PENG CHAU
75
It is not certain whether the fishermen who petitioned the Viceroy were local men, but, if so, their initiative on that occasion showed itself again some twenty years later when in 1857 an association called the Peng Wo Tong was formed among the trawlers based on Peng Chau. These are said to have numbered about 200 at that time. Though this may be an exaggeration, the Tong was undoubtedly a large organisation. Its name appears on the Tin Hau temple repair tablet of 1878 where its joint contribution of 140 taels of silver, out of a total of about 640 taels subscribed for the work, heads the list and its leaders were among the twelve principal organisers. Little is now remembered locally of its work and objects, or of its origin, but perhaps it was formed to retain more of the profits of fishing for the fishermen themselves, instead of letting them go to the Cantonese shopkeepers who might have become demanding and oppressive at the time. I do not know whether fishermen in other ports organised themselves into such groups, and it would be interesting to have further information on this point. This particular Tong concerned itself with more than business. As we have seen, it helped with temple repairs and it is known to have taken a hand in organising festival matters. One elder remembers attending an opera show organised by the Tong when he was about ten years old (1905) and he can even remember the name of the opera! It is certainly an organisation which would repay such detailed study as is still possible.
The number of fishing boats based on Peng Chau during this period was considerable, and an interesting variety of persons were engaged in fishing. At the end of the century there were said to have been still nearly 200 trawling junks there and a similar number, more or less equally divided, of two smaller types of sailing craft. Whilst this is perhaps an exaggeration it is certain that there were many more than can be seen there today. These were all operated by Tanka fishermen, the true boat people of South China, who lived and died on their craft.17 There were also a hundred Hoklo boats, long narrow craft with two or three standing rowers of a type still to be seen round Peng Chau and Cheung Chau. The Hoklos themselves spent their life between their boats and their mat-shed homes near the beaches. There were also lesser numbers of Hakka and Cantonese fishermen,18