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DOUGLAS W. SPARKS
According to Kan, the potential role of Kaifongs in mediating between government and people has been negatively affected by actual government policy. Government has tended to de-emphasize the potential role of Kaifongs in community organization, and has indirectly controlled them by withholding possible funds, while providing support to other voluntary organizations (Kan, 1970: 221). Whatever their overall effects upon Hong Kong society, it is clear that there is considerable variation in their impact on local areas. I would suggest that Kaifongs in resettlement estates may be the least active and effective among their number in uniting and developing the local community. The more active and influential of such organizations appear to be located in commercial and private housing areas. These statements are tentative in that the existing literature on Kaifongs in Hong Kong does not appear to resolve these questions.1
That there is less direct economic and political competition in the urban areas, or at least in some resettlement estates, does not mean that there is no interethnic hostility. The viability and successful functioning of Teochiu organizations and festivals is a reflection of such hostility and of a general feeling of competition with other ethnic groups, particularly in the organization of ritual, in which there is implicitly the aim of having the biggest and the best festival in the local area. Conflict with a neighbor, work colleague, or stranger in the market may escalate and be expressed in terms of ethnic hostility and perhaps require reinforcements from one's own ethnic group in order to "resolve". Interpersonal conflict between members of different ethnic groups might even be more frequent and likely to lead to violence with the increase in density and the chance that an appropriate mediator would not be immediately available.
In conclusion, it is clear that economic and political structure have been important determinants of variation in the expression and organization of ethnicity in Hong Kong. Differences in urban and "rural" social structure are obviously related to differences in the nature of interethnic dynamics in the respective areas. The study of ethnicity in Hong Kong should prove to be a particularly fruitful
1 There is an extensive literature on Kaifongs, much of which is impressionistic and not based on intensive research. Kan's dissertation (Kan, 1970) and later publications are the most extensive and detailed studies (her later publications are in the name Aline K. Wong).