RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author 122 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 touch the dead is to run the risk of becoming infected by an aura of ill-luck (sz yan fung) whereby all the misfortunes of the deceased will be transmitted. Amongst fishermen fear of the dead and of ill-luck is particularly pronounced. At Tai O on the north-western end of Lantau, fisherfolk on their death bed may be taken from their boats to die in a special house maintained for the purpose near the cemetery. During funeral processions in both the urban areas and the New Territories it is the practice to scatter different types of paper, representing money, along the route to the burial ground, particularly at cross-roads where traditionally malevolent spirits tend to congregate. It is hoped that in the confusion caused by the evil spirits grabbing the money the spirit of the deceased will be able to pass unscathed. The remainder of the paper money thrown out at points other than cross-roads is for the use of the spirit of the deceased in making his way back to his home three days after death (saam ch'iu ooi wan). In many homes, a corner in a hall or passage may be reserved for a tablet and memorial, to house the spirit on its return to the home. This return of the spirit may at first sight be difficult to reconcile with the belief that the spirit descends into hell. The answer is that according to Chinese belief each dead person has a number of spirits. The descent of one of these spirits into hell is often assisted at the burial by the scattering and burning of specially printed hell bank notes (meng t'ung chí paî), together with paper effigies of clothes, suit-cases, motor cars, steam ships, aeroplanes, etc., often of most elaborate and detailed construction. The impact of crowded living conditions, economy and improved public health have had their gradual effect in changing the pattern of Hong Kong burial custom. Except for paupers, by far the greater proportion of Chinese dead from the urban areas (numbering some 10,000) are now buried in the public cemetery at Wo Hop Shek, near Fan Ling in the New Territories. Coffins may be conveyed by rail from Kowloon daily as a service included within the burial fees that are $5 or $15 according to size of coffin. Only some 20% of the coffins are carried to the cemetery by private hearses at the expense of the relatives. Of the balance brought by rail, not more than half are attended by relatives. It is obviously not possible in a public cemetery to site graves in accordance with individual interpretations of good fung shui. The fact that each coffin is simply allotted the next vacant space in the burial terrace is readily accepted, although it must be admitted that the majority of terraces are well up the hillside with a commanding view of distance and water. Similarly, when the routine six months' notice of intention to exhume remains from the coffin sections is given, it is unusual for relatives ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 60 (f) Finally, in entering business or commerce, a man will frequently assume yet another name, “pit tsz” (筆子), for purposes of business only. (g) Apart from the milk name, proper name and school name, a girl will at marriage assume her husband's clan name in front of her own, e.g. HO Fung Ling (何鳳玲), on marrying TANG Man Lin (鄧文連), becomes TANG HO Fung Ling (鄧何鳳玲). (h) The reluctance of married women to reveal their full maiden name often leads them to leave off their final name and instead to add the suffix "shi” (氏). NOTES 1 The notes were later amended and in this amended form were put on a file (Ref1/477/54) which is now in the Public Records Office. The notes as given here represent the original form, with footnotes, introduction and minor amendments by the author (Hon. Ed.). * Wills, of whatever sort, were, whatever the legal position, very rare among New Territories villagers. I remember only one, of a wealthy Cantonese landowner. * I met such a case in Tai Po where the wife, fortunately, did not contest the husband's claim that she was not a virgin. * I must have come across up to half a dozen cases of sam p'o tsai, including two or three disputes where the girl refused to marry her intended groom. The groom's family did not attempt to force marriage, but were concerned about a formal separation. The groom's family had of course for some time received the free use of the girl's services as a household worker, and so could not validly demand compensation from the girl's natural parents. A sam p'o tsai is quite different to a mui tsai who was to all intents and purposes a slave girl. (Mui tsai were banned in Hong Kong before World War II.) * Up till the 1950's, huet chong graves were normally left untouched for 5 years, this being the period needed for bodies to decompose completely. But, from the 1950's onwards, bodies took longer to decompose, and 7 years is now the standard time. I know this, because from 1958-60 I was in the Urban Services Department in charge of disposal of the dead. I was also in the Urban Services Department from 1968-71, when again I was connected with this aspect. In those days, the coffin section at Wo Hop Shek cemetery used to be cleared every 5 years, but there were so many unfit graves that this period was extended to 7 years. The need for the longer period arose apparently from the wider use of antibiotics and other drugs which seem to have the effect of preserving bodies and which were then coming into much greater use. See in general on Burial Customs the author's Chinese Burial Customs in Hong Kong, journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 1, 1960, pp 115-124. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 23 March Dr. Elizabeth Sinn "Management of the Chinese in 19th Century Hong Kong and the Role of the Tung Wah Hospital” The following Visits were made: 29 April 6 May 24 June 1 July Anita Wilson and Dr. James Hayes Visit to the Pottery Kiln at Tuen Mun, Ha Tsuen Tang Ancestral Hall and Old Market, Ling Wan Monastery (with vegetarian lunch), Lai Family Study Hall and Mansion at Sheung Tsuen, Hakka Mansion at Sham Ka Wai, and Yuen Long Old Market Dr. James Hayes and Ted Brown Visit to Kowloon Walled City, Again! Phillip Bruce Visit to Old Marine Police Headquarters at Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon Phillip Bruce Repeat of the Visit of 24 June 14 September Dr. Patrick Hase and Lee Man-yip Visit to Wo Hang for the Hot Air Balloon release at Mid Autumn Festival 25 November Dr. James Hayes 9 December Visit to places of interest on Hong Kong Island, including Waterfall Bay, the Aberdeen Country Park Management Centre, Chung Hom Kok, Shek O Village and Lei Yu Mun Barracks and Leisure Centre Rosemary Lee and Richard Gee Repeat of the N.T. Visit of 29 April 13-14 January Anita Wilson, Dr. Dan Waters, Rev. Carl Smith and Dr. Joseph Ting 22 January 18 February Week End Visit to Macao Phillip Bruce Visit to some interesting Naval and Military Graves in the Colonial Cemetery Phillip Bruce and Dr. Anthony Siu Visit to the Tung Chung Area, the site of Hong Kong's Future Replacement Airport This varied and interesting programme has again been due to the Activities Committee, which has worked hard under Dr. Elizabeth Sinn's ================================================================================ 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-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 246 could be traced in regard to this burial ground, though the noted Scottish botanist and traveller Robert Fortune, who visited Hong Kong between 1843 and 1846, recorded: Before leaving China [1846], I had occasion to visit this spot of ground (the old barrack area in West Point), the grave of many a brave soldier. A fine road31 leading round the island…passed through the place where they had been buried. Many of their coffins were exposed to vulgar gaze, and the bones of the poor fellows lay scattered about on the public highway no one could find fault with the road having been made there, but if it was necessary to uncover the coffins, common decency required that they should be buried again…38 Other Early Cemeteries Hong Kong's initial progress as an entrepôt was slow, nevertheless, by the 1850s, Hong Kong's position as a trading centre had gradually been consolidated. Before the emergence of a recognizable Chinese merchant class in the later half of the 19th century, foreign merchants, the bulk of whom were British, dominated the local political and economic scene. Nevertheless, some of the most prominent and best remembered foreign traders came neither from Europe nor North America, but from the Indian subcontinent and the Middle East. These included the Parsees, the Indians and the Jews. 39 40 A Parsee (or Zoroastrian) cemetery in Happy Valley was granted as early as 1852, and the first grave was erected there in 1858. The Jewish Cemetery, located south-east of Wong Nai Chung Village and near some paddy fields, was first laid out in 1855 when the first of the Jewish merchants from Guangzhou settled in Hong Kong. The lease for land for a cemetery was granted in 1857, the year of the first burial.42 As the community was not large, the number of burials was small. By the end of the 19th century, burials were limited to about sixty. The cemetery was described as 'neglected' in an 1890's tourist guide.44 The Muslim cemetery in Happy Valley had been deeded to the community in 1870, and a mosque with rooms for burial preparations was added. Prior to this, a Mohammedan cemetery, located at roughly the present site of St. Stephen's Girls College along Park Road, can be found in an 1863 map.46 However, no further information on this ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 257 250 square feet, to be known as the Sung Him Tong Sung Chan Wui Kei Tuk Kau Fan Cheung (#*******) near Tsung Hom [sic] Tong in D.D. [Demarcation District] No.83 of the Northern District of the New Territories of Hong Kong, 142 Another Chinese Christian cemetery was also appointed in 1931. It was known as 'Cheung Chau Chinese Christian Cemetery' and contained about 10,000 square feet. 43 In the same year, the "Tao Fung Shan Christian Cemetery' was also in use. 144 In 1932, both a cemetery and an urn cemetery were approved in the coastal market town at Tai O on Lantau Island, which was called 'The Tai O Cemetery'. The cemetery contained about 250 acres. A tiny cemetery was appointed in Stanley in 1933, which was 'to be known as New Stanley Cemetery, the piece of land containing approximately 2.5 acres, situated to the south of St. Stephen's College at Stanley.' 146 This cemetery was extended to approximately 4.26 acres five years later. 147 A government notice 148 in 1933 ordered that a certain Telegraph Hill Urn Cemetery be closed, however, no other reference examined has anything about this cemetery. In the same year, with the closure of Kowloon Cemetery No.1 (European Protestant) at Fo Pang near Ho Man Tin, a new European Protestant cemetery was authorized in Kap Shek Mi Valley in substitution for the closed cemetery. 149 The new cemetery, containing an area of about 11 acres, was to be known as 'New Kowloon Cemetery No.6'. 150 However, no further information in regard to this cemetery has been found yet, though the boundary of the cemetery is shown in a 1954 map. 151 The next new cemetery, 'Sai Kung Catholic Cemetery,' in Lot No.1697 'in D.D.221 of the Northern District of the New Territories,' was approved in 1934. In 1935 a Chinese permanent cemetery in Tsuen Wan, similar in nature to the Chinese Permanent Cemetery in Aberdeen, was set apart for 'Chinese who shall have been permanently resident in the said Colony (of Hong Kong).' 153 Again, as with the Chinese Permanent Cemetery in Aberdeen, the care and management of the new cemetery ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 261 Chinese Christian Cemetery Pokfulam 1882 Kaulung Cemetery Ma Tau Wai 1885 Later renamed Ma Tau Wai Cemetery, removal of graves ordered 1925. Shaukiwan Cemetery Chai Wan 1885 Sheko Cemetery Shek O 1885 Closed 1926. Stanley Cemetery Stanley 1885 Removal of graves ordered 1933. Aberdeen Cemetery Hindu Cemetery Aberdeen 1885 Happy Valley First graves: 1888 Mount Davis Chinese Cemetery Mount Davis 1891 Removal of all graves and urns ordered 1949. Caroline Hill Cemetery *Chiu Yuen Cemetery Caroline Hill 1891 Pokfulam Earliest graves: 1892. Plague Cemetery Town 1901 Plague Cemetery Cheung Sha Wan 1901 Hindu Cemetery King's Park 1900 Indian Cemetery Ho Man Tin Closed 1927. Details not known. Sai Yu Shek Cemetery Lo Fu Ngam 1903 Renamed New Kowloon Sai Yu Shek (Christian) Cemetery Po Kong Po Cemetery Lo Fu Ngam Po Kong *Chinese Christian Cemetery (New Kowloon Cemetery No.1) Sham Shui Po Cemetery Kowloon City 1904 Cemetery No.4 1930. Details not known. Closed in 1903. Details not known. Sham Shui Po 1904 Kowloon Tong Cemetery Tai Hang Tung Christian Chinese Cemetery, Kowloon Tong Tai Hang Tung Kai Lung Wan Cemetery Pokfulam 1907 Tseung Loong Tin Removal of graves ordered 1923. In existence 1920. Removal of graves and urns ordered 1949. Early history not known. Removal of graves and urns ordered 1950. Early history not known. A plot of land had been in use as cemetery prior to 1907. Kai Lung Wan East Cemetery Fukienese Cemetery Cha Kwo Ling 1907 Pokfulam 1907 Removal of all urns was ordered 1949. Lo Fu Ngam 1912 Adjacent to Sai Yu Shek ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 262 Cemetery. Tsun Wan Christian Cemetery Tsuen Wan 1912 Hau Pui Loong Cemetery Ma Tau Wat 1913 Removal of last graves was ordered 1948. *Chinese Permanent Cemetery Ap Lei Chau Cemetery Aberdeen Ap Lei Chau 1913 1014 Removal of all urns was ordered 1949. Chinese Christian Cemetery New Kowloon 1919 Inland Lot No. 5 Location not known. Kowloon Cemeteries Ho Man Tin 1921 Cemeteries were split into *Race Course Fire Memorial and Cemetery So Kon Po four 1930. Completed 1922. Christian Chinese Cemetery Stanley 1924 *New Kowloon Cemetery No. 2 Ngau Chi Wan 1928 Erected for the Little Sisters of the Poor. *Castle Peak Christian Cemetery Castle Peak Earliest graves: 1928 Roman Catholic Cemetery Kowloon Cemetery No. I Ho Man Tin 1930 Ho Man Tin 1930 Erected for European Protestants. Kowloon Cemetery No. 2 Ho Man Tin 1930 Erected for Chinese. Kowloon Cemetery No. 3 *New Kowloon Cemetery No. 5 *Song Him Tong Sung Chan Wui Kei Tuk Kau Fan Cheung Ho Man Tin 1930 Erected for Muslims. Diamond Hill 1931 Fan Ling 1931 *Cheung Chau Chinese Christian Cemetery Cheung Chau 1931 *Tao Fung Shan Christian Cemetery Sha Tin Earliest graves: 1931 *Tai O Cemetery Tai O 1932 New Stanley Cemetery Stanley 1933 New Kowloon Cemetery No. 6 Shek Kip Mei 1933 Intended for European Protestants, details not known. *Sai Kung Catholic Cemetery *Chinese Permanent Cemetery *New Kowloon Cemetery No. 7 Sai Kung Tsuen Wan Hammer Hill 1934 1935 1935 Extension was approved 1941, Extension might have been renamed *Hammer Hill Urn Cemetery Hammer Hill 1938 New Kowloon Cemetery No. 8 later. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g Shum Wan Cemetery Aberdeen 1938 There had been another *New Kin Inland Lot No. 2662 (St. Raphael's) Catholic Cemetery War Emergency Cemeteries *Sai Wan Military/War Cemetery Prison Cemetery *Sandy Ridge Cemetery *Wo Hop Shek Cemetery *Cheung Chau Catholic Cemetery *Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery *Chinese Permanent Cemetery Cape Collinson *Muslim Cemetery *Buddhist Cemetery *Military Cemetery *Chinese Permanent Cemetery 263 cemetery in Shum Wan in 1920s, details of which is not known. Removal of all urns was ordered 1949. Earliest graves: 1941. Piper's Hill 1941-45 Refer to the article. Cape Collinson 1947 Stanley Lo Wu 1947 1949 Wo Hop Shek 1950 Cheung Chau Earliest graves: 1957. Cape Collinson Earliest graves: 1960. Earliest graves: 1963. Cape Collinson 1963 Cape Collinson Earliest graves: 1964. Cape Collinson 1967 Tseung Kwan O 1989 * Cemeteries still known to be in existence. Appendix 2 1. Distribution of lots at Sandy Ridge Cemetery Coffin section: 1. General 2. Roman Catholic 3. Little Sisters of the Poor 4. Tung Wah Urn section: 1. General 2. Tung Wah 3. Chiu Chow 4. Yan Ping 5. Chung Shan 6. Hok Shan 7. Sun Wui 8. Tsang Shing 9. Fukien ================================================================================