCHI 490 1943, 1944, 1945 4. KWEIYANG CHINSHENG KIANG MA-CHAN and HANTAN 440 1942, 1943 5. - KUNMING KUFSING 162 1942 6. KUNMING — PAOSHAN HSTAKWAN 673 1942, 1944 7. CHENGTU - LUHSIEN LUNGCHANG 313 1942, 1943 8. CHUNGKING CHENGTU NEICHANG 450 1944, 1945 9. CHENGTU PAOKI KWANGYUAN 1155 1942, 1943 10. CHUNGING — SUCHOW MIENYANG - KWANGYUAN SHUANGSHIPU- TIENSHUI LANCHOW - WUWEI 2301 1943, 1944, 1945 A ROAD TRANSPORT SYSTEM IN WEST CHINA 1942-46 157 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n “LITTLE FUJIAN (FUKIEN)” 119 North Point to explore that other aspect of the "ethnic neighborhood": the sense of community. Little Fujian as Community: Organized Ethnicity Formal associations are not a major aspect of Fujianese ethnicity in Hong Kong; few Fujianese belong to traditional clan or district organizations in Hong Kong. Considering the extensive literature on the importance of such organizations on Chinese social life at home and abroad (Amyot 1973; McBeath 1973; Freedman 1958; Li 1970; Skinner 1958) this phenomenon is surprising. Yet a careful consideration of Little Fujian's demographic profile would cause us to be severely shocked if such organizations did exist in Hong Kong in full flower, for the bulk of Little Fujian's population has always consisted of women and their children. With the wealthiest, most prestigious and greatest numbers of adult-aged men residing not in Hong Kong but the Philippines and elsewhere where such organizations do indeed exist in the proper forms,* few Fujianese think it necessary to establish Hong Kong branches of these male-dominated structures in the essentially "domestic" community of Little Fujian. Other organizations, moreover, do meet the needs of Little Fujian, both as a local community and as the hub of Fujian-Nanyang connections. The two most important such organizations, the Fujian Province Association and the Fujian Commercial Association, cater to the two-tiered demands of Fujianese in Hong Kong and abroad and are by nature more universalist in appeal and function than clan and district associations. Politically aligned with the People's Republic, these "patriotic" associations also serve as a sort of semi-official "Liaison Office” or “Consulate" to link the Overseas Fujianese of Hong Kong and the Nanyang to the home province. The most widely known Fujianese organization, the Fujian Province Association, was originally located in Hong Kong's first Fujianese sub-neighborhood, Sai Ying Poon. The Association, however, followed the Fujianese move to North Point in the early 1960s and has since become the public focus of Fujianese organized * For instance, the Hon. Editor of this Journal has informed me of a special publication commemorating the 60th anniversary (1901-1961) of the Fuchow association of Sibu, Sarawak (#**#£#*+0+K&#). Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 113 Be born in Soochow; Live in Hangchow; Eat in Kwangchow; Die in Liuchow, The first is noted for beautiful women, the second magnificent scenery, the third tastiest cuisine, and the last durable timber for making coffins. In 1988 coffins ranged from about $2,500, for a humble pine ‘box', to $300,000 for one smelling of eucalyptus. The coffin in this study cost $7,200. Coffins, known in slang as 'four half boards' (*), come, basically, in either Chinese or western styles. Timber for western coffins, say teak or rosewood, is often imported from Malaysia. For Chinese coffins, boards can be roughly hewn, up to four or five inches thick, retaining the curved outside of the tree trunk and hollowed out on the inside. Good quality China fir (**) from Luchow, in Kwangsi Province, can last, buried, for up to 100 years as demonstrated by old buildings in Hong Kong with their China Fir, piled, foundations. There are a number of coffin shops, some watched over by Ts'oi Shan the God of Wealth, at the western end of Hollywood Road. Many coffins with their white or yellow cloth linings are imported from China. 23 By comparison, a British coffin is normally made of English oak (elm was used for cheaper coffins before World War II) with boards one-inch thick.24 This is usually rendered watertight with pitch or mastic and lined with a bed of sawdust, white drapery and a pillow stuffed with fine wood shavings. Because of space, in present day Hong Kong it is not practicable for the elderly to have coffins made in advance and stored in an ancestral hall or at home, as was the custom in old China. They were revarnished every year. But if a person is too interested and 'finds the smell of coffins more appealing than the smell of cooked rice' (聞見棺材香過飯) the gods may come after him. (Similar words are occasionally uttered as a curse.) Some believe a small piece of coffin wood, if boiled and the water drunk, will keep away ghosts. Continuously, from three o'clock the day before to the actual funeral ceremony in this study, relatives and friends visited the hall to give face to the family and the departed. It is a greater offence not to attend a person's funeral than not to attend his wedding. The author recalls ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 150 and the 3rd War Zone branch of the Central Military Academy, where the junior officers of the Chinese army are trained. The outbreak of war between Britain and Japan had altered the nature of my visit. It was agreed that a British party would be sent to the 3rd War Zone to assist in guerilla warfare, and shortly afterwards I left for a reconnaissance of the forward areas where the school, which was to be the central feature of our assistance, would be established. The lower Yangtze delta is the most densely populated and the wealthiest region in China. Within the triangle contained by Shanghai, Nanking, and Hangchow, there are many large cities, such as Soochow, Changhsing, Huchow, Chinkiang and Kashing. In this area there is more railway traffic, more road traffic, more river and canal traffic, more sea-going shipping, and more active industry, than in all the rest of China. For the past four years, since the fall of Nanking, the Japanese had occupied the main lines of communication in the region; the Yangtze, the railways, the large cities; and they had patrolled and used the roads and creeks: in short, on the security of this base rested the whole Japanese position in China. Any threat here, any blow at Japanese dispositions, would be correspondingly the more telling. Well, as it happened, a broad tongue of mountains reached from the southwest into the area, and in these mountains the guerillas had established their quarters. Our car followed the road along the Tsien Tang river gorges: we slept in little road-side inns and ate in busy fly-blown taverns. When I had last visited these parts there had been no motor roads; I had come by junk, hauled up the rapids by trackers who bent to the ground as they strained to advance foot by foot. A new railway, leading south from Wuhu on the Yangtze, had been completed only a few years previously. In face of the Japanese advance, Chinese engineers had dismantled the line to deny its use to the enemy: but the Japanese advance had stopped at the edge of the plain; the mountain area which reached back to the mass of unoccupied China was still untouched, except for desultory bombing. The steel railway bridges had been cut, their girders sloped at all angles; and the sleepers had been taken for firewood by the farmers, leaving the rails lying along the track. All this derelict steel, the stone piers of the bridges, the embankments and cuttings, and the rails themselves, were ideal for use in training. We had here better facilities than we had ever had in Maymyo, though ================================================================================