SCMP's 1918 report on 斬雞頭，燒黃紙

SCMP 13 Sep 1918, p. 6

Fung Yuk-nam, one of the witnesses in the Chan U-man partnership action created a small sensation yesterday in the Supreme Court, when he disclosed to the Chief Justice, Sir William Rees Davies K.C., an alleged attempt by a witness for plaintiff to bribe him.

...

Mr C. G. Alabaster, O.B.E., (instrcuted by Mr F. C. Jenkin, C.B.E. (instructed by Mr D. J. Lewis, of Messrs Johnson, Stokes and Master), for defendant.

...

Witness continued: I solemnly say that every word is true and if any word is not true I am willing to suffer all kinds of calamity, even the death of everyone of my children and may all kinds of bad luck befall me. And I am willing to go to Man Mo Temple and chop off a cock's head."
Mr Alabaster: You will probably have to. We are going to make the suggestion that all do it.
His Lordship: This gentleman seems rather of superior education and character and perhaps would not attach much importance to the superstition.
Mr Jenkin: He offers to cut off a cock's head for what it is worth.
Mr Alabaster: So do we. Hiu Chik-wa is willing.

...

Witness: I say I am not and am willing again and again to go to the Man Mo Temple and go through the ceremony of chopping off a cock's head.

...

Mr Alabaster: Will de defendant Chan U-man go to the Man Mo Temple and perform the ceremony of cutting off the cock's head? - I for my part certainly will.
Mr Alabaster: Will Chan U-man? I put the challenge out.
The question was put to Chan U-man, who said "Yes, I am willing to cut off a cock's head for everything in the action."
Mr Jenkin: We shall probably be where we are I suppose.
His Lordship agreed to allow the test and asked if counsel proposed to attend.
Mr Jenkin: I should like to.
Mr Alabaster: I didn't propose to but I have no doubt it will be interesting.
Mr Jenkin: Perhaps you can't get a free for it.
Finally it was agreed that Hiu Chik-wa, Fung Yuk-nam and the defendant Chan U-man should undergo the ordeal of the cock's head and the case was adjourned until Monday.

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SCMP 26 Sep 1918, p. 3

According to arrangement the parties in the antimony ore case at the Summary Court went to the Man Mo Temple on Tuesday, where defendant's principal witness took an oath by decapitating a cock that his books etc. were genuine. As the result Mr P. W. Golding, representing the plaintiff (the Hung Tai firm, of King's Building, Compradores) agreed to judgement for defendant (Ho Yik Piu, alias Ho Shau, of 7 Temple Street, Yaumati) represented by Mr W. B. Hind. The amount sued for was $500, said to have been deposited with the defendant for organising an antimony ore business.

The ordeal explained.

The frequency with which the cock's head ordeal has been invited of late by Chinese litigants and the curiosity thereanent among foreigners make interesting a few particulars of the ceremony and its portent. 

It seems that not many people have actually seen the test carried out, for a number of reasons. In the first place no one particularly wants to see it. Secondly the participants naturally desire privacy and only those immediately interested are admitted to the temple; and the third and perhaps principal reason is that the ceremony seldom takes place. Some Chinese of higher class scorn to do it, holding that when a man has to resort to those means to establish his veracity it must be that he is a person regarded as not above suspicion and to descend to such a demonstration is to lose face. They prefer to lose the money involved, even up to a considerable sum. Others of course have become westernised and for them the decapitation of a rooster conveys only a feeling of regret for the rooster. Furthermore, even when the challenge thrown out is accepted, there are always forces working to prevent its culmination. To the superstitious Chinese mind the penalties for perjury or mistake are so real and terrible that the party taking the oath is often beset with doubts, and even when his excess of indignation or confidence carry him right up to the temple his relatives are ever ready to stop him, since the calamities he dares will affect them and their descendants for ever. As an instance the case of a woman is recorded. Her face paled and her hand trembled when the chopper was given to her. She laid it on the cock's neck, but there her strength failed. The cock freed himself and walked away. The lady made a feeble slash at it, and then the relatives, fearing the portent and glad of the excuse, interfered and the ordeal was abandoned.

Locally almost all of the tests are carried out at the Man Mo temple, which is the principal temple in the Colony and the only suitable one in central district. Although the time honoured "joss pidgin" enshrouds the proceedings to some extent the programme is simple enough. The arrangements are made with the Temple keeper, who receives a fee. The oath which is the affirmant is to make is written out on yellow paper with the penalties for swearing falsely. In effect he "swears by the cock" the inference, being: "As I sever this cock's head may my own be severed if I swear falsely in this matter," and a similar fate is invited for all the pilgrim's children right down the generations. Sudden death, regarded as a punishment, is abhorred by a Chinese and there is the additional prospect of having no descendants to pray for him. Joss sticks are lighted and a kow-towing ceremony gone through, after which the temple keeper beats the drum and gong. The oath is sometimes read next, and then it is burnt, that it may be wafted to the knowledge of gods. No particular deity is invoked, any who happen to be listening will note the matter. Then the party adjourns to the courtyard of the temple where stands a new chopping block, a new chopper, and the fowl, all provided by the attestant. The reason for the change of scene is that the deed must not be concealed in any way from the god's sight and therefore may not b performed under a roof. The rooster's legs are tied, and the affirmant kills him apparently as best he is able, with one stroke, sometimes seizing its head and sometimes its body. Since no one cares about the corpse it becomes the perquisite of the temple keeper.

That is the ceremony as observed in Hongkong. Exactly why a rooster is selected as the victim is not clear, except that it figures generally in Chinese sacrifices. There seems danger that the ordeal is becoming too common and that its value as an adjuct to the dispensation of justice will be lost. We understand that the Court exacts a tax for each oath of the kind administered; and the increase of this might keep the challenges and the rooster mortality within bounds.

宋王臺與何啟 (draft)

承前文關於香港革新會於1950年代中推動保護宋王臺的角色，定例局（即後來的立法局）議員何啟早在1898年於局上提議保護宋王臺。
The acquisition of New Territories and the government policy towards the Chinese must be considered.

定例局討論文件
https://www.legco.gov.hk/1897-98/yr9798.htm
https://www.legco.gov.hk/1897-98/h980815.pdf

Historical context:
1898年6月9日 展拓香港界址專條

Key figure in formulating British government policy towards New Territories: James Stewart Lockhart, Colonial Secretary 1895-1902, who was a close friend of Ho Kai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart_Lockhart
and the report:
https://industrialhistoryhk.org/lockhart-report-1898-fascinating-glimpse-industry/
Ho Kai: Choa, G.H. 1981. The Life and Times of Sir Kai Ho Kai. Hong Kong. The Chinese University Press.

Major-General Wilsone Black (acting Governor at the time)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilsone_Black

Henry Arthur Blake Governor, 1898-1903

港英政府冷待宋王臺？與陳蓓教授商榷
http://behind-the-news.blogspot.com/2014/08/blog-post.html


Kai Tak Airport History: https://gwulo.com/kai-tak-airport-history

South East Kowloon Development, Kowloon Development Office Territory Development Department, Hong Kong (2001):
https://www.epd.gov.hk/eia/register/report/eiareport/eia_0592001/12-9.pdf

Central Kowloon Route and Widening of Gascoigne Road Flyover Marine Archaeological Investigation (MAI), Kai Tak Development (2008)
https://www.epd.gov.hk/eia/register/report/eiareport/eia_2142013/EIA/appendix/Appendix%2010C.pdf

Entrepreneurship in blood: Stanley O. Gregory and the business of Kelly & Walsh

Over seventy years ago under the gloomy days in Shanghai due to the Japanese invasion, Stanley O. Gregory, manager of the publishers and booksellers Kelly & Walsh Ltd. Co. (KW), was interned in the Lunghwa camp with some other 500 prisoners of war. 

Life in a POW camp was harsh. The 40-year-old Englishman, notwithstanding the hardship, had entrepreneurship in his blood and wrote a piece of 1600-word business memorandum (see below) in the last month of his internment in August 1945. Strong man. In the insightful memorandum he discussed the current situations of book importation of English and American books before the war and forecast the prospect after the war by giving six points of recommendations. 

The article was sent to the trade journal The Publishers' Weekly via KW's long trading partner, Bill Hall, of H. M. Snyder and Co., and published at the end of 1945 when Gregory had left to join his family in Sydney. 

Gregory's photographs of China taken in the 1930s and his papers are deposited in the National Library of Australia and have received scholarly interest recently in 2016 and 2018.

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This memorandum is intended for the consideration of publishers and book distributors in England and America, and is concerned with the countries occupied by Japan, with all of China, and, of course, Japan, but not Burma. Together they include all the islands and continental countries usually included under the term “The Far East,” for the area east of Singapore is more than a geographical expression. It does form a natural self-contained collection of landmass and islands, separated by mountain barrier and sea from India, by sea from America, and by sea and desert from the inhabited parts of Australia. The Far East is a unit, an important unit in world economy, and the unity of this area will need to be recognized and allowed for in after-war reconstruction and business economy.

In this area, before the war, the language of commerce was almost entirely English, and English was taught as a second language in schools and universities from Japan to the Straits. This was less so, naturally, in French Indo-China (always rather jealously closed to non-French trade and customs) and in the Dutch East Indies (where, however, English was a very good second to Dutch). In the Straits, Siam and Hong Kong, the instruction was in the British tradition, while in the Philippine Islands, it was in the American. In China, almost all of the important universities were staffed and run by trained British and Americans, appointed through missionary societies, who also were responsible for many big schools of various types throughout the country. In Japan, eminent professors and trained teachers from England and America were to be found in the universities and important schools. Thus the people of these countries were acquiring the tradition of learning English as a second language and were using it to converse in with each other, with people of other countries, and, where local dialects as in China prevented intercourse, even of necessity between nationals of the same country. Add that the European resident, merchant or traveller in the Far East speaks English and you have a picture of this part of the world in which has been developing an interest in and a feeling for books in English, and thereby, what is more important, the civilization and culture that they represent.

And to meet the demand there has been an increasing circulation of English books [hoito: emphasis mine], either English or American editions, or editions authorized for local issue, or unauthorized, pirated copies. The publisher or bookdealer abroad can scarcely appreciate the tremendous trade in pirated books, produced mainly in Shanghai, a trade that has irritated educational publishers since the beginning of the century, but that only of recent years has grown to such a size that it was displacing regular editions of all types of books not only in China, but in Hong Kong, the Philippine Islands, and elsewhere. Reproduction was photographic, publishers’ imprint was omitted (to evade Chinese Trade Mark law), a cheaper paper and binding used, and the price was so ridiculously less than that of the original that no price adjustment by the copyright owner was possible whereby genuine copies could be sold against the pirates. This was most obvious with technical, engineering, medical, legal and other normally highly-priced text and reference books. A medical book at say US$7.50 or 36/- would be sold in a pirate edition as the equivalent of US$2.—or 10/-. Several years back the Oxford Press cut the price of the “Concise Oxford Dictionary,” for the China market, to less than half, to enable competition with the pirated issue, but even so the pirated issue was still priced almost a third cheaper.

Now the justification of those who pirated books for educational use in schools and universities was that the Chinese student could not afford the higher-priced originals. This was (and doubtless still is) the attitude of the Chinese government, to whom the needs of the Chinese student are of more concern than the rights of foreign authors. In China, to study is a most honorable ambition, and there is an age-old tradition of respect towards study and learning such as does not exist in England or America, where more practical or martial pursuits have been more highly honored. And the Chinese government is well aware of the importance and urgency of spreading modern knowledge among its 400 million people. And if the many Chinese students cannot pay for foreign editions of necessary books, the Chinese government has no intention of discouraging them from buying what they can afford, cheap local reprints. This is an economic position that must be accepted.

But is [hoito: it] is no less important from the Western point of view that our tradition should be widely diffused in China. By its size, if by nothing else, China will be the strength behind whatever civilization rules in the Far East. The Chinese boast that they have absorbed all their conquerors, and this is a country whose spirit is alien to the spirit of the totalitarian nations. It behooves us therefore to encourage the spreading of our Western ideas and ideals of a Christian democracy. We cannot wish to restrict the diffusion of Western writings. It is essential that British and American books circulate widely in China, but at a Chinese price.

At present the Chinese copyright law is of little value to the owner of a foreign copyright. The Chinese government has not been encouraging to overtures from abroad for copyright protection, for the reason already mentioned — the high price of original editions in terms of Chinese purchasing. There is no reason to suppose however that the pirates could not be eliminated, copyright protected, and larger profitable sales realized with special China editions produced for the low price China market. The Chinese government would agree to copyright protection provided this need is met. The alternative before British and American publishers is the choice between authorized and unauthorized cheap editions. With authorized reprints, they can be assured of copyright protection, for here ethics and economics march together.

It is to be hoped that publishers will now be considering a future policy for the Far East, which will involve for China two aspects. Generally from the Far East there will be requests from libraries, universities, institutions and others for gifts of books. So much damage has been done, so many libraries despoiled, so many institutions destroyed, that ordinary income or even special grants cannot suffice to replace the loss, or to add publications issued since the outbreak of the war. China has suffered particularly from the removal of universities from one part to another and from destruction by loot and fire, and so far as China is concerned, a generous gift policy might be bound in with the provision of adequate copyright laws. Publishers should therefore be represented on any bodies formed for assisting China in this way.

Cheap editions for China implies production in China, generally speaking, and suggests that publishers both in England and in America will find it valuable and necessary to pay more attention in the future to the Far East. This is one section of the world which suffers from entirely too little direct representation. There are big booksellers, such as Maruzen (in Japan), Kelly & Walsh (in China & the Straits), the Commercial Press (in China), or the Philippine Education Co. (in the Philippine Islands), all of whom are also printers and publishers on their own account, but who do not have the organization to represent publishers in travelling or in visiting educational authorities, universities and so on, or in financing or arranging for general distribution of local editions. China is here primarily in mind, but the Far East must be thought of as a whole and there should be adequate publisher’s representation to cover all the countries east of Singapore. Such representation could often be joint, but so far as China is concerned, must include authority not only to sell but also to produce, where needed, cheap local editions.

The cheap edition includes mainly books for educational purposes, for schools and universities, and of these only of course those selected and used in such institutions. Cheap editions can only be issued where a profitable demand is assured. This leaves a very large field for the normal sale of regular editions, and this sale will be considerable. There is every reason to believe that the Far East will want more British and American books after the war than before. There’ll be the temporary big replacement demand, but in addition there has been a steadily increasing English reading public, due to the use of English as a commercial medium, and as a second language by increasing numbers of educated people. British and American ideas and ideals will be more important to these millions of people and there will definitely be closer contacts with the West. Though the number of resident foreigners may be less, there will be a tremendous increase in demand for British and American books by the peoples of these countries.

Publishers in England and America should therefore be considering these points:- (1) The wide demand that the ending of the war will bring from the Far East for English and American books: (2) the requests for gifts of books on behalf of libraries despoiled by the war; (3) the pirate book menace from China, which can only finally be met by (4) a satisfactory copyright agreement with China, implying (5) authorized production in China of cheap editions for the China market, mainly for use in schools and universities; and, (6) permanent representation in the Far East to deal with vastly increasing business.

Source: The Publishers' Weekly, Volume 148 Issue 26 Date December 29, 1945, pp. 2771-73. 

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The Book of Knowledge: The Children's Encyclopaedia in Shanghai

Three days before the May Fourth Movement broke out in Beijing, the Shanghai-based Chinese American Publishing Company put up an advertisement of The Book of Knowledge: The Children's Encyclopaedia for the publisher Grolier Society in New York.

source: North-China Daily News, 1 May 1919.

Whiteaway's import of The Readers Library in 1926

On 4 November 1926, Whiteaway, Laidlaw & Co. placed an advertisement on South China Morning Post to promote its recently import of The Readers Library, London, offering 35 cents each or 3 for $1.00. It includes the following standard works (mainly British and American authors):

Alexander Dumas's The Three Musketeers
H. Rider Haggard's She and King Solomon's Mines
H. G. Wells's The Time Machine
Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland
Charles Dickens's The Old Curiosity Shop, A Tale of Two Cities, and A Christmas Carol and The Cricket on the Hearth
Achmed Abdullah's The Thief of Bagdad, A story from the Arabian Night
Harrison Ainsworth's The Tower of London
Bret Harte's The Luck of Roaring Camp
Washington Irving's Rep Van Winkle
Sir Walter Scott's Ivanhoe and Kenilworth
Bulwer Lytton's Eugene Aram and The Last Days of Pompeii
George Eliot's The Million on the Floss
Harold Copping's The Pilgrim's Progress
J. Fenimore Cooper's The Pathfinder
Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad
Harold MacGrath's The Man on the Box
Henryk Sienkiewicz's Quo Vadis [‎Nobel Prize in Literature in 1905]

The Readers Library, in the foreword of each volume, aspired to "bring the best-known novels of the world within the reach of the millions, by presenting at the lowest possible price per copy, in convenient size, on excellent paper, with beautiful and durable binding, a long series of the stories, copyright and non-copyright, which everyone has heard of and could desire to read.

Nothing of the kind has ever before been possible, even in the days when book production has been least expensive. To render it possible now it will be necessary that each volume should have a sale of hundreds of thousands of copies, and that many volumes of the series should in due course find their way into nearly every home, however humble, in the British Empire."

Further reference: Q. D. Leavis's Fiction And The Reading Public (1939), A Series of Series' Readers Library.

Helena May Library in 1936

Helena May Library
A fine collection of books available to members
by "Abigail"

...
The Library Committee consists of five members of the Helena May. This year, the Committee includes Mrs. A. V. Greaves (Chairman), Mrs. W. J. Roberts (Hon. Secretary) and Mesdames J. W. Anderson, G. M. D. D. Wolf and Harold Sheldon.
Every two weeks, this able Committee meets and a new selection of books are added to the Library.
"A selection of books are given to us regularly by Kelly and Walsh," Mrs. Greaves told me the other day. "Our Committee," she explained, "read over the books - in fact 'shroff' them." Some books are turned down and the others, of course, go on the shelves.
...
The Library ... has got a very catholic collection of books. They range from serious reading to books on cookery, the art of riding and "How to Play Contract Bridge."
...
Mrs. Greaves said, "...Most of our Miscellaneous books come from the 'Times Book Club.'"
Children's Section
"Another idea which we are at work on now is the building up of a really fine Children's Section. ..."
...
Of course, it is well-nigh impossible to give anything like a full list of the books in the Library.
Here are a few I saw the other day when I visited the Library.
"Last of the Empresses" (Daniele Vare); "Seven Pillars of Wisdom" (T. E. Lawrence); Bound copies of the "Hongkong Naturalist"; ... several of Cecil Roberts' books on the English country; "Son of Heaven" (Prince Der Ling); ... China Changes" (G. J. Yorke); ..."My Country and My People" (Lin Yutant); "In Search of Old Peking" (Arlington and Lewisohn). 

Source: South China Morning Post, Oct 22, 1936, p. 11.

Book bargain in Shanghai, 1919

In addition to the London-based Mudie's Library's book bargain advertisements (see below) on the North-China Daily News (NCDN) in 1919, the leading Shanghai bookseller Chinese American Publishing, aka the American Bookshop held book bargain sales in the shop regularly and posted advertisements on the same newspaper to attract customers to visit them on 26 Canton Road (see below).

The advert lists a wide range classic works including classical philosopher Plato and essayist Plutarch, sixteenth-century writer Cervantes and playwright Shakespeare (who died on 22 and 23 April 1616 respectively), nineteenth-century authors Burns, Balzac, Hugo and Maupassant, and the contemporary novelist Kipling. "In splendid bindings, and antique paper and clear type", they are offered readers, or more likely book collectors to furnish their houses, at special prices cheaper than publishers price.  

NCDN, 31 January 1919, p. 11.

NCDN, 24 February 1919, p. 15.

Other cook books 1917 & 1932

Chan, Shiu Wong. 1917. The Chinese cook book: Containing more than one hundred recipes for everyday food prepared in the wholesome Chinese way, and many recipes of unique dishes peculiar to the Chinese–including Chinese Pastry, “Stove Pastries,” and Chinese Candies" (New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1917). Chinese title: 中菜指南. 151 recipes.

The Chinese Students' Monthly, vol. 13, no. 5, March 1918, p. 290. Reviewed by (Miss) M. I. Han, Mount Holyoke

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Nellie C. Wong's Chinese Dishes for Foreign Homes (1932 / 1933)
Nellie C. Wong's Chinese Dishes for Foreign Homes: A revised and enlarged edition of the popular “Chinese Recipes.” (Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, 1932, xii + 87 p. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner & Co. Ltd., Second impression, 1933, xii + 98 p.). Handsewn on exterior. Printed in Shanghai. 86 recipes.
The owner of Nellie Wong Tea Shop in Peking. 
Kelly & Walsh's advertisement showing in A Guide to Catholic Shanghai (Shanghai: T'ou-se-we Press, 1937, facing p. 30) selling at $5.00 whilst F. L. Hawks's A Sketch of Chinese History at the same price and Juliet Bredon's Peking: A historical intimate description of its chief places of interest at $17.5.

The China Monthly Review, v. 66, 1933, p. 126.
The first edition of this worth-while book of Chinese recipes for foreign homes, escaped the review's attention, and the revised edition finds a hearty welcome to an all too-limited library of cook books. The author had a very valuable thought when she conceived the idea to compile a book of Chinese recipes, which are so scientifically correct, that given to the laymen for the first time, can be transferred into edible and tasty dishes for our foreign tables. Too often we have asked how to prepare these savory dishes which are given us by our genial Chinese hosts, and both the names of the ingredients and the art of attaining the fine delicate flavor are beyond out ability. This book is delightful and fills a long felt need in the foreign home.
There are nearly one-hundred Chinese recipes, easy-to-follow, found in Miss Wong's book, accompanied by excellent illustrations on how to prepare a table for a Chinese dinner, vegetables, correct method of preparing Chinese tea, which is a fine art in itself, and signifies the oldest Chinese word of welcome.

According to Chandra Oroszváry's Chinese American cuisine and the Chinese restaurant industry in the United States (MA unpublished dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2009, p. 48), some of Wong's recipes "had originally appeared in American newspapers and magazines such as the Herald Tribune and Good Housekeeping."

伊文思圖書館致北京大學校長（1918）

伊文思圖書館致校長函
眼授教育，己公認為最善之教授方法矣。因難得合宜之影片，且其價太重，中國大學數學校，遂未採用此法。使影片能租用，則其價可大減矣。
下列各種影片，係分組排列，可照下列價目，或租用一星期，或購買（郵費另加）。敝公司用郵局包裹法寄出，當退回時，亦請用此法。若稍有破壞，租用者當收到時，應立行報告敝公司，否則租用者須負責也。影片退回時，如有破壞，租用者亦須負責。為預防破壞起見，請嚴密包裹，如收到時也。影片類別如後。

一醫學類。（人類生理學，共一百六十五片。）
二宗教類。
三教育類。（每影片，均有解說，故全組可成對於一事之演講。）
　　1 石油。此組共二十影片。指示如何開井，如何製油，及如何輸出之情形。租用，全組租價二元。購買，價值二十元。
　　2 火車頭之製造。全組共二十三片。借用，二元，買，二十三元。
　　3 紙之製造。全組共十八片。租，二元。買，十八元。
　　4 針之製造。共十三片。租，一元二角五分。買，十三元。
　　5 棉花之製造。共二十一片。租，二元。買，二十一元。
　　6 麻之製造。共十三片。租，一元五角。買，十三元。
　　7 絲之製造。共四十八片。指示中西造絲之法。借，三元。買，四十八元。
　　8 羊與羊毛。共十五片。租，一元五角。買，十五元。
　　9 牛。共十二片。租，一元。買，十二元。
　　10 皮之製造。共十一片。租，一元。買，十一元。
　　11 糖之製造。共二十八片。租，二元。買，二十八元。
　　12 中西穀類出產及保存之法。共二十三片。租，二元。買，二十三元。
　　13 咖啡之出產。共九片。租，一元。買，九元。
　　14 煙葉之種植。共七片。租，一元。買，七元。
　　15 竹之種植及用途。共七片。租，一元。買，七元。
　　16 挨及高麗日本等地陶器之製造。共十四片。租，一元二角五分。買，十四元。
　　17 玻璃及瓶之製造。共七片。租，一元。買，七元。
　　18 煤之開採。共三十六片。租，三元。買，三十六元。
　　19 鐵與鋼之製造。共三十一片。租，三元。買，三十一元。
　　20 金礦之開採。共十二片。租，一元二角五分。買，十二元。
　　21 銅。共六片。租，一元。買，六元。
　　22 各種飛機。共三十一片。租，三元。買，三十一元。
　　23 蟻與其生活。共三十一片。租三元。買，三十一元。
四雜類。內有各種地圖及特別片子（每片租價一角買價一元）
又敝公司不久將收到新影片，彼時當另開單通知。前單中之醫學類影片，已賣完。其他雖間有賣完者，然不久，就要到新的。
下列三組影片，想先生必甚注意。如欲租用，請早日通知。
（一）中國城市之衛生。（三十六片）
（二）蠅之殺人。（三十二片）
　以上二組，乃中華衛生教育聯合會所製成者。附有中西文之演講，租用每星期各三元。
（三）林肯之生活。（二十五片）
租用二元五角。

資料來源：《北京大學日刊》，第210號，1918年9月23日，第4-5版。

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上海伊文思公司來函
北京大學總務處收發課
執事先生公鑒啟者敝公司教育圖書目錄業已出版，茲特檢紮兩包，計二百九十六本，交由火車運上附去（M. 7406）提單一紙，乞即遣价向路局提取，代為分派。曷勝企禱，專此泐達祇項
年禧
十一年十二月二十九號
（該公司書目係贈送本校教職員每人一本，現已寄到，本日由收發課分送。編者附白。）

資料來源：《北京大學日刊》，第1149號，1923年1月8日，第2版。

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The Oriental Cook Book 西法食譜

Mrs. W. S. Emens comp. The Oriental Cook Book: A Guide to Marketing and Cooking (Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1889. A Chinese edition, entitled 西法食譜 bound in Chinese style was published by APMP simultaneously. Shanghai: Kelly & Walsh, 1898 2nd ed., 1905 3rd ed.). 

Source: HathiTrust. Signed by James Dyer Ball, who published The English-Chinese Cookery Book, containing 200 receipts in English and Chinese 西國品味求真 (Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh, 1890). To be discussed.

The following table of content is from 1898 edition:

Marketing 論菜市上的東西
Groceries 論雜貨
Care of Food 論小心保守食物
Soups  論湯
Fish 論煮魚的法則
Meats 論煮肉的法則
Poultry and Game 論煑雞類與野味
Entrée 論小炒
Dressings for Salads 論撒勒突醬
Salads 論撒勒突
Meat and Fish Sauces 論魚與肉的汁
Force-meat and Garnishes 論做肉粉與裝花的法則
Vegetables 論煑蔬菜的法則
Pies 論派愛
Puddings 論樸定
Sauces for Puddings 論樸定的掃司
Dessert 論小吃
Ice Cream 論氷及立
Water Ices 論氷凍汁
Cakes 論糕
Icing for Cakes 論挨愛星的做法
Short Cake 論[手裊]克開脫
Dumplings 論屯潑令
Muffins, Griddle Cakes, Fritters and Pancakes 論馬非音、煎餅、弗立偷、薄餅
Breakfast and Tea 論早點與晚點
Economical Dishes 論省儉的東西
Bread 論饅頭
Preserving 論糖食
Pickles and Ketchup 論酸果與醬
For the Sick 論病人吃的東西
Drinks 論喝的東西
How to do Various Things 論做雜物的法則
Bills of Fare 論菜單
Glossary 論註解

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A few scholars endeavoured to discuss the 1889 Chinese edition but were unable to obtain a copy of the English-and-Chinese versions in hand leaving them with unanswered questions and untenable conclusions.


The preface to the first edition tells us the sources as follows:
The following recipes have been selected mainly from Miss Parloa's New Cook Book. Selections from other standard cook books and recipes from friends have also been used. The translator has endeavored to adapt the book to local requirements; but the ability to translate from English in Chinese led her to undertake the task, rather than experience in cookery.

The cook book is intended to not only English readers but also Chinese cooks to expatriates. It reads:
The Chinese text will be readily understood by a native cook of average intelligence. Names of articles for which there is no equivalent in Chinese, and of certain dishes are designated by characters which sound like the French or English terms.

She goes on by providing a few examples. Peh-teh-yeu (白塔油) for butter , Ka-lang-ts (加蘭子) for currants. So a glossary is added for easy reference. 

The preface was not signed. Had a reader of the North-China Daily News browsed the "new and standard books" advertisements of Kelly & Walsh, booksellers and publishers, in late January and early February of 1890, the reader will known that it was compiled by Mrs. W. S. Emens. The price of the book was $3. It was also being sold in London by Trübner for 15s (Trübner's Record, A journal devoted to the literature of the east, third series, vol. 2, no. 1, May 1890, p. 64).

According to Woman's work for woman (vol. 10, no. 12, December 1895), Mrs. W. S. Emens (Mr. W. S. Emens being U.S. Vice Consul-General, Interpreter, and Assessor at Mixed Court, Shanghai) was the eldest daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Farnham of Shanghai and passed away in Chefoo. Although she was not an appointed missionary, it reads, "living in China and well versed in the Chinese tongue, she was in a position to be very useful among the people" (p. 322).

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We learn from the publishers’ preface that this invaluable work has been out of print for nearly two years, and Messrs. Kelly and Walsh, Ld., will undoubtedly earn the gratitude of hundreds of housewives by sending out a second edition of it. It comes in a handsome dress of yellow and black, and is very well and clearly printed. The recipes it contains have stood the test of years, and if any Chinese cook cannot understand them, it is not the fault of the translator, but of the cook’s ignorance. No lady who keeps house in China can afford to be without this book, which has been a guide, philosopher, and friend to hundreds, and will continue its services to thousands more.

(source: NCH, May 23, 1898, p. 882)

sources of 造洋飯書 Foreign Cookery in Chinese

造洋飯書 Foreign Cookery in Chinese  (Shanghai: American Presbyterian Mission Press, 1866, 1885, 1909) was written by the American missionary Martha Foster Crawford of the Foreign Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention. The content is as follows (details to be added later):

目錄
廚房條例
湯
魚
肉
蛋
小湯
菜
酸果
糖食
排
面皮
朴定
甜湯
雜類
饅頭
餅
糕
雜類

I decoded that part of the content is from Eliza Leslie's, aka Miss Leslie, cookery books, which were highly popular and affordable in mid-nineteenth-century U.S.A. Three of her books can be downloaded from Feeding America: The Historic American Cookbook Project. Miss Leslie was more than a cook book writer but an author of etiquette and domestic management books as well.

Decoding mission to be continued...

In defense of food

a draft written in 2010...

How much do you on your meals in a typical workday? Less than $10 for a sausage bun in the morning? Below $30 for a McDonald combo? Between $30 and $40 for a set dinner in a fast food restaurant? No more than $80 a day. Fantastic. Not too soon. Think about the food you eat and the way you eat. Is this life? Pathetic. After all, food is not the smartest place to economize. 

Can you distinguish food and food products? Pick up a pack of chips on your desk or a loaf of bread, cottony soft and snowy white ones, from any supermarkets, and try to read the food labels. You find it hard. Right? Can you recognize and/or pronounce the ingredients on the it at all?

Michael Pollan's In defense of food: the myth of nutrition and the pleasures of eating (London: Allan Lane, 2008) provide you with answers and food for thought.

As Pollan explains, the book starts out with seven words and three rules. Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Eat meat as a side dish than as a main. (1)

you should probably avoid products that make health claims. Why? Because a health claim on a food products is a strong indication it's not really food, and food is what you want to eat. (2)

three pernicious myths: that what matters most is not the food but the "nutrient"; that because nutrients are invisible and incomprehensible to everyone but scientists, we need expert help in deciding what to eat; and that the purpose of eating is to promote a narrow concept of physical health. After all, food is considered as a matter of biology, thus we must try to eat "scientifically". (p. 8)

Pollan writes that the most important fact about any food is not its nutrient content but its degree of processing. We should simply avoid any food that has been processed to such an extent that it is more the product of industry than of nature. "[W]hole foods and industrial foods," Gyorgy Scrinis says, "are the only two food groups I'd consider including in any useful food 'pyramid.'" (p. 143)

The book is divided into three chapters. Pollan unfolds his discussion by an interesting introduction, An Eater's Manifesto.

Chapter One: The Age of Nutritionism. From foods to nutrients; Nutritionism defined; Nutritionism comes to market; Food science's golden age; The melting of the lipid hypothesis; Eat right, get fatter; Beyond the pleasure principle; The proof in the low-fat pudding; Bad science; Nutritionism's children.

Chapter Two: The Western Diet and the Diseases of Civilization. The aborigine in all of us; The elephant in the room; The industrialization of eating, which comprises of five sections: From whole foods to refined; From complexity to simplicity; From quality to quantity; from leaves to seeds; From food culture to food science.

Chapter Three: Getting Over Nutritionism. Escape from the western diet. Eat food: food defined. Mostly plants: what to eat. Not too much: how to eat.

One of the problems with the products of food science is that they lie to your body. Foods that lies leave us with little choice but to eat by the numbers, consulting labels rather than our senses. (p. 149)

The last chapter is the most interesting part and provides straight straightforward rules of thumb about food.

• Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food. (doesn't sound scientific but listening to old wisdom merits some reflection) Don't eat anything incapable of rotting.
• Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable, c) more than five in number, or that include d) high-fructose corn syrup.
• Avoid food products that make health claims. (What can you choose after all?) All plants contain antioxidants, all so-called scientific studies on plants are guaranteed to find something on which to base a health oriented marketing campaign. (emphasis original)
• Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle, where processed food products dominate.
• Get out of the supermarket (and the convenience store, and the fast-food outlet) whenever possible. (rather obvious)
• Eat mostly plants, especially leaves.
• You are what what you eat eats too. (what do the caged chickens eat?)
• If you have the space, buy a freezer. (to freeze quality meat in bulk)
• Eat well-grown food from healthy soils.
• Eat wild foods when you can.
• Be the kind of person who takes supplements.
• Eat more like the French, or the Italians, or the Japanese, or the Indians, or the Greeks. the foods a culture eats and how they eat them. Cuisines can have purely cultural functions; they're one of the ways a society expresses its identity and underscores its differences with other societies.
• Regard nontraditional foods with skepticism.
• Don't look for the magic bullet in the traditional diet. there is no magic in food.
• Have a glass of wine with dinner.
• Pay more, eat less. (pay more, eat more is rather commonplace) Quantity vs quality. The better the food, the less of it you need to eat in order to feel satisfied.
• Eat meals. (too simple? too hard?) It is at the dinner table that we socialize and civilize ourselves and our children, teaching ourselves and them manners and the art of conversation.
• Do all your eating at a table.
• Don't get your fuel from the same place your car does.
• Try not to eat alone.
• Consult your gut.
• Eat slowly.
• Cook and, if you can, plant a garden. to escape the culture of fast food and the values implicit in it: that food should be fast, cheap, and easy; that food is a product of industry, not nature; that food is fuel, and not a form of communion, with other people as well as with other species - with nature.

The earliest maps naming Hong Kong as "Fan-chin-cheo" (1775-1788)

It seems to be:

1775 and 1778

1775: A Chart of the China Sea Inscribed to Monsr. d'Apres de Mannevillette the Ingenious Author of the Neptune Oriental: As a Tribute Due to his Labours for the Benefit of Navigation; and in acknowledgement of his many signal Favours to A. Dalrymple. Paris ; Brest, [France] : Chez Demonville, Imprimeur-Libraire de l'Academie Francoise ; Chez Malassis, Imprimeur-Libraire de la Marine, 1775.

There are a few copies on the internet: RareMaps.com, National Library Australia (gigantic file size: 1 Gb), Bibliothèque nationale de France (zoomable), David Rumsey Map Collection (1810 edition), Biblioteca Nacional de España (an earlier 1771? edition without "Fan-chin-cheo")

In 1771, in his Journal of the Schooner Cuddalore, Oct 1759. On the Coast of China. London: Alexander Dalrymple, Esq., 1771. (available on Google Book), Dalrymple, on 12th February, 1765, writes:

"The Wind favouring us kept under fail, and ran againft the flood till abreaft of the E. End of Lantao, when, the Ebb making, we drove with the Tide through what is called Cowbee Paffage. And at 5 PM were abreaft of the SW point of Chinfalo, when we haul'd to the ESE to go to the Northward of the Ifland Heong-Kong (a) and at 6 PM, the Tide being done, anchored in 6 Fath. mud, diftant Heong-kong about a mile, Lantao Peak bearing W 8°. S."

original footnote: "(a) What he calls Heong-Kong is Fanchin-chow"

Fanchin-chow is used more often than Heong-Kong in his another book published in the same year, i.e. Memoir of the Chart of Part of the Coast of China, and the Adjacent Islands near the Entrance of Canton River. Containing Observations in the Schooner Cuddalore in 1759 and 1760. And in the Ship London, 1764. With Several Views of the Lands. London: Alexander Dalrymple, Esq., 1771. (also available on Google Book)


1778: A Chart of the China Sea from the Island of Sanciam to Pedra Branca with the course of the river Tigris from Canton to Macao. London: Printed for Robert Sayer and John Bennett, No. 53, Fleet Street, 1778. Two later editions were printed in 1780 (see the reference below) and 1794.

Available in the National Library of Australia (very large file size: 214Mb). Later edition (1794) could be found on the internet.

It reads "Fan-Chin-Cheou or He-ong-kong"


Also reference: Henry D. Talbot, "A British maritime Chart of 1780 Showing Hong Kong," Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 10 (1970), pp.128-133. Available in the Map Library of the Department of Geography and Geology.

Sydenham Moutrie in Yokohama [to be continued]

Before establishing his piano import business in Yokohama in 1890, Sydenham Moutrie, who had over 14 years' experience in Shanghai, announced his arrival in May 1889 in the Japan Gazette to provide musical instrument repairing service to customers. 

Source: The Japan Gazette, 10 May, 1889 (Friday), p. 8. 

モートリー商会, No. 59 Main Street, Yokohama 

additional sources about Moutrie in Yokohama: 
ピアノ製造と横浜華僑／伊藤泉美 「開港のひろば」 第51号 - 横浜開港資料館
大阪音楽大学音楽博物館東洋楽器関係索引補遺 － 漢字表記の楽器をどう扱うか
民間吹奏楽の創建秘史／池田辰五郎述 堀内敬三記（『音楽之友』 第2巻第6号 1942年06月 ｐ.34-39）
周筱生がピアノ製造の技術を学んだのは、上海のモートリー商会であった
横浜中華街 開港当時、ここは西洋文化の入り口だった
明治期の横浜外国人居留地を通した洋楽受容