56-847: The Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) ( RHKR(V) ) ( Chinese : 皇家香港軍團(義勇軍 ), formed in May 1854, was a local auxiliary militia force funded and administered by the colonial Government of Hong Kong . Its powers and duties were mandated by the Royal Hong Kong Regiment Ordinance. During the Imperial age, home defence units were raised in various British colonies with the intention of allowing regular army units tied up on garrison duty to be deployed elsewhere. These units were generally organised along British Army lines. The first locally raised militia in Hong Kong
112-509: A certain extent in South Korea , remain virtually identical to traditional characters, with variations between the two forms largely stylistic. There has historically been a debate on traditional and simplified Chinese characters . Because the simplifications are fairly systematic, it is possible to convert computer-encoded characters between the two sets, with the main issue being ambiguities in simplified representations resulting from
168-413: A forward operating base was set up at Huizhou . The group became operational on 6 June 1942. The officers of the B.A.A.G. were mainly European men with a Hong Kong connection, and the operative agents were mostly local Hong Kong men and women who offered their services, often at great risk, in occupied Hong Kong and outside, in the fight for the restoration of their home and freedom. Due to concern about
224-625: A home guard company. During the 1967 leftist riots, the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force were called out during the six-month disturbances in Hong Kong. The RHKR assisted in establishing the Junior Leaders Corps on 22 December 1969. By 1970, the naval unit was phased out and in 1970 the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force was itself disbanded – the two remaining member units, the Hong Kong Regiment and
280-613: A standard set of Chinese character forms used to write Chinese languages . In Taiwan , the set of traditional characters is regulated by the Ministry of Education and standardized in the Standard Form of National Characters . These forms were predominant in written Chinese until the middle of the 20th century, when various countries that use Chinese characters began standardizing simplified sets of characters, often with characters that existed before as well-known variants of
336-812: Is 産 (also the accepted form in Japan and Korea), while in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan the accepted form is 產 (also the accepted form in Vietnamese chữ Nôm ). The PRC tends to print material intended for people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, versions of the People's Daily are printed in traditional characters, and both People's Daily and Xinhua have traditional character versions of their website available, using Big5 encoding. Mainland companies selling products in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan use traditional characters in order to communicate with consumers;
392-493: The Chinese Commercial News , World News , and United Daily News all use traditional characters, as do some Hong Kong–based magazines such as Yazhou Zhoukan . The Philippine Chinese Daily uses simplified characters. DVDs are usually subtitled using traditional characters, influenced by media from Taiwan as well as by the two countries sharing the same DVD region , 3. With most having immigrated to
448-707: The Battle of Hong Kong , Lt. Colonel Sir Lindsay Ride , who was then a professor of Physiology at The University of Hong Kong , was captured. Before the end of the battle, he had been the commander of the Hong Kong Voluntary Defence Corps (H.K.V.D.C.) Field Ambulance, and, once hostilities commenced, was given command of the Combined Field Ambulance. Shortly after being captured, Ride escaped from Sham Shui Po POW camp to China with three trusted men. There, in order to further
504-827: The Commander-in-Chief, India , and with the agreement of the War Office in London, the new unit was incorporated into the structure of MI9, the Military Intelligence department responsible for support to resistance movements and POW escapes. Ride was appointed the MI9 representative in China and Commandant of the new group. A headquarters was established at Qiujiang in Guangdong Province, while
560-668: The French Revolution , but the badge was never officially recognised. The various roles played by the B.A.A.G. during the war and following the end of the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong in August 1945 were summed up in an editorial published in The South China Morning Post in early 1946: At the close of the year, Colonel L.T. Ride said good-bye to the men and women who have worked under him, in
616-633: The Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force , officially becoming separate entities. At the same time, both were granted the 'Royal' title by Queen Elizabeth II , and the words 'The Volunteers' were incorporated into the Hong Kong Regiment's title. With its new title and colours, the RHKR(V) was reorganised as a light reconnaissance unit operating under the command of the British Forces Overseas Hong Kong. In
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#1732780674856672-648: The Hong Kong Jockey Club Happy Valley Racecourse . The regiment included several units: List of vehicles used by regiment prior to disbanding: List of small arms used by the RHKR prior to disbanding: The regiment's badge at disbandment consisted of: Earlier badges had a Tudor Crown and the Volunteer Corps had no Oriental features: Traditional Chinese characters Traditional Chinese characters are
728-694: The Kensiu language . British Army Aid Group The British Army Aid Group ( B.A.A.G. ) was a para-military organisation for British and Allied forces in southern China during the Second World War . The B.A.A.G. was officially classified in the British Army 's order of battle as an MI9 unit that was responsible for assisting prisoners of war and internees to escape from the Imperial Japanese Army 's camps. After
784-640: The Shanghainese -language character U+20C8E 𠲎 CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-20C8E —a composition of 伐 with the ⼝ 'MOUTH' radical—used instead of the Standard Chinese 嗎 ; 吗 . Typefaces often use the initialism TC to signify the use of traditional Chinese characters, as well as SC for simplified Chinese characters . In addition, the Noto, Italy family of typefaces, for example, also provides separate fonts for
840-524: The " Boat People ". This included guarding temporary detention camps for Vietnamese migrants. The Sino-British Joint Declaration on the question of Hong Kong as a British colony was finalised and the joint declaration was signed in Beijing on 19 December 1984. On 27 May 1985, instruments of ratification were exchanged and the agreement entered into force. It was registered at the United Nations by
896-589: The 28 June 1944 to prevent further mistreatment by the Kempetai looking for the colours. The burial place was later found in 1957 but the flags had already deteriorated leaving only the poles. In 1949, The Hong Kong Regiment were reorganised and became part of the Hong Kong Defence Force , which also included separate air and naval units. In 1951 the new combined defence force was granted the title 'Royal', and replacement colours were entrusted to
952-430: The B.A.A.G. is that it was Hong Kong. There is rivalry between interned and non-interned as to which section was the custodian of the Hong Kong spiritual relics. If there were during the occupation two Kong Kongs marooned here, there was a third Hong Kong outside—another Hong Kong fretting, worrying and grieving. Nor did its work cease abruptly with the war’s end: for four months the personnel have been here helping to mop up
1008-433: The B.A.A.G., have in appreciable degree removed that blemish. They now know China. They laboured in close association with the real Chinese, reaching understanding. They return as an embassy, and they have a further service to perform in educating Hong Kong to a more co-operative conception of things Chinese. It will be a great pity if the B.A.A.G. should be completely dispersed: it has earned its shrine of remembrance and there
1064-527: The British Army Aid Group, and this leave-taking marked the official end of an organisation that Hong Kong cannot allow to die. Tired memories still recall the desolation that overwhelmed us at the surrender. Then, recovering, for a time we toughened again, sure that the Allies would return very soon. Then hopelessness again, lapsing into despair. We came to regard ourselves a little bitterly as
1120-726: The British and Chinese governments on 12 June 1985. In April 1992, the Security Branch of the Hong Kong Government formally announced that the regiment would disband in September 1995. The RHKR was officially disbanded on 3 September 1995. The Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers) Association was created in 1995 as a charitable organization to support former members in Hong Kong with a Club House located at
1176-617: The Corps was awarded the battle honour "Hong Kong". The colours of the Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps was put under the care of Lt. Ralph James Shrigley who buried the colours during the battle near the Fortress HQ of the regiment to prevent their capture by Japanese forces. Lt. Shrigley was later captured on the 25 December 1941 and was transferred to "Camp S" as a prisoner of war before killing himself on
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#17327806748561232-699: The HKVDC, deployed a total fighting strength of 2200 all ranks in seven infantry companies, five artillery batteries , five machine gun companies equipped with Vickers machine gun and an armoured car platoon . While only seeing light action in the New Territories at the beginning of the Japanese attack, the Volunteers were heavily engaged on Hong Kong Island, especially during the key battles of Wong Nai Chung Gap and Stanley . Casualties among 3 Coy at
1288-593: The Japanese. A number of these men later joined the Hong Kong Volunteer Company in Burma , where they were attached to the Chindits under General Orde Wingate . The services of the defence corps were later recognised by the award of 19 decorations and 18 mentioned in despatch for gallantry and good service. As a recognition of The Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps defence of Hong Kong during 1941,
1344-555: The People's Republic of China, traditional Chinese characters are standardised according to the Table of Comparison between Standard, Traditional and Variant Chinese Characters . Dictionaries published in mainland China generally show both simplified and their traditional counterparts. There are differences between the accepted traditional forms in mainland China and elsewhere, for example the accepted traditional form of 产 in mainland China
1400-535: The UK. Although colonial/overseas British territories' auxiliary units could have no tasking under the British Ministry of Defence, and members could not be compelled to serve outside their territory, many served voluntarily on attachment to British Regular and Territorial Army units. The regiment, which disbanded in 1995, should not be confused with the separate, shortlived Hong Kong Regiment (1892–1902), which
1456-587: The United States during the second half of the 19th century, Chinese Americans have long used traditional characters. When not providing both, US public notices and signs in Chinese are generally written in traditional characters, more often than in simplified characters. In the past, traditional Chinese was most often encoded on computers using the Big5 standard, which favored traditional characters. However,
1512-593: The call. However almost as soon as it was founded, it was disbanded when the threat of war in Europe receded, and Regular units of the British Army were once again able to resume responsibility for the security of Hong Kong. In 1862, the Hong Kong Volunteers was re-established, and in 1864 they were called out to help subdue a serious outbreak of rioting between British and Indian soldiers. In 1866 it
1568-545: The care of the regiment as successor to the defunct Defence Corps. In the early 1960s, the role of the Royal Hong Kong Defence Force changed from that of an infantry battalion to a reconnaissance regiment equipped with six British Ferret armoured cars (each armed with Browning .30-inch machine-gun ) were acquired. The regiment was reorganise to form a headquarters, headquarters squadron, three reconnaissance squadrons , an infantry company and
1624-490: The colonial government. The bodywork was outfitted by the Hong Kong and Whampoa Dock Company . These armoured cars played an important role in the Battle of Hong Kong in December 1941. The Hong Kong Defence Corps, renamed the " Hong Kong Volunteer Defence Corps " (HKVDC), met their severest test in the bitter fighting that took place in the crucial weeks before the fall of Hong Kong on Christmas Day 1941. On 8 December 1941,
1680-469: The enemy invaded the interior bases. The B.A.A.G. was so well organised and so well served that the knowledge abroad of conditions in Hong Kong was remarkably accurate and up-to-date. Though in conventional sense not a combat unit, its work, in the advanced sections, was highly dangerous. It is known now that many of its messengers and its agents in Hong Kong were caught and savagely put to torture and death. Their names will live in our minds and hearts; and when
1736-470: The forgotten folk—until we learned of the B.A.A.G. and the British Consul at Macao. There, miraculously, were friends, rallying round, beckoning us, assuring, us, impatient at times, no doubt, at the slowness of our response, venturing dangerously close, planning, providing, infiltrating at much risk—a resurgence and a rescue service almost without parallel. We did not know them then as the B.A.A.G. It
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1792-543: The former, and 1 Bty at the latter, were extremely heavy. 1 and 2 (Scottish) companies also suffered heavy losses, as did 5 Bty. Out of the mobilised strength of 2200, 289 were listed either as missing or killed, and many others became prisoners of war. Some, however, made their way into China where the British Army Aid Group was formed to assist the Chinese Government in the struggle against
1848-458: The full story of the B.A.A.G. is written its roll of honour will be a tablet to treasure. In its leader the Hong Kong unit was fortunate. Able, familiar with the Colony, and blessed with personality. Colonel Ride was a most appropriate choice. He is also well qualified to be the official historian, and his book will be awaited with keenest interest. To this Colony the essential virtue of our part of
1904-504: The group's hospital gave medical treatment to some 30,000 Chinese annually. and during a famine in 1943, fed up to 6,000 people daily. The B.A.A.G. continued its work after the Surrender of Japan and was finally disbanded on 31 December 1945. At the end of the war, Ride commissioned a formation patch for the group, depicting a scarlet pimpernel flower, after the hero of The Scarlet Pimpernel novels who helped prisoners escape from
1960-493: The inverse is equally true as well. In digital media, many cultural phenomena imported from Hong Kong and Taiwan into mainland China, such as music videos, karaoke videos, subtitled movies, and subtitled dramas, use traditional Chinese characters. In Hong Kong and Macau , traditional characters were retained during the colonial period, while the mainland adopted simplified characters. Simplified characters are contemporaneously used to accommodate immigrants and tourists, often from
2016-484: The late 1970s the Volunteers were deployed to assist the civil powers over the problem of illegal immigration from China; as the problem grew from 1980 till 1992 the Volunteers were deployed to man the defences of the Chinese-Hong Kong border. In the late 1980s to early 1990s the Volunteers were deployed to support the colonial government in controlling the flood of Vietnamese illegal migrants, commonly known as
2072-725: The mainland. The increasing use of simplified characters has led to concern among residents regarding protecting what they see as their local heritage. Taiwan has never adopted simplified characters. The use of simplified characters in government documents and educational settings is discouraged by the government of Taiwan. Nevertheless, with sufficient context simplified characters are likely to be successfully read by those used to traditional characters, especially given some previous exposure. Many simplified characters were previously variants that had long been in some use, with systematic stroke simplifications used in folk handwriting since antiquity. Traditional characters were recognized as
2128-682: The majority of Chinese text in mainland China are simplified characters , there is no legislation prohibiting the use of traditional Chinese characters, and often traditional Chinese characters remain in use for stylistic and commercial purposes, such as in shopfront displays and advertising. Traditional Chinese characters remain ubiquitous on buildings that predate the promulgation of the current simplification scheme, such as former government buildings, religious buildings, educational institutions, and historical monuments. Traditional Chinese characters continue to be used for ceremonial, cultural, scholarly/academic research, and artistic/decorative purposes. In
2184-983: The merging of previously distinct character forms. Many Chinese online newspapers allow users to switch between these character sets. Traditional characters are known by different names throughout the Chinese-speaking world. The government of Taiwan officially refers to traditional Chinese characters as 正體字 ; 正体字 ; zhèngtǐzì ; 'orthodox characters'. This term is also used outside Taiwan to distinguish standard characters, including both simplified, and traditional, from other variants and idiomatic characters . Users of traditional characters elsewhere, as well as those using simplified characters, call traditional characters 繁體字 ; 繁体字 ; fántǐzì ; 'complex characters', 老字 ; lǎozì ; 'old characters', or 全體字 ; 全体字 ; quántǐzì ; 'full characters' to distinguish them from simplified characters. Some argue that since traditional characters are often
2240-632: The number of Indian Army prisoners of war who were being recruited into the Japanese-sponsored Indian National Army , an Indian Section of the B.A.A.G. was established at Guilin under the command of Major Dinesh Misra, who had previously served in Hong Kong with the Rajputana Rifles . An imprisoned Indian officer, Captain Mateen Ansari , was executed by the Japanese for assisting the B.A.A.G. and
2296-677: The official script in Singapore until 1969, when the government officially adopted Simplified characters. Traditional characters still are widely used in contexts such as in baby and corporation names, advertisements, decorations, official documents and in newspapers. The Chinese Filipino community continues to be one of the most conservative in Southeast Asia regarding simplification. Although major public universities teach in simplified characters, many well-established Chinese schools still use traditional characters. Publications such as
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2352-700: The original standard forms, they should not be called 'complex'. Conversely, there is a common objection to the description of traditional characters as 'standard', due to them not being used by a large population of Chinese speakers. Additionally, as the process of Chinese character creation often made many characters more elaborate over time, there is sometimes a hesitation to characterize them as 'traditional'. Some people refer to traditional characters as 'proper characters' ( 正字 ; zhèngzì or 正寫 ; zhèngxiě ) and to simplified characters as 簡筆字 ; 简笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'simplified-stroke characters' or 減筆字 ; 减笔字 ; jiǎnbǐzì ; 'reduced-stroke characters', as
2408-434: The post-war problems, dealing sympathetically with a host of domestic wants and participating in the avenging of unnecessary sufferings. The unit’s record of service is one for Hong Kong’s pride as well as its gratitude. There is another aspect which should not be overlooked. It is an old taunt that Kong Kong is not China and knows little of China. The Hong Kong folk who escaped, and those who returned from elsewhere to work with
2464-833: The predominant forms. Simplified characters as codified by the People's Republic of China are predominantly used in mainland China , Malaysia, and Singapore. "Traditional" as such is a retronym applied to non-simplified character sets in the wake of widespread use of simplified characters. Traditional characters are commonly used in Taiwan , Hong Kong , and Macau , as well as in most overseas Chinese communities outside of Southeast Asia. As for non-Chinese languages written using Chinese characters, Japanese kanji include many simplified characters known as shinjitai standardized after World War II, sometimes distinct from their simplified Chinese counterparts . Korean hanja , still used to
2520-581: The traditional character set used in Taiwan ( TC ) and the set used in Hong Kong ( HK ). Most Chinese-language webpages now use Unicode for their text. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) recommends the use of the language tag zh-Hant to specify webpage content written with traditional characters. In the Japanese writing system , kyujitai are traditional forms, which were simplified to create shinjitai for standardized Japanese use following World War II. Kyūjitai are mostly congruent with
2576-985: The traditional characters in Chinese, save for minor stylistic variation. Characters that are not included in the jōyō kanji list are generally recommended to be printed in their traditional forms, with a few exceptions. Additionally, there are kokuji , which are kanji wholly created in Japan, rather than originally being borrowed from China. In the Korean writing system , hanja —replaced almost entirely by hangul in South Korea and totally replaced in North Korea —are mostly identical with their traditional counterparts, save minor stylistic variations. As with Japanese, there are autochthonous hanja, known as gukja . Traditional Chinese characters are also used by non-Chinese ethnic groups. The Maniq people living in Thailand and Malaysia use Chinese characters to write
2632-518: The ubiquitous Unicode standard gives equal weight to simplified and traditional Chinese characters, and has become by far the most popular encoding for Chinese-language text. There are various input method editors (IMEs) available for the input of Chinese characters . Many characters, often dialectical variants, are encoded in Unicode but cannot be inputted using certain IMEs, with one example being
2688-424: The war effort, support the Chinese, and shore up damaged British prestige in the area, he suggested forming a group that became known as the British Army Aid Group, which under the cover of acting as a humanitarian aid organisation, would help prisoners of war and internees to escape and at the same time, gather intelligence to further the war effort in the region. The idea was approved by General Archibald Wavell ,
2744-587: The words for simplified and reduced are homophonous in Standard Chinese , both pronounced as jiǎn . The modern shapes of traditional Chinese characters first appeared with the emergence of the clerical script during the Han dynasty c. 200 BCE , with the sets of forms and norms more or less stable since the Southern and Northern dynasties period c. the 5th century . Although
2800-581: Was a regular infantry regiment of the British Army, recruited in India. The Hong Kong Volunteers was formed in 1854 when the Crimean War led to a reduction of the British military presence in Hong Kong. To help bolster the defences at a time when marauding pirates were still a hazard on the China coast a call for local volunteers was made. A total of 99 Europeans were recruited, mostly British but with some Portuguese, Scandinavians and Germans also answering
2856-480: Was always a branch of the Hong Kong government. It was not a part of the reserve force of the British Army. The RHKR(V) did however form part of the order of battle of 48 Gurkha Infantry Brigade and were under command of the commander of the British forces in Hong Kong . These locally raised defence units met British military standards in organisation and efficiency. Many of the officers and NCOs attended training in
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#17327806748562912-532: Was disbanded again. In 1878, the Hong Kong Volunteers was reborn as the " Hong Kong Artillery and Rifle Volunteer Corps ". By 1917, it was renamed as the " Hong Kong Defence Corps " was actively engaged in guard and patrol duties during World War I when, owing to the recall of the British forces, they were the only military unit left in Hong Kong. In 1933, the Hong Kong Defence Corps acquired their first armoured car, equipped with an armour-plated body and mountings for two machine-guns. Later, four others were bought by
2968-423: Was later awarded the George Cross . Throughout the war the B.A.A.G. sent agents to gather intelligence – military, political and economic – about conditions in both Hong Kong and southern China. One important role was the provision of weather reports to the China Air Task Force of the United States Army Air Forces , who reciprocated by dropping medical supplies into the camps during raids. The agents' main role
3024-496: Was sufficient to know that Hong Kong men were on the perimeter, that we had not been abandoned at all: and thousands who were able to get away have full cause for gratitude to the B.A.A.G. for ready, generous and efficient help. The work done by the B.A.A.G. was very varied, ranging from espionage organisation, and other contact-making, to the assistance of refugees and displaced persons, conveyance of news to anxious relatives and friends, and even including “scorched earth” service when
3080-405: Was the Hong Kong Volunteers, a forerunner of what was to become the Royal Hong Kong Regiment (The Volunteers). Although the British government, as national government, was responsible for the defence of the territories and colonies, and held direct control of military units raised within them, the local forces were raised and funded by the local governments or the territories and as such the RHKR(V)
3136-443: Was to facilitate the escape of prisoners from Hong Kong; British, Commonwealth and Indian servicemen were then debriefed by B.A.A.G. staff and many subsequently rejoined the war effort. Many escaped Hong Kong Chinese joined the Hong Kong Volunteer Company , a unit formed by Ride which went on to fight in the Burma Campaign . The B.A.A.G. also gave medical and humanitarian assistance to civilians and military personnel in Southern China;
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