Mr. Robert Nield, President

I have been a member of the RAS for over 20 years, and on Council since 1988. I have served under four Presidents, and had the opportunity of learning from each of them. Whilst I do not have an academic background, I feel I can contribute to the continuing growth of our Society through experience gained from my earlier financial and administrative career positions. Since retiring from PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2002, where I had been a partner for 17 years, I have been developing further the various interests that had been frustrated by pressure of work. In addition to my involvement in the RAS, I am Chairman of The Hong Kong Singers, and an executive director of both Opera Hong Kong and The Asian Youth Orchestra. When I can find time I write pieces about my travels, try to take better photographs and develop further my skills as a private pilot.

Dr. Patrick H. Hase, Immediate Past President

Dr. Hase is English, and came to Hong Kong in 1972 to join the Hong Kong Government as an Administrative Officer, after taking his PhD at Cambridge. He took early retirement in 1996. Among other posts he was City District Officer, Shamshuipo, District Officer, Sha Tin, and Deputy Director of the Urban Services Department. He joined Council in 1982 and, after acting as Hon. Editor for some years, became President (2001-2005). He has researched especially New Territories History and Society. Current interests are in the History of Salt-making and the Salt-trade in the Hong Kong area, the Traditional Land Law of Hong Kong, and in the Developmental History of the New Territories Market towns, among other topics. He is an Hon. Research Fellow of the Centre of Asian Studies, Hong Kong University, and an Hon. Advisor to the Museums Service, LCSD, and to the Zhong-ying Street Historical Museum, Shataukok. He is married with four children.

Dr Elizabeth Sinn, Vice President

I was born and raised in Hong Kong but before the 1980s, like many others here, I didn’t know much about the history of the place. Then things changed in the 1980s. First I decided to write my PhD thesis on Hong Kong’s social elite in the 19th century and started digging away in the archives. As importantly, I joined the Royal Asiatic Society and started to visit places all over the territory and learn interesting aspects of Hong Kong’s culture and history. What an eye-opener! I am still learning. This may sound corny, but the RAS is one of the most wonderful things that has happened to me. I have made many good friends, too many to list, but among them are Carl Smith and James Hayes, who have been such inspiring teachers. I owe them so much. There were few women on the Council back in the 1980s, but those who were there, Robyn McLean and Anita Wilson, were just fantastic people, and we had terrific fun making things happen and providing mutual support, especially when I became the first Chairman of the Activities Committee. A friend once asked, “Why are you always so happy when you are with ‘your RAS people’?” I guess the simple answer is that it’s a great experience making discoveries about the place I love with others who share that passion.

I have recently retired as Associate Professor and Deputy Director of the Centre of Asian Studies at the University of Hong Kong. I am currently researching and writing a book on the history of Chinese emigration and its impact on Hong Kong’s development. Hopefully at some point I shall be able to share my findings with the Society.

Mr. Peter Stuckey, Vice President

"The first entry concerning the Royal Asiatic Society in my diary appears on 12 December 1995. That evening, by a happy chance, I met Mrs Valery Garrett and she introduced me to the Society, thereby opening the door for me to a treasure house of opportunities and experiences. How grateful I am for that introduction! I had already been in Hong Kong 18 years. I first came in 1977 on a contract with my employer, Binnie and Partners, working on Landslide Preventive Measures. My career work, until retirement, has been as a consulting civil engineer, particularly as a water engineer. I had already worked in Britain and Peru before coming here and have also worked in Egypt and Malaysia for a few years since I became based in Hong Kong. I soon found the immense variety and quality of the RAS lectures, local visits and overseas visits fascinating. I joined the Activities Committee whereby I could be more involved. In 2000 the membership kindly voted me on to the Council where I was glad to serve as Hon Sec for about three years. Through the Society I have been introduced to many of the most interesting and worthwhile people in Hong Kong and to some of the important cultural and heritage issues in the region. I hope to be able to share and extend these great benefits through further involvement as a Vice President."

Mr. Robert Horsnell, Council Member & Convener of ‘The Volunteers’

Bob Horsnell is a Chartered Building Surveyor from the UK who has been a member of the RASHKB for over 12 years and has served on Council for about half that time. He is also convener of “The Volunteers”, a group of members formed in 1992 to assist the antiquities and Monuments Office in the recording of historical buildings in Hong Kong.

Bob came to Hong Kong in 1971 to join the Public Works Department as a maintenance surveyor. He retired from government service in 2001 and is now self-employed as historic buildings consultant. He is married to Cathy and they have three grown-up daughters, all born and educated in Hong Kong, but now pursuing careers in the UK.

Rev. Carl Smith, Hon. Vice-President

Carl Smith came to Hong Kong in 1961 to teach theology, first at the Church of Christ in China’s Theological Institute at Tuen Mun, and then, between 1962 and 1983, at the Chung Chi Seminary and its successor, the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Having been asked to teach a course on the history of the Church in China, he was struck by how little information there was on the Chinese converts to Christianity, and on what Christianity meant to them and to the people around them. He set about remedying this problem with minutely detailed research into the lives and social organization of Chinese people in and around Hong Kong. This was a radical approach to Hong Kong history, and one that has influenced a generation of Hong Kong historians.

The results of Carl’s research have been published in a number of books and journals – many of them in the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the RAS. The most important of them were collected together in Carl’s book, Chinese Christians: Elites, Middlemen, and the Church in Hong Kong, which was published in 1985 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the re-establishment of the Hong Kong Branch of the RAS. This seminal work has just been reprinted in paperback by the Hong Kong University Press.

Carl Thurman Smith was born in 1918 in Drayton, Ohio. He took a Bachelor of Arts degree at DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana in 1940 and graduated from the Union Theological Seminary, New York, as a Master of Divinity in 1943. In the same year he was ordained as minister in the Evangelical and Reformed Church (now the United Church of Christ). He served as pastor at churches in Rochester, New York and Philadelphia before coming to Hong Kong to teach in 1961.

Carl became a member of the RAS Council in 1975 and a Vice-president in 1976. He is currently an Honorary Vice-president and a very active member of the Council. He now lives in Macau, where he is engaged in research into the elites and social history of that city, but he still returns to Hong Kong from time to time to involve himself in the work of the Society and to see his many friends in this city.

Dr. Dan Waters ISO BBS, Past President and Honorary Fellow RASHKB

Deric Daniel Waters was born in 1920, in Norwich (UK). He served as a Desert Rat in World War Two and in Italy, including in the Salerno Invasion and on the Beach-Head at Anzio. He was wounded three times and Mentioned in Despatches.

The War over, Dan returned to the family construction business and later became managing director. The firm worked on ancient buildings but he was unable to get travel out of his system. In 1954, he joined the Colonial Service and set sail for Hong Kong.
During the 1950s and 1960s, Dan taught at the College which was the forerunner of the present Polytechnic University. He became Principal of the Technical Institute and, later, moved into the Education Department HQ. He retired from Government in 1980 and was made a Companion of the Imperial Service Order.

In ‘retirement’ he obtained his Ph.D. in his 65th year and a section of his thesis was published by the HK Chinese University Press in The Economics and Financing of Hong Kong Education (1992). He had previously co-authored a series of books, Understanding Technical English (Longman), Volume One of which sold over one-million copies. He has also written 21st Century Management: Keeping Ahead of the Japanese and the Chinese and; Faces of Hong Kong: An Old Hand’s Reflections, as well as many articles on subjects ranging from bamboo scaffolding, to Chinese funerals, and comparing Chinese and Western humour. His new book, One Couple Two cultures: 81 Western-Chinese Couples Talk about Love and Marriage, is due out shortly.

Dan was an Eastern Counties (UK) weightlifting record holder shortly after WW2 and he obtained a Black Belt in Karate in his 57th year. He still holds 800 and 1,500 metres HK All-comers running records in the ‘Over 70’ class.

Dr. Waters has served on the Antiquities Advisory Board and was awarded the Bronze Bauhinia Star in 1998 for his work in heritage. He is married to his Hong Kong Chinese wife, Vera.

Valery Garrett

Valery Garrett has been a member of the Royal Asiatic Society since 1973, the year she and her husband Richard arrived in Hong Kong. She has been a Council Member since 1997 and was Honorary Activities Coordinator for five years from 1997 to 2002. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong.

Valery is author of nine books on Chinese dress and antiques, including her latest, an illustrated history of Guangzhou, published by Oxford University Press. She is presently working on another book on Chinese dress to be published in 2006. She has written numerous articles on a wide range of topics for publications, as well as the Journal of the RASHKB. She is a frequent speaker in Hong Kong and overseas, and a consultant to museums on Chinese dress. Her own collection has been acquired by museums in Hong Kong, Macao, Sydney, and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London.

Mr. Geoffrey Emerson

The Royal Asiatic Society has played an important part of my life for more than thirty-five years. I came to Hong Kong on a two-year contract in 1964. I’m still here and already retired for five years. I was born in upstate New York on one of the beautiful Finger Lakes; a fine place to grow up but without the excitement of Hong Kong! I studied history at Hamilton College and then education at New York University.

When people ask why I came to Hong Kong, I reply that like many people here, I was a refugee: in my case, a refugee from the New York City public school system. I had taught a year in a junior high school there but it was really rough. When a friend told me about teaching in Hong Kong, I boarded a BOAC plane in New York (remember BOAC?) and arrived at the old Kai Tak Airport. Then, to my great surprise, I spent thirty-two years at St. Paul’s College, opposite the University of Hong Kong. There I taught history and English and also served as Vice-Principal for twelve years and Careers Master for eight years. From 1969 to 1971, I studied for an M.Phil. degree at the University of Hong Kong, my thesis being on the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong. For twelve years I served as President of the Hong Kong History Society. In 1984 I took two years off from teaching and sailed up and down the Yangtse River through the famous three gorges, as Sinologist and Cruise Director on a ship mainly carrying American tourists. I still marvel that someone from a small town in upstate New York can end up having such an interesting life on the other side of the world, and I am sure the Royal Asiatic Society will continue to enrich my life for many more years.

Julia L.Y. Chan, Honorary Librarian

Miss Julia Chan has been the Hon. Librarian of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, since 1995.

She is currently working in the University of Hong Kong as the Medical Librarian while simultaneously serving as the Team Leader of the Branch Libraries Services. Prior to this, she took responsibilities in various posts including the Dental Library, Reader Services and Collection Development in the University of Hong Kong. She was awarded the Medical Library Association (U.S.), Academy of Health Information Professionals – Distinguished Member in 2001.

She is professionally active and has served on various committees. As a long time member of the Hong Kong Library Association since 1984, Miss Chan has served on various HKLA committees. She was Hon. Librarian and Secretary in 1985, Treasurer in 1986 and 1987, Special Libraries Committee Member in 1986 and Liaison Officer for Medical, Health & Welfare Section from 2003-2004. She was also Secretary/Treasurer of the International Association of Orientalist Librarians from 1990-1993. Currently she is the President of the Hong Kong Library Association. She was awarded a Fellowship of the Hong Kong Library Association in 1995.

For many years she played an active role in teaching the Certificate Course for Library Assistants, Diploma in Librarianship, Diploma of Library and Information Science, and Master of Applied Science. She has also published and made presentations on library resources and services and co-authored the Directory of Libraries and Information Centres in Hong Kong.

Betty Wei

I was 16 when I arrived in New York City and became the first Asian student to study at Chapin. Then I went to Bryn Mawr and New York University.

I married Richard Liu, a Chinese American, and we have now enjoyed almost 50 years together. In 1975 Richard accepted a job in Hong Kong and this move completely changed the direction of my life. Hong Kong at that time was British and Cantonese, and I did not belong. In the 1970s there was little for married women outside the context of their husbands' jobs. I hated shopping, did not play mah-jong, and the fantastic Cantonese food, on which one is not supposed to "get fat", made me twice the woman I was. So I had to do something. Since the University of Hong Kong granted degrees through research, I obtained a doctorate by producing a dissertation. After 30 years of constant expanding and revising, this study is about to emerge as a book!

With a doctorate, one instantly becomes a "scholar" and Oxford University Press invited me to write. Shanghai: Crucible of Modern China boasted a colourful cover, so I told everybody to judge at least this book by its exterior. For several years I lectured and wrote columns for international newspapers.

Hong Kong in the 1980s was rapidly changing and my interests took me in several directions. I served on the board of a society that trained children with multiple handicaps, on a committee of the World Wildlife Fund, and the scholarship committee of the Hong Kong Association of University Women. I was a trustee of a foundation that constructed a junk, based on the design of Marco Polo’s, authentic to the final detail except for the electronic navigational equipment. I was elected to the Board of Governors of an institution which pioneered in Hong Kong the teaching of children in English and Mandarin Chinese. I was also Governor of the Hong Kong-American Center. I resigned all these responsibilities in 1997.

My daughter complains that I am the "girl who can't say no". As if to prove her point, I took the job of creating a liberal arts curriculum for the degree programs of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts; a new experience for me. It has been a challenge but the rewards continue to multiply. I retired, and hope to devote my time to family, writing, and needlepoint.

Peter Halliday, Hon. Editor

Peter Halliday has been the Hon. Editor of HKBRAS since 1993. He is a former police officer turned entrepreneur with ventures currently in ICT consulting, executive training and search engine marketing. He is married with two young children. His interests include academia, scouting, Special Olympics and trying to keep fit.

Jason Wordie, Activities Co-ordinator

Jason Wordie is a local historian and writer. A member of the Society since 1990, he was elected to Council in 2000 and has chaired the Activities Committee since late 2003. A graduate of the University of Hong Kong, he is an Honorary Research Associate at the Centre of Asian Studies and in the History Department of Hong Kong University. An Australian by birth, he has lived in Kam Tin in the north-west New Territories since the late 1980s. He worked for several years as a civilian teacher with the Brigade of Gurkhas in the New Territories and Brunei and served for a time with the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) in the early 1990s.

Jason is the author, with Ko Tim Keung, of 'Ruins of War: A Guide to Hong Kong’s Battlefields and Wartime Sites', published in 1996. He subsequently prepared for publication Sir Lindsay and Lady Ride’s illustrated history of Macao and 'The Voices of Macao Stones', which appeared in 1999. 'Streets: Exploring Hong Kong Island, a ramble around lesser-known corners of Hong Kong Island' was released in 2002. 'Streets: Exploring Kowloon' is currently with Hong Kong University Press and a similar work on Macao is now in preparation. In addition to writing newspaper articles on local history subjects and conducting walking tours to sites of historical interest in Hong Kong and Macao, Jason’s research interests range from the evolution history of Hong Kong’s local Portuguese community to the little-known Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps Nursing Detachment; both of which will be the subject of books in due course. He has also completed an extensive biography of former Hutchison International Ltd. taipan Sir Douglas Clague, which remains unpublished at this time.
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