RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 40 H. J. LETHBRIDGE Mayréna's reputation was totally destroyed: "The "King of the Sedangs", in truth, seems to have followed the example of a brother "King" of French origin, who after establishing a Kingdom in a district on the borders of French Guiana, ended an illustrious career in the inside of a French prison. Of course we do not say that the denouement will be the same in this case.' But it was clear to the readers of the Mail that the editor thought that Mayréna was jail material. By the beginning of the year 1889 it became clear to Mayréna that nothing more was to be gained by staying in Hong Kong. His overtures to the German Consul in Hong Kong and to his colleague at Canton had borne no fruit. Although he offered to put his kingdom under the protection of the German Emperor, his offer was rejected. He decided—there was no other option—to return to Europe and seek support from financial circles there. On 20 January 1889 the King of the Sedangs left Hong Kong for Genoa by the German steamer Bayern, travelling as a second-class passenger and under the pseudonym of ‘le comte de Drey'.36 Mayréna's exit from Hong Kong was in sharp contrast to his triumphal embarkation at Haiphong in November 1888. Then the royal standard of the King of the Sedangs fluttered above the Frejr and the deferential Captain Lund had greeted him as 'Votre Majesté' and all had been bowing and scraping by a perspiring crew. Nevertheless, Mayréna left Hong Kong in 1889 with some panache. Many friends and well-wishers were at the waterfront to see the popular King go, although no band played, no royal standard adorned the Bayern, and no representative of Sir William Des Voeux was present. Mayréna looked very much a king in exile; among the throng many, like Fraser-Smith and J.J. Francis, were truly sorry to see their old drinking companion go. Mayréna's departure from Hong Kong was greeted by a jubilant article in the Mail, which began: 'Another King has gone into exile. M. de Mayréna, a Frenchman who arrived here about two months ago with a flourish of trumpets, telling a story of adventures worthy of ranking with 1001 in the Arabian Nights, quietly left Hong Kong, we believe, by the Bayern, for Genoa, on Sunday morning'. The writer continued: 'We need scarcely say that in publishing the revelations which put an end to his schemes in Hong Kong we were actuated solely by a desire for the public interest As, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 74 REVS. J. SMITH AND WM. DOWNS better fireplace and kitchen. Just below us, we notice considerable activity in the Indian barracks, and understand that they are being evacuated in order to give room for more internees, some of the prison warders and their families, as also a great many of the former “Peakites”. Imagine the contrast! January 24th - Internees continue to arrive. We now have seven altars set up in our various rooms and are gradually getting settled. January 25th — Sunday, and our first in Camp! We arrange to have public Masses in what was the Prison Warders' Club, and start out with three Masses, Bishop O'Gara taking care of present arrangements. Contingents of the Hong Kong Police arrive and are billeted in one of the buildings of St. Stephen's College, January 26 A surprise for breakfast in the form of pancakes. Our two boys, Ah Fung and Ah Chin, who managed to slip in with us when we came to Camp, notice that the Camp cooks are throwing away perfectly good fish heads and asked if they may have them, and as a result, we all enjoy a dish of fishhead chowder in our own kitchen. January 27th - Today we sent our two boys out of Camp to Stanley on a foraging expedition and they failed to return, January 28th -- Fish and rice for dinner today; and noodles, rice and a little vegetables for supper. From our Camp kitchen we get only two meals(?) a day, consisting of a very little meat, or fish, very little vegetables, and a soup plate of boiled rice, the first meal being about nine or ten, the second at five in the afternoon. Fortunately, through the indefatigable industry of Father Meyer and Father Troesch, we managed to bring with us from our house a quantity of food of various sorts, and we are eking out our regular meals with a little of this. So as long as the stock lasts, we can have a little coffee and oatmeal for breakfast, and perhaps a can or two of bully beef to add to our rice. So far, contrary to promises, we have not been able to buy anything from hawkers, and in any event we have very little money with which to buy anything. January 29th The American Community holds an election of Camp officers, with the result that Mr. William Hunt is our President, Mr. Bourne of the Standard Oil our Vice-President, Mr. Taylor of the U.S. Treasury Department our Secretary and Father Toomey, Treasurer. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 52 becoming increasingly financially desperate. His fourth volume on better paper, weekly fascicules published on Sunday instead of Saturday as in previous volumes, begins with a photo of himself in Chinese robes with his mandarin's cap beside him in the manner of Chinese officials in the standard photographs of themselves. He apologised for the delay between Volumes III and IV, from 1899 to 1905, some five years, because he had been overwhelmed with misfortune and had lost all his savings at a stroke.' In the final fascicule in June 1905 he advised readers that he was unable to afford to continue the Miscellany but would be publishing Mesny's Commercial Guide from that date. In June 1905 after the completion of Volume IV he expresses gratitude to his subscribers but was, he regretted, unable to undertake the publication of a fifth volume as yet due to insufficient support. During almost the entire six months of the production of the weekly parts of Volume IV Telegrams of the Week reflected the mounting excitement of the Russo-Japanese War and contained hundreds of items detailing the departure, the 'secret' journey and arrival of the Russian Baltic fleet in the Far East ending with its catastrophic defeat by the Japanese navy in the Tsushima Straits at the end of May in 1905. The unfolding picture of the Russian navy's progress, route and activities from their almost inexplicable attack on British fishing vessels in the North Sea [believing them to be Japanese torpedo boats] to the devastating destruction off Japan makes compulsive reading, and though of secondary interest as far as Mesny was concerned, the series continued to highlight the fear entertained by the Chinese of Russia swallowing up further large parts of northern Chinese territory. Two questions stand out: did he ever get round to a fifth volume? and what happened to all the unused notes he must have had stored away? From an advert in the second to last issue of the Miscellany Volume IV, it is possible that Mesny, giving up the idea of the Miscellany, perhaps only temporarily, requires a 'Job Printing Plant' suitable for printing a small daily newspaper and a small illustrated magazine (nfd). It may be a coincidence but most likely there is a connexion. An advert in the very next Miscellany, the final issue, offers Mesny's Commercial Guide to be published immediately after the completion of Volume IV of the Miscellany. From Mesny's own hand we learn that he frequently advised senior ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 215 TAKING A GODSON DAN WATERS One June Sunday evening, in 1995, I attended a ceremony at a restaurant in Tonnochy Road, Wanchai, at which a childless couple (the wife has a daughter by a previous marriage) adopted (kai zi), Chinese style, a 28-year-old ‘godson'. The first ceremony of this kind that I went to took place in a private home, when a girl of 19, for whom the foster mother had great affection, was adopted. Presents brought to the foster parent's house on that occasion, by her real parents in 1966, included a live chicken. Among traditional Chinese it is important for a couple to have a son to offer sacrifices, to worship the departed and to carry on the family line. Without a son, one cannot die in peace. If you do not have one you can adopt one. Not infrequently, if two families want to strengthen the friendship existing between them, then one couple may kai an offspring from the other family. On such occasions, Chinese speak of yuan fen (緣分), meaning ‘predestined connections”. Ancient custom had it that there was no distinction between an adopted and a natural son. An adopted boy could not be disinherited except for offences which would apply to a natural son. On the death of his foster parents an adopted son mourned as for the death of his natural parents, although J. Dyer Ball, in Things Chinese (1903), says the adopted son need only go into ‘half mourning'. Ball also maintains that five per cent of Chinese families adopt children, 70 per cent of whom are male. A large number of Hong Kong Chinese families adopt children today. Although these adoptions are supposed to be permanent, come what may, I myself know of cases where relationships have been severed. For example, because of the alleged misconduct of the foster child. But back to the case study in Wanchai. At that gathering in the restaurant there were four standard, Chinese, round tables, meaning that approximately 48 people, comprising relatives and friends, attended. A ‘good day' had been chosen according to the Chinese almanac. The ceremony of ‘adopting' commenced with a speech by godmother (kai neung ah). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g David, Sarah, "True Meaning of Life is Made Crystal Clear". Hong Kong Standard, 20 September, 1994 Forsyth, Tim, 'London's Feng Shui Guru', Asia Inc, January, 1994 'Guarding the Bank Across Two Generations 115 the Long, Loyal Vigil of "Stephen" and "Sutt"', Hong Kong Bank News, December 1985 Huang, Cary, 'Benefactor Highlights a Unique Heritage', Hong Kong Standard, 27 September 1994 Iggulden, Tom, “Blue-Chip Firms are Lining Up for Fung Shui', Eastern Express, 27-28 May 1995 Jasper, Chris, "Bound by Birth. Does a Faith in Fortune-telling condemn you to fulfil its deadly predictions? Window, Hong Kong, June 1995 'Feng Shui, Winds of Change Ancient Chinese Practice Catches on in the UK', Window, Hong Kong, February 10, 1995. Kahn, Greenstreet, 'Fungshui', Extra Finlay, Hong Kong Standard, 11 October, 1985 Konelus, Tura, 'Feng Shui Gets a Grip in the West', Sunday Standard, 21 April 1991 Leung, Yummy, 'Village to Showcase Lifestyle of Hakkas', South China Morning Post, 1 April, 1986 'The Lions Return Home', Hong Kong Bank News, June 1985 Maitland, Derek, 'Fung Shui', The Asia Magazine, 1 May 1977 Malone, Andrew, 'Top Firms Prosper with Ancient Chinese Force', The Sunday Times, England, 21 May 1995 'A Million to Bury Village Ghosts', Hong Kong Standard, 23 March, 1990 Phillips, David P, Todd L. Ruth and Lisa M. Wagner, 'Psychology and Survival', The Lancet, England, vol 342, November 6, 1993 'Plants that Cure "Sick Building Syndrome"', Hong Kong Standard, 13 December, 1992 Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 116 Poon, Clement and May Fung, 'Plenty More Fish to Fill the Tanks of Mong Kok', Hong Kong Standard, 26 November 1994, 'Race-Day Rites to Exorcise Sha Tin Jinx', South China Morning Post, 3 May 1987 Ram, Jane, 'Asia Conjures Wind and Water to Boost Business', International Management, July/August 1987 Saw Puay Lim, "The Force is With Them', Sunday Morning Post Magazine, August 1990 Stewart, Rob, 'Can Your Business do Without the Feng Shui Edge?', Executive, November 1995 'Superstitions Rife. Survey Reveals', South China Morning Post, 11 December 1989 Tatlow, Dermot, 'Safe and Sound in Domain of the Yellow Emperor', Sunday Morning Post, 7 March 1993 Tse, Patricia, 'Banking on a Grand Design and Good Luck', South China Morning Post, 28 May 1990 Wan, Melanie, 'Fungshui Experts not what They Used to Be', Hong Kong Standard, 19 August 1985 Wesley-Smith, Peter, Identity, Land, Feng Shui and the Law in Traditional Hong Kong, Law working paper series no 5, University of Hong Kong, 1992 'What Pyramids and the River Thames have in Common', International Property Review, undated Woo, Anthony, 'The Tao of Technology', Asia Magazine, c. 1995 Letters to the Editor of the South China Morning Post Chan, C.W., 'Safety Concern', 24 June 1990 Ho, Eugene, 'Fung Shui and a Lesson from Science', 25 May 1987 Webb, Richard, 'In Defence of Fung Shui', 10 July 1991 'Unlucky Bank', 21 September 1991 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 32 * Tiffany Osmond Jumor, The Canton Chinese or an American's sojourn in the Celestial Empire. James Monroe and Co (Boston and Cambridge, 1849) * Lan Ho Bor and Lam Tin Sang, 'Scaffolding in Hong Kong', Building Technology and Management, Chartered Institute of Building (UK, 1969), pp 196-197 p 196 10 Ibid || Ibid ? The slender volume by Ho So. The Craft of Chinese Scaffolding, see reference 4 above, when written was the only book on the subject. This is probably still the case Lin. loc cit Lee Ho Yin, 'Behind Bamboo, Low-Tech Rigs are Still Indispensable', Window (Hong Kong, July 14, 1995), pp 30-31, P 30 The Morrison Hill Technical Institute (Prospectus) (1971), P25 16 1995 Manpower Survey Report Building and Civil Engineering Industry Building and Civil Engineering Industry Training Board, Vocational Training Council, P34 17 Michael Wong, 'Danger Reaches New Heights', Sunday Hong Kong Standard (27 November 1994), p. S I Ibid 1 Lin, loc cit, and Ho, op cit p 25 20 Ho, passim 21 One of the worst such disasters was when a matshed grandstand collapsed and caught fire in 1918 at the Happy Valley Racecourse Over 600 people were killed 22 1995 Code of Practice for Scaffolding Safety, this is an approved code issued by the Commissioner for Labour under Section 7A of the Factories and Industrial Undertakings Ordinance, Chapter 59 Laws of Hong Kong 23 Wong, loc cit 24 Lee, loc cit 25 Lee, loc cit 26 Lin, loc cit 27 Wong, loc cit 28 Naomi Szero, loc cit 29 Wong, loc cit 30 Malcolm Goodison, "Bamboo Safeguard'. Hong Kong Standard, letters to the editor (18 October 1995) 31 1995 Code of Practice op cit p 16 # 12 Lee, loc cit ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 47 Meredith, George (1956), ‘An Essay on Comedy,’ Comedy, John Hopkins University Press. Minchin, James (1986) No Man is an Island, A Study of Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore, Allen and Unwin. Muir, Frank (1990), The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose, From William Caxton to P.G. Wodehouse, a Conducted Tour, Oxford University Press. Orwell, George (1945), 'The Art of Donald McGill,' Collected Essays, Mercury Books No 17. Pan, Lynn (1990), Sons of the Yellow Emperor: The Story of the Overseas Chinese, Secker and Warburg. The Penguin Book of Modern Humour (1982), A personal anthology selected by Alan Coren, Penguin. Peters, Arnold (1998, September 25), 'Racist Remarks at Legco.' Hong Kong Standard. 'Pharaoh's thigh-slapper' (c.1998), South China Morning Post, extracted from The Sunday Times (London), exact date not known. Popular Chinese Jokes (1994), ed. Tian Hengyu, Asiapac, Singapore. Potter, Stephen (1954), The Sense of Humour, Penguin. Rosser, Nigel (1990, March 4), ‘Lucy Sheen, Actress,’ South China Morning Post magazine. Selected Jokes from Past Chinese Dynasties (1997) Sinolingua, Beijing, vols 1 to 4. Smith, Arthur H. (1988), Pearls of Wisdom from China, Graham Brash, Singapore, first published 1888. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 327 in China. They did not complain. In any case Government did not answer letters written to newspapers but people did not generally criticise Government. That was why, when a column called "Tiger Talk" was written by an English solicitor in 1962 and published in the Sunday Tiger Standard, it attracted considerable attention. The district of West Point, where legalised brothels for Chinese had been situated up to the mid-1930s, was still an important entertainment district in the mid-1950s, with restaurants with 100 or more Chinese tables capable of seating in excess of 1,200. Sing song girls, the Chinese version of the Japanese geisha, could still be found there. My Chinese wife, born in 1936, lived in Hong Kong during the Japanese occupation. After the War Canadian Sergeant Major John Osborn, who was born in Norfolk, the same county where I was born and raised in England, was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross. It is the most prestigious British award for gallantry on the field of battle. It was the only such award ever made in the colony. During the Japanese occupation my wife recalls seeing arms and legs lying in the streets first thing in the morning. Breakers of the curfew had been mauled by Japanese police dogs. Women did their best to make themselves look old, ugly and undesirable. People wandered the hillsides and seashores as hunters and gatherers looking for anything to eat. Occasionally, human flesh was on sale in butchers' shops, something sometimes denied today. As my wife's family owned a salt-fish shop they were better off than most. They had food and something to barter. My wife and her two sisters survived the occupation although their father never forgave them and his wife for not having a son to "buy water" for him at his funeral (Today a symbolic ceremony based on filial piety and the washing of the corpse by the eldest son.). When I arrived in Hong Kong in the mid-1950s conditions had already improved considerably. Although there was rationing still in Britain, you could buy just about anything in Hong Kong - provided you had the money. I stayed together with other government servants in Winner House, a small hotel at North Point, a district sometimes known as Little Shanghai. A number of Fukienese also lived there. ================================================================================