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POPULATION
Approximately 57 per cent of the urban population is now of Hong Kong birth. Most of these and the greater part of the immi- grant population originate from Kwangtung province. The urban Chinese population also includes a Fukien community and overseas Chinese whose families originally came from Kwangtung or Fukien.
New Territories: Cantonese, Hakka, Tanka and Hoklo make up the indigenous population of the New Territories. The Cantonese and Hakka groups are traditionally land-dwellers whereas the Tanka and Hoklo groups are traditionally boat-dwellers. These people differ from each other in physical appearance, dress and customs. The usual village community consists of a single clan, but two and three clan villages are common and multi-clan villages also occur. By custom, men are compelled to marry outside their own clan, but as far as is known intermarriage between land and boat-dwellers is
rare.
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The Cantonese form the biggest community in the New Terri- tories. They occupy the best parts of the two principal plains in the north-western section of the New Territories and own a good deal of the most fertile valley land in other areas. The oldest Cantonese villages-those of the Tang clan in the Yuen Long district-have a history of continuous settlement dating from the late eleventh century. Others date back to the late thirteenth century. -
The Hakka people (their name, if it is really Chinese, means 'strangers') began to enter this region at about the same time as the first Cantonese, or possibly even before. The latter were, however, the more successful settlers and in areas where both groups live side by side the Hakka are now always found upstream, along foothills, and generally on poorer land. The balance was later restored by heavy immigration, and relations between Hakka and Cantonese, which have endured periods of strife, are now peaceful. Intermarriage is not now uncommon and the two groups share some villages.
The Tanka people have been in the region since time unknown and are the principal seafaring people of South China, owning large sea-going junks and engaging in deep-sea fishing. They speak their own distinctive dialect of Cantonese. During the last five years, young men and women of this community have begun to take factory jobs, and thirty or forty thousand people of Tanka origin are believed to be now living ashore.