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BOOK REVIEWS
because there is a much greater body of pre-war material than the items included here. This criticism could have been turned away by an indication, beyond the qualifications already made in the introduction, that this was a selected bibliography.
The introduction is a useful and stimulating part of the work. Besides explaining how the bibliography has been brought together, and why, it draws attention to some of the lacunae in Hong Kong studies, especially in the social science field. However this is surely as much due to the lack of a social science faculty at the University of Hong Kong until recently and the small size of the faculties in the colleges of the Chinese University, than, as the writers suggest, to 'purposive decisions..... to avoid issues with important policy overtures'. The complaint that nowhere in Hong Kong is there a full collection of Hongkongiana is still, I believe, justified and should be remedied... perhaps to the extent of compiling a master list of books on the subject available in the main Hong Kong libraries.
As a publication, it is well produced and printed, though it bears many marks of hasty compilation and checking that were probably due to its issue coinciding with the departure of the joint compilers from Hong Kong. These should be put right on a second issue. And, if I may end on a personal note, I always like to see titles and authors on the spine - it is so much more convenient when looking for a book.
Hong Kong, 1970.
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JAMES HAYES
FOLK RELIGION IN AN URBAN SETTING. A STUDY OF HAKKA VILLAGERS IN TRANSITION. Morris I. Berkowitz, Frederick P. Brandauer, John H. Reid. Hong Kong, Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture, 1969.
As the first book-length study of Chinese religious practices in Hong Kong, this report deserves our careful consideration. Studies of Chinese folk religious practices are rare enough, and those of Hakka villagers are still rarer; therefore this general study of Hakka religion is very welcome indeed. The book represents the first of a series of research projects to be conducted by the Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture.