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Sai Kung Peninsula

John Strickland

in Southern District Officer Reports: Islands and Villages in Rural Hong Kong, 1910-60

This chapter provides reports from administrative officers' visits to the Sai Kung Peninsula which is composed of the Ho Chung Group of Villages, the Pak Sha Wan Group of Villages, the Pak Kong Group ... More

This chapter provides reports from administrative officers' visits to the Sai Kung Peninsula which is composed of the Ho Chung Group of Villages, the Pak Sha Wan Group of Villages, the Pak Kong Group of Villages, Sai Kung Town, the Sha Kok Mei Group of Villages, the Tai Wan Group of Villages, the Tai Mong Tsai Group of Villages, the Pak Tam Chung Group of Villages, East Sai Kung Peninsula, and the Tai Long Group of Villages. It notes that the Sai Kung region is predominantly Hakka with the exception of Sha Kok Mei, Pak Kong, and Ho Chung, which are Cantonese. It reports that the region is entirely agricultural, with a small amount of fishing and rice as the principal crop. It further reports that pig-keeping is the principal source of livelihood in the Ho Chung Valley.Less

The Arrival of Pestis

James C. Mohr

in Plague and Fire: Battling Black Death and the 1900 Burning of Honolulu's Chinatown

Cases of grave illness began to appear in December 1899 among members of Honolulu's sharply divided Chinese community. Traditional Chinese healers denied the existence of bubonic plague and concealed ... More

Cases of grave illness began to appear in December 1899 among members of Honolulu's sharply divided Chinese community. Traditional Chinese healers denied the existence of bubonic plague and concealed deaths, while pro-Western Chinese physicians, led by Li Khai Fai and Kong Tai Heong, urged disclosure and cooperation with the Board of Health. An autopsy by Board physicians confirmed the presence of bubonic plague on December 12, and a state of emergency was declared the next day.Less

Conclusion

Angela S. Chiu

in The Buddha in Lanna: Art, Lineage, Power, and Place in Northern Thailand

This chapter summarizes the main findings of each chapter.

The Great Wall

M. A. Aldrich

in The Search for a Vanishing Beijing: A Guide to China's Capital Through the Ages

The Great Wall of Ten Thousand Miles is a destination that cannot be omitted from any trip to China. The Great Wall starts from the seacoast at the Pass of the Mountains and Seas on the Bo Hai Gulf ... More

The Great Wall of Ten Thousand Miles is a destination that cannot be omitted from any trip to China. The Great Wall starts from the seacoast at the Pass of the Mountains and Seas on the Bo Hai Gulf and continues towards the Tibetan highlands passing through four provinces as well as Peking and Tianjin municipalities. While it conjures images of antiquity, the Great Wall also was the basis for a delightful urban myth in the 1980s. During the Warring States Period, the various kingdoms in China built extended walls as a tactical defense. Qin Shi implemented this construction project with a vigorous adherence to schedules and brutal treatment for infractions. The three most commonly visited portions of the Great Wall are at Ba Da Ling, Mu Tian Yu, and Si Ma Tai. Both Mu Tian Yu and Si Ma Tai entail a long day trip from Peking, and the trips themselves are worth the effort.Less

Lantao Island

John Strickland

in Southern District Officer Reports: Islands and Villages in Rural Hong Kong, 1910-60

This chapter provides the administrative officers' reports on details and visits in Lantao Southwest, Shek Pik and Valley, Tai O and Valley, Lantao Central Plateau, Lantao North Coast: Tai O to Tung ... More

This chapter provides the administrative officers' reports on details and visits in Lantao Southwest, Shek Pik and Valley, Tai O and Valley, Lantao Central Plateau, Lantao North Coast: Tai O to Tung Chung, Tung Chung and Valley, Pak Mong Group of Villages, Lantao South Coast: Shek Pik to Pui O, Pui O Group of Villages, Shap Long Group of Villages, Chi Ma Wan Peninsula, Mui Wo (Silvermine Bay) Group of Villages, Lantao South Coast: East of Mui Wo and Northeast Lantao. It provides reports that contain the population statistics of each village; the dialects or languages spoken by the natives; the means of livelihood in each village, which is mostly farming, animal raising, and fishing; the presence or absence of health care workers and facilities; religious practices; ancestral lineages and family names; infrastructures; and forms of recreational and other cultural activities.Less

Recollections and reflections by key players in the disturbances

Gary Ka-wai Cheung

in Hong Kong's Watershed: The 1967 Riots

This chapter discusses the views and beliefs of some of the key players in the 1967 disturbances. These men were Jack Cater (personal assistant of the governor), Liang Shangyuan (former director of ... More

This chapter discusses the views and beliefs of some of the key players in the 1967 disturbances. These men were Jack Cater (personal assistant of the governor), Liang Shangyuan (former director of the Hong Kong branch of the Xinhua News Agency), Tsang Tak-sing, Tsang Yok-sing, Wu Tai-chow (the man who took part in writing history), Chak Nuen-fai (an accidental political prisoner), Wong Kin-lap (a leader of one of the unions), Liu Yat-yuen, and Chong Wai-hang. It also examines the lives of some of the people who did not belong to the leftist camp but had their careers ruined by the disturbances and whose stories were seldom told by historians. Leung Yiu-wah was a bomb-planter who remains unrepentant about the bomb attacks. Luk Kai-lau was a police constable during the 1967 riots. For him, both policemen and the general public were in a helpless situation during the riots.Less

Diversity of tool use and tool-making in wild chimpanzees

Christophe Boesch and Hedwige Boesch

in The Use of Tools by Human and Non-human Primates

Genetic aspects are important for explaining why primates use tools more frequently and for more tasks than any other zoological order. However, the importance of non-genetic factors is best revealed ... More

Genetic aspects are important for explaining why primates use tools more frequently and for more tasks than any other zoological order. However, the importance of non-genetic factors is best revealed by a comparison of tool use within the same species. The chimpanzee is the best candidate for such an approach. Data from three long-term studies on wild populations in East and West Africa facilitate the analysis for the first time the impact of the environment on tool use and tool-making. This chapter compares tool use and tool-making in three wild chimpanzee populations: Tai National Park, Mahale Mountains National Park, and the Gombe Stream National Park.Less

The End of the Kingdom

Mamoru Akamine

Robert Huey (ed.)

in The Ryukyu Kingdom: Cornerstone of East Asia

In what became controversially known as the “Ryukyu Shobun,” the new Meiji government gradually took over Ryukyu, starting by using a massacre of Ryukyuan sailors in Taiwan as a pretext to claim ... More

In what became controversially known as the “Ryukyu Shobun,” the new Meiji government gradually took over Ryukyu, starting by using a massacre of Ryukyuan sailors in Taiwan as a pretext to claim Ryukyuans as “people who belong to the nation of Japan,” who needed Tokyo’s protection. In 1874, the Meiji government compelled Ryukyu to cut its ties to China. In 1879, Tokyo annexed Ryukyu and designated it Okinawa Prefecture. That same year, the Ryukyu King was forced to move to Tokyo, and died there in 1901. China did not have sufficient military power to resist the move, but the chapter also describes activities between China and restorationists in Ryukyu, some of whom went to China, rather than remain as Japanese subjects. However, the first Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), in which China was defeated, effectively brought the restoration movement to an end.Less

And History Took a Calligraphic Turn: Tai Jingnong and the Art of Writing

David Der-wei Wang

in The Lyrical in Epic Time: Modern Chinese Intellectuals and Artists Through the 1949 Crisis

This chapter discusses the artistic transition made by Tai Jingnong from literature to calligraphy amid a mid-century crisis. A native of Anhui, Tai belonged to the May Fourth generation aspiring for ... More

This chapter discusses the artistic transition made by Tai Jingnong from literature to calligraphy amid a mid-century crisis. A native of Anhui, Tai belonged to the May Fourth generation aspiring for cultural reform and national rejuvenation through literature. During the early years of Nationalist rule in Taiwan, he tried to find solace in figures such as Tao Qian and Ruan Jin, both witnesses to a tumultuous time in medieval China, the Wei-jin era. This chapter explains how Tai, by turning to the graphic “surface” rather than the textual depth of writing, came to a different understanding of artistic agency and historical representation. Where literature betrays its finitude, the performance of writing generates new configurations of history, nationhood, and “Chinese” identity. The chapter explores three issues: the dissemination of modern Chinese writing in visual terms, calligraphy and its geopolitical implications, and the poetics of “muted” Sinophone articulations.Less

Shame and Scandal in the Family: Dutch Eavesdropping on the Zheng Lineage

Leonard Blussé

in Sea Rovers, Silver, and Samurai: Maritime East Asia in Global History, 1550-1700

This chapter examines the mutual interactions and inner dynamics of the Zheng lineage, casting new light on Koxinga and his son Zheng Jing to show that not all was harmonious and peaceful within the ... More

This chapter examines the mutual interactions and inner dynamics of the Zheng lineage, casting new light on Koxinga and his son Zheng Jing to show that not all was harmonious and peaceful within the family. Drawing on the dagregisters, or diaries, of the Dutch East India Company's Deshima trading factory at Nagasaki, the chapter analyzes the problematic relationship between Koxinga and, after his death, Zheng Jing with “elder brother” Zheng Tai. It also considers the gossip and scandals involving Zheng Jing and shows how frictions within the Zheng family led to murder and created fissures within the ranks. The feud between Zheng Tai and Zheng Jing even almost led to the collapse of the family's trade network overseas, including Japan.Less

Ruling for the People

Yuri Pines

in Envisioning Eternal Empire: Chinese Political Thought of the Warring States Era

This chapter discusses the belief in the exceptional political importance of “the people”. A statement from the Tai shi (The Great Oath), a putatively early Zhou document, notes that “heaven sees ... More

This chapter discusses the belief in the exceptional political importance of “the people”. A statement from the Tai shi (The Great Oath), a putatively early Zhou document, notes that “heaven sees through the people's seeing, Heaven hears through the people's hearing” and follows the people's desires. Many of the early Zhou documents of the Shu jing display a similar belief regarding the relationship between the people and Heaven. This interrelationship is twofold. On the simplest level, the people serve as a barometer of Heaven's intent, a kind of vox Dei: “the awesomeness and intentions of Heaven are discernible from the people's feelings.” On the more substantial level, Heaven's intervention in human affairs is motivated primarily by its concern for the people.Less

Wuxi Elites and Infrastructure: Urbanization of the Countryside

Toby Lincoln

in Urbanizing China in War and Peace: The Case of Wuxi County

This chapter describes how those same industrial families who were responsible for the urbanization of Wuxi City invested in industry and infrastructure in the countryside. It takes the example of ... More

This chapter describes how those same industrial families who were responsible for the urbanization of Wuxi City invested in industry and infrastructure in the countryside. It takes the example of Yanjiaqiao in the northeast of the county, which by the 1930s boasted several factories, many shops, electric lighting, and had urbanized to such an extent that it was known as the ‘Little Wuxi.’ In addition to establishing factories and other businesses, local entrepreneurs invested in rural infrastructure and tourist sites on the shores of Lake Tai. Descriptions of Wuxi in guidebooks and travel magazines show how writers recognized that the county as a whole was urbanizing rapidly. The chapter concludes by examining how changes in the daily lives of farmers in their homes and out in the fields mirrored to some extent those of their urban counterparts.Less

The evidence for Old Chinese

William H. Baxter and Laurent Sagart

in Old Chinese: A New Reconstruction

Chapter 2 details the sources of evidence used in the reconstruction of Old Chinese. Section 2.1 introduce Middle Chinese, a system of pronunciation of Chinese characters widely used in China in the ... More

Chapter 2 details the sources of evidence used in the reconstruction of Old Chinese. Section 2.1 introduce Middle Chinese, a system of pronunciation of Chinese characters widely used in China in the 6th century CE, known to us through phonetic annotations in contemporary dictionaries and commentaries of classic texts. A series of tables present the elements of Middle Chinese syllable structure, including tones, initial consonants, and finals, and gives the conventional transcription we use to represent them. Section 2.2 discusses the issues involved in extracting information from Old Chinese poetic rhyming, most of it from the Book of Odes. Section 2.3 describes how phonological information about pronunciation can be inferred from the Chinese script; examples are given to illustrate the inferences suggested by newly available paleographic evidence. Section 2.4 introduces the phonologically conservative Mĭn, Kèjiā and Wăxiāng dialects, and section 2.5 describes the languages of the Vietic, Hmong-Mien and Kra-Dai families that contain layers of Old Chinese loanwords. Section 2.6 discusses the evidence on Old Chinese pronunciation that can be inferred from explicit comments in classical Chinese texts. Finally, in section 2.7 the authors warn against using evidence from related Tibeto-Burman languages to test hypotheses on Old Chinese phonology.Less

Language contact in Nanning: Nanning Pinghua and Nanning Cantonese

Hilário de Sousa

in Diversity in Sinitic Languages

Five languages/dialects are traditionally spoken in the Nanning area: the Sinitic languages of Nanning Pinghua, Nanning Cantonese, and Old Nanning Mandarin, and the indigenous Tai languages of ... More

Five languages/dialects are traditionally spoken in the Nanning area: the Sinitic languages of Nanning Pinghua, Nanning Cantonese, and Old Nanning Mandarin, and the indigenous Tai languages of Northern Zhuang and Southern Zhuang. They have all influenced each other in various ways, and have also remained distinct in a number of ways. This chapter discusses aspects of this complex language contact situation from the viewpoint of Nanning Pinghua and Nanning Cantonese. A selection of similarities and differences in their phonology, lexicon, and grammar will be presented. Curiously, Nanning Cantonese, which has been spoken in the area for about 150 years, in some respects resembles the indigenous Zhuang languages more in its phonology and grammar than does Nanning Pinghua, which has been spoken in the area for a millennium. The last section discusses some of the possible sociolinguistic factors that might have caused this unusual outcome for language contact.Less

The Historical Pattern of State Formation in Upland Southeast Asia

Enze Han

in Asymmetrical Neighbors: Borderland State Building between China and Southeast Asia

Chapter 3 introduces the historical background of the upland Southeast Asia borderland area. It analyzes how the upland area and its people were perceived by valley states and attempts made by those ... More

Chapter 3 introduces the historical background of the upland Southeast Asia borderland area. It analyzes how the upland area and its people were perceived by valley states and attempts made by those states to approach them militarily and politically. It examines existing historiographies coming from the perspectives of the Chinese, Myanmar, and Thai states, paying attention to how those states used a variety of means—military, political, and economic—in their efforts to deal with the mosaic of people living in the upland area. It also considers the perspectives of the upland people themselves in terms of how they viewed their relations with those valley states, if such accounts are available. The purpose of the chapter is to put this borderland area in a historical perspective, while emphasizing the overall lack of state and national consolidation of the territories and people before the modern period.Less

Comparative Nation Building across the Borderland Area

Enze Han

in Asymmetrical Neighbors: Borderland State Building between China and Southeast Asia

Chapter 7 analyzes how the different nationalist ideologies in these three countries have affected the politics of national identity among various ethnic minority groups living along the borders. It ... More

Chapter 7 analyzes how the different nationalist ideologies in these three countries have affected the politics of national identity among various ethnic minority groups living along the borders. It examines nation-building ideologies and policies in China, Myanmar, and Thailand, then examines how close ethnic linkages between the Shan and Thai manifest in Thailand’s interest in supporting Shan nationalist movements as part of its pan-Tai sentiment. The chapter then compares the implications of different nationalist ideologies and practices on common cross-border ethnic minorities between China and Myanmar. For many ethnic minority groups across the border, China is often perceived as a place where ethnic minorities are treated better than in Myanmar. Relative depravation in Myanmar explains this perception very well.Less