ETHNICITY IN A HOUSING ESTATE IN HONG KONG
69
were firmly established as having the best festival, and that this has helped to elevate the general prestige of Teochiu and their leaders.
Although there has never been any cooperation between the two organizations, relations between them deteriorated several years ago as a result of an incident which involved police and local government officials. Many of the Hungry Ghost Festivals in Hong Kong are held in playgrounds within housing estates and are widely considered nuisances by non-participants in that the operas perform until late at night, loudspeakers shriek out auction proceedings, etc. The Hoi Luk Fung festival had for several years been performed at a certain playground within the housing estate, while the Teochiu had held their festival at a more remote site outside the estate. One year the Teochiu decided that they would use the more centrally located playground in the estate since they were the larger and stronger of the two groups. Hoi Luk Fung learned of the Teochiu plan, and overnight they quickly began building their opera matshed in order to forestall the Teochiu strategy. The next day both groups applied to the government for use of the playground and both were refused. During this period someone tried to burn the Hoi Luk Fung structures on the playground. The Teochiu claimed that the Hoi Luk Fung started the fire themselves in order to blame the Teochiu, and the Hoi Luk Fung of course blamed the Teochiu. In any case, the Teochiu then decided to follow the government's ruling and commenced planning to use the acceptable but more remote site. The Hoi Luk Fung persisted, however, in their plans to use the now restricted playground as their festival site and continued to build their structures. This led to a series of confrontations with police and several injuries to both sides were incurred. Although the Hoi Luk Fung rebuilt structures several times after police destroyed them, they were eventually forced permanently out of the playground. In succeeding years, Hoi Luk Fung used the more remote site with government permission. Although there was no organized fighting between Teochiu and Hoi Luk Fung, the incident severely strained relationships between individuals and the organizations.
As stated above, Hoi Luk Fung are the most similar to Teochiu among Chinese ethnic groups in language, culture and historical origins. Yet they view each other with great hostility and distrust. These feelings and perceptions were evidently developed in Hong Kong in that I have been told that Hoi Luk Fung and Teochiu