RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d NOTES AND QUERIES 141 be noted below that one of the halls visited was established in the period 1912-13 (No. 3) and another about 1910 (see under No. 2). The expansion of vegetarian halls in the second decade of this century is referred to, though with specific reference to the New Territories, in the Administrative Report for 1920 of the District Officer, North. He wrote: One of the most remarkable features of the year has been the rapid growth of "chai t'ong"* or “vegetarian halls". Five years ago these religious or quasi-religious establishments had practically no foothold in this district: now they are everywhere in parts within reasonable reach of the railway and main roads, Sha Tin, Tai Po, Fan Ling and Pat Heung, each have several and are asking for more. Their promoters or managers are extremely secretive as to the objects of these enterprises, but it is sufficiently clear that they are designed chiefly to attract the well-to-do of Hongkong, particularly the womenfolk and that the believer is not expected to come empty-handed. Pending a straightforward explanation of the sudden "boom" in these "halls" permission is being refused for all new establishments as well as for extensions to existing ones. There is another entry in his 1921 Report: The embargo on “chai t'ong" continues in force. The revelations in a "fung shui” case coupled with certain vague statements from the "T'ongs" regarding funerals of members seem to indicate that one of the objects of these institutions is to find good "fung shui's" for their supporters. The same District Officer commented to his superiors: Nominally they are places of retreat where the earnest-minded withdraw from their fellowmen and living on the simplest of food can meditate upon ‘the most Excellent “Way”.' But in practice they come nearer to a Thames-side hotel. An unfavourable opinion was also expressed by the District Watch Committee, a statutory body of leading Chinese citizens in Hong Kong to whom the matter was referred for advice. It was also asserted that the then Government of Kwangtung had an equally unfavourable opinion and had in fact expelled them from its territory "which, if true, would at once account for their phenomenal growth in ours" he wrote. * Cantonese romanisation. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 OVERSEAS LIFE MEMBERS DUNCANSON, Mr. J. D., 26 Leinster Mews, LONDON, W.2., UNITED KINGDOM. EWING, Miss E., 25 The Meadows, Old Portsmouth Road, GUILDFORD, Surrey, UNITED KINGDOM. FABER, Mrs. G. A. G., Inveroak, West End Lane, STOKE POGES, Bucks, UNITED KINGDOM. FAWCETT, Mr. B. C., c/o Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp., Queen's Road Central, G.P.O. Box 64, HONG KONG, FEHL, Prof. Noah E.. 685 Shawnee Drive, NASHVILLE, Tennessee 37205, U.S.A. FRASER, Mr. A. P., 11 Thorkill Gardens, Thames Ditton, Surrey KT7 QUP, UNITED KINGDOM. GALVIN, Mr. J. A. T., Loughlinstown House Co., Dublin, IRELAND. GEORGE, Mr. T. J. B., c/o Foreign & Commonwealth Office, King Charles Street, LONDON, SWIA 2AH., UNITED KINGDOM, GIEDROYC, Mr. Michal J, H., 31 Richmond Way, Fetcham, Surrey, UNITED KINGDOM. HARDEN, Mr. Guy T. Jr., The Manor House, Old Bosham, Chichester, West Sussex, PO18 8HS. UNITED KINGDOM, HAYDON, Mr. E. S., Old Castle Farm, Buckland St. Mary, Somerset, UNITED KINGDOM. HENSMAN, Prof. Bertha, c/o St. Anne's College, Oxford, UNITED KINGDOM, HILSDALE, Mrs. K. H., 1105 Armada Drive, Pasadena, California 91103, U.S.A. HOWARTH, Mr. Richard, 1585 Inlet Ct., Reston, Virginia 22090, U.S.A. HUGHES, Mrs. Marion, c/o C. V. Starr & Co. Inc., 102 Maiden Lane, New York, N.Y. 10005, U.S.A. HURT, Miss Evelyn Joyce, Woodlands School, Woodlands Drive, Scarborough, Yorkshire, UNITED KINGDOM, IRETON, Mrs. Polly Hogue, P.O. Box 362, Langley, Washington, 98260, U.S.A. JOHNSTON, Mr. James J., P.O. Box 5, Marshall. Arkansas 72650, U.S.A. JORDAN, Dr. David K., Dept. of Anthropology, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California 92037, U.S.A. KIDD, Mr. S. T., Windy Brow, Gardeners Lane, Upper Basildon, Reading, Berks, UNITED KINGDOM, Page 255 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m EDUCATION AS A BY-PRODUCT OF FISH MARKETING T. A. ACTON* "The mighty rolling ocean is very deep and wide but cannot daunt the training of our bodies and our minds. So come, come together, children of the fisherfolk, let us all sing together. The provinces of knowledge are boundless as the sea, our schools' maternal care endures like the sky. So come, come together, children of the fisherfolk, let us all sing together. Fish are the treasure of the ocean, knowledge is the treasure of books, for us, the children of the sea, industrious, hard-working and brave. So come, come together, children of the fisherfolk, let us all sing together. ** School song of the Fish Marketing Organisation Schools, translated from the Chinese. Every year some eight hundred children sing this song at a prize presentation ceremony at the end of a five-day summer camp organised by the Hong Kong Fish Marketing Organisation (the F.M.O.). From more than three and a half thousand children in fifteen schools they have been selected to make new friends, attend barbecues and handicraft classes, widen their general knowledge and take part in sports, and win prizes in competitive games, whose honesty is guaranteed by the fact that they are organised by volunteers from a local office of none other than the famed and feared Independent Commission against Corruption. The prizes are presented on the last day by the Director of Agriculture and Fisheries, currently the Hon. J.M. Riddell Swan J.P. 3 Lecturer in the Sociology of Social Policy, Thames Polytechnic, Vice-President, National Gypsy Education Council. The author wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the British Academy, which financed the visit to Hong Kong during which the research for this paper was undertaken, the many fishermen, F.M.O. officials, members of organisations discussed in the text, members of both Hong Kong's Universities, and his wife and members of her family who discussed these matters with him. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 255 DIARY OF VOYAGE TO CHINA* From March 10, 1861 to August 6, 1861 It is with a combination of curious feelings that this journal is commenced. There is a mingled hope and fear, gloom and light, anticipations of a bright future, and occasional forebodings of ill. Yet whatever may befall, whether pleasure or pain, prosperity or adversity, it is a joyful fact that nothing can happen unless directed by a Father's hand. Jesus knows all, and safe under his guidance all will be well. Sunday, March 10th Went on board at ten o'clock, and just put matters straight enough in the cabin to be able to spend the Sabbath. About eleven I came on deck, just as the vessel began to move out of the basin. She was towed down the Thames. A great crowd of people saw her departure. As she floated down the Thames I often gave way to melancholy thoughts, when I considered all I was leaving behind, and all that is in store for me. Sometimes the burden felt greater than I could bear. Yet I felt that Jesus was with me, and under his guidance I feared no ill: it was my Father's business I was about, and surely he would give me grace and strength to perform it. The Prince Alfred went easily down the river, and cast anchor off Gravesend. On board were several people, friends of the captain, who although it was Sunday, were going to Gravesend for a holiday and treat, at his expense. They were a swearing set of fellows, and seemed to be old captains of ships. A Sunday in such company I never spent. I would not go to lunch with them, and at dinner time I was glad when all was over, and I could be alone in my cabin. But even here their shouting and laughing, when the wine and spirits began to take effect, was a great nuisance to my ears and mind. I never spent such a Sunday in my life. So as soon as it grew dusk I fastened my cabin, made up a bed and tried to sleep. For two days I had had a headache, which now grew worse, and very little sleep I had. My cabin, although in the quietest part of the ship, is rather the worse for noise. Every person that walks overhead on the deck is distinctly heard, and the noise is enough to keep one awake, to say nothing of the rolling of the ship. * From the John Fryer Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 378 Hart to daughter Mable, (5) 1888 1892, and two, sender unidentified Hart to son Bruce, (20) 1877 — 1894 Letters to and from Hart re Charlotte's death 1868 Hart to Beauclerk children Postcards to Lady Hart from various persons BOX 3 6 photographs Draft despatch from London office of Inspector-General of Chinese Maritime Customs, to Inspector-General, Peking (n.d.) 17 Chinese name "cards" (red paper) Sheets of what appear to be school exercises (Robert's?) School reports of R. Hart (grandson) and other papers re his boarding at University College, Oxford 1 page of a caricature of Hart (dressed as a Chinese Mandarin) from Vanity Fair 1 published page entitled "Men of the Day, no. 608”, incomplete and source unknown 2 menus painted in water colour 1 water colour painting autographed W. V. G. (?) J.H. Roberts to Gillson (n.d.) 4 invitations to Bruce Hart 1 cigarette card 1 Christie's catalogue, Autumn, 3 July, 1951 BOX 4 14 Miss Gillson's music certificates "Lines inscribed on a fan by Pan tsien yu a Chinese lady of the Han dynasty in the reign of Han Ching Tỉ BC 18. Transl. by Dr. Martin President of the Tung Wen Kuan Peking, Set to music by Bessie L'Evesque Pirkis” (MS) Misc. publications: a. Royal Coronation b. A Maid in Touraine c. Supplement to the London Gazette 28 Oct 1902 d. Supplement to Modern Society 26 Dec 1903 e. The Thames and all That, 1824-1935 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1991 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j 207 an original commission with the final decision on the book's coverage and titling. A further sign of inadequate editing is the absence of any indication of the sources of these images of the past. Beyond stating on the inside rear of the cover that the photographs were "carefully culled from press archives of the time” (my italics), a rather inexact and fairly unhelpful statement, the book itself is totally without any list or acknowledgement of sources. For a work which is sub-titled “A History in Documentary Photographs" and is part of an interesting series which up to the time of this book's publication had issued volumes dealing with Russia, Africa, and the Ottoman Empire around the same period. and one clearly intended to be a historical record this major omission is surprising as well as disappointing. It is to be hoped that the other books in the series are more useful in this regard. ― China, A Photohistory 1937-1987 Introduction by Jonathan D. Spence, Edited with Commentaries by W.J.F. Jenner (London, Thames and Hudson, 1988). It is a relief to turn to this very elegant and thoroughly scholarly book so carefully compiled and edited by William Jenner and so compassionately and accurately introduced by Jonathan Spence. No need to worry about sources, or to find fault with the introduction, summaries and captions to the photographs. It is altogether a more thoughtful production which makes one realize what a great opportunity was missed with the other, whose images are equally striking and evocative but are not properly supported by the accompanying text. The 153 photographs reproduced here are by persons from or connected with the well-known Magnum international photographers' cooperative. Jonathan Spence's fine Introduction sets the scene for them and explains how "surprisingly large portions of the Chinese story are still not available in any visual form' in the West, through not having been covered by Western photographers. For instance, little is available from 1949 to 1956, when from that year until mid 1958 Hiroshi Hamaya took pictures and Marc Riboud "produced a stream of photographs during his travels in China at this time". There is not space to do justice to all the facets of this collection, nor to the quality of Spence's commentary. However, his comments on ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 74 there are many forms of geomancy some of which are linked to their Four Elements* namely Air, Fire, Earth and Water, which, in turn, are linked to the four corners of the earth. North American Indians also have their forms of geomancy. Ley Lines in Britain There are also aspects of Chinese geomancy that bear comparison with European beliefs. 'Dragon veins' for instance, are similar in some ways, to the invisible 'ley lines' that crisscross Britain (see Oxford English Dictionary, vol. VIII, 2nd Edition). This pre-Christian network, 'woven' across the countryside, crosses bogs and mountains, links salient points such as hilltops, and, in some cases, follows ancient tracks which were once trodden by merchants when transporting commodities like salt and flint. Ley lines embrace, symbolically, rich identifying features like sacred sites, stone circles, menhirs, encampments, watchtowers, earthen mounds, wishing and holy wells associated with saints, moats and ponds, and graveyards (Miller, 1989). Key positions, often at crossroads, were formed at intersections of the 'ley' (or lay) which included sites like Salisbury Cathedral and Stonehenge. From the latter, various astronomical observations can be conducted. Like watching the sun rise at mid-summer from the centre of the stone circle over the heel-stone. The first stone churches were often built on pre-Christian sites, where symbolic rites had been performed, such as in the old 'Serpent Temples'. Some believe Saint Mary (the Virgin Mary) Churches are really Christianised versions of the old 'Shining Earth Goddess'. With the importance of life-giving solar energy and its involvement in everyday life, such events as the fire festival were important in ancient Britain. This network of ley lines (Saxon 'leye'; an obsolete word for fire) which can be traced across the English landscape, is visible only to those who have 'eyes' to see it. Prehistoric tracks, sometimes pilgrimage routes, often followed ley lines. Roman or medieval roads were frequently not primary arteries but simply followed the ley. The Icknield Way running from the Wash down to the Thames, and on to the Berkshire Downs, is an example of a pre-Roman Track. There is also the famous Saint Michael Ley Line, with the Michael and Mary currents, which serpentines from the tip of Cornwall to the coast of East Anglia (Miller, 1989). Such lines are really 'routes' or 'corridors' rather than straight lines. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 98 Britain since she moved there with her parents as a child, had this to say. 'If my mother bought a house in England she would certainly consider fung shui, I would consider it too, but not in such detail.' Undoubtedly, more interest is shown by Westerners in things Chinese today, compared to, say, a generation or so ago. Treatment like acupuncture and Chinese herbal medicines have slowly become accepted by some members of the western medical profession. Likewise, fung shui is gaining Caucasian proponents. It is believed the layout of Amsterdam's waterways, the beauty of Lucerne, and the textbook layout of Paris all conform to good fung shui principles. Patrick Wong, a fung shui consultant practising in Britain, maintains that London attracts favourable water spirits from the Thames (Forsyth, 1994:64). These signify good fortune. The river's direction and flow, and the fact that it meanders and has many tributaries, are all conducive to prosperity (Walters, 1988:23). Kwok Man Ho, one of Europe's foremost fung shui masters, was called upon to advise on the design of some of the more recent projects in London's Docklands. In addition to Chinese fung shui masters practising in the West there are also proponents like Derek Walters, a Briton who dons Chinese ceremonial robes and claims to have advised a number of British celebrities. Walters flies regularly to Hong Kong, where he learned his craft, to consult with other experts. 'We have nothing similar to fung shui in the West so it fills a vacuum,' he maintains. In this technological age many people are searching for a 'fourth dimension'. They also want something that stirs the will. A number are looking for a simple, direct way of escaping the boredom and narrowness of everydayness. While some find their escape in mediaeval history, art or music, others find it in fortune telling or fung shui. A group of Chinese, after discussions among themselves in Holland, came to the conclusion that, among the Hong Kong, Singaporean and Malaysian Chinese living in the Netherlands, 70 to 80 per cent believe in fung shui, at least to some degree. For instance, many believe the number of windows in a dwelling should exceed the number of doors. If they do not, the inhabitants will hang up some kind of talisman to counteract possible evil influences. Similarly, gods which are popular in Hong Kong, like To Tei Kung, Kwan Ti and Kwoon Yam (觀音) are common among Chinese in the Netherlands. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 113 Morgan, Carole, ‘A Short Glossary of Geomantic Terms', Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol 20, 1980 Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilisation in China, vol II. Cambridge University Press, 1956 · ditto, vol IV, 3, 1971 Noble, Sara, Feng Shui in Singapore, Graham Brash, Singapore 1994 O'Brien, Joanne with Kwok Man Ho, The Elements of Feng Shui, Element Books. 1991 Pennick, Nigel, The Ancient Science of Geomancy: Man in Harmony with the Earth, Thames and Hudson, 1979 Peplow, S H and M Barker, Hong Kong Around and About, Ye Olde Printerie Ltd, 1911 Pike, S N, Water Divining, A Book of Practical Instructions, Research Publications, England, 1945 Potter, Jack M. 'Wind, Water, Bones and Souls: the Religious World of the Cantonese Peasant', Journal of Oriental Studies, Hong Kong University, vol. 8, 1970 Rossbach, Sarah, Feng Shui: Ancient Wisdom for the Most Beneficial Way to Place and Arrange Furniture, Rooms and Buildings, Hutchinson, 1983 Feng Shui: The Chinese Art of Placement, Dutton, New York, 1983 ------ Interior Decoration with Feng Shui, 1981 Interior Design with Feng Shui. How to Apply the Ancient Chinese Art of Placement, Century, 1987. -Interior Design with Feng Shui, Rider, London, 1987 1 Shen, D C, '"Feng Shui" Woodlands' Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol 14, 1974 Skinner, Stephen, The Living Earth Manual of Feng-Shui, Chinese Geomancy. Graham Brash. Singapore, 1983 ================================================================================ 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-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 43 Thieving was common. Even the coolies who unloaded the cargoes into custom-house boats for weighing, and the boatmen who took them in covered and locked boats up to Canton, had a bad reputation, one witness even affirming that 'the Chinese exceed greatly the watermen upon the Thames in filching and chicanery,' which, Parkinson has observed, was of course saying a great deal.57 Naval and military personnel of the Delta We come now to another class of involved person, the commanders and personnel of war junks of the provincial navy, and of the many military forts and guard-posts in the Delta and up the rivers. Despite being natives of the province, they were not noted for their good behaviour towards the local land and boat populations. Indeed, the recital of exactions, inducements and "squeezes" that we have seen to be routine in the old China Trade is merely a reflection of what passed on the wider scene for much of the time. This culture of corrupt and bad practices is corroborated by recorded local history. Old persons in Hong Kong's outlying island communities interviewed in the 1960s recalled several instances of the petty corruption practised upon local people by soldiers from the military posts there before 1898. The Peng Chau post made an unlawful levy on boat people at their regular monthly "burn offs" of marine growth from the hulls of their craft, whilst their brethren on Cheung Chau extracted cash from vendors at the local market-place.5 More serious breaches against the boat people are mentioned in surviving commemorative tablets in some of the temples in the Delta area, erected for the public record by the wearied local communities with the consent of the responsible senior officials. One such (1834) at a temple on Peng Chau near Hong Kong forbade the practice of commandeering two fishing craft each month and putting soldiers on board them, for cruises to entrap pirates whilst posing as innocuous traders, to the great inconvenience of the family members and temporary loss of their livelihood. Another (1826), placed outside a temple near the Barrier Gate at Macau, prohibited the unlawful charges and exactions being levied by the crews of salt gabelle patrol boats and the personnel of no fewer than 28 military posts along one stretch of 59 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 STEPHEN B. RICE Seeman Son of Thomas T.B. of the City of U.S. of America died at Canton April ... from on board U.S. Ship Thames by Mother 12. Another grave in the Foreigners Cemetery, Canton. 175 Page 225 Page 226 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 189 bair mentioned in the letter in the pocket of her New Ladies Companion Book where it is still kept. Persian adventures Cornell Plant remained in the Reigate for another two years leaving her as an Ordinary Seaman in 1883. He then spent a year in the SS Iberia on the Pacific Steam Navigation Company's Australian Service and another year in the iron ship Mermerus as an Able Seaman. In 1885 Plant returned to the Reigate as Third Mate and left the following year after having obtained his Second Mate's certificate. From there he joined Lynch's Euphrates and Tigris Shipping Company, serving in the River Steamer Khalifa. In 1891 he was offered the command of Shushan, a stern wheel paddle steamer, built by Alfred Yarrow on the Thames and shipped out in parts to Egypt for the expedition up the Nile to relieve General Gordon at Khartoum. Shushan was 98 feet in length including the paddle wheel, 18 feet in width and had an eighteen inch draft. A boiler with a tall funnel was at the bow end of the flat main deck with the engine that drove the stern mounted paddle wheel at the after end. A wooden saloon containing some cabin accommodation stood in the centre of the main deck with the conning position above it from where the wheel controlled a triple rudder. Access to this position was by a wooden ladder and awnings to protect the main deck were spread forward and aft although how they were kept clean and white just astern of a wood fed boiler is hard to understand. No photograph or drawing of the Shushan has yet been found although there are representations of many of the other similar river craft built by Alfred Yarrow. He was acknowledged at the time as the best builder of those vessels that were used to extend and protect British interests along the rivers of Africa, Asia and beyond. They were built to a standard pattern in watertight sections that could be shipped anywhere in the world and bolted together on site. It was claimed that those required by the expedition to rescue General Gordon were ready for shipment within 17 days of the order being placed. (Yarrow - the first 100 years) It is quite evident that young Cornell Plant was immensely proud ================================================================================