ETHNICITY IN A HOUSING ESTATE IN HONG KONG
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eastern Kwangtung, cannot of course distinguish the two and usually are unaware of any difference in speech. Most Teochiu in the housing estate cannot differentiate the speech of Kap Jih people and Teochiu originally from Hui Lai villages near to Kap Jih. Thus Kap Jih are known to be Kap Jih only as a result of a person's self identification or participation in the local Kap Jih organization.
Although most Teochiu in the housing estate have no close friendships or significant contact with Hoi Luk Fung, there are exceptions which are interesting in that such interaction does occur, albeit not frequently, and they serve to explicate the distance between the two groups. A few Teochiu do have friendship relationships with Hoi Luk Fung which are of course similar to Teochiu-Teochiu friendships; that is, each of the actors has expectations and responsibilities within the relationship which are appropriate for any such relationship, regardless of ethnic background. The major difference between a Teochiu-Hoi Luk Fung relationship and a Teochiu-Teochiu relationship is that in the latter the two people are likely to be very involved in a common network and norms concerning friend loyalty are reinforced and at times interpreted in terms of a loyalty to the local Teochiu group vis-a-vis other groups.
The first example of a Teochiu-Hoi Luk Fung relationship concerns an elderly Teochiu (C) who runs a small ground floor shop in one of the blocks within the estate. This man's shop sells mostly candy, soda, beer and other small items and also has a mahjong game continuously going in the back. A number of Hoi Luk Fung live in this particular housing block, and (C) has joking and acquaintance relationships with several who buy beer, etc. from his shop. One Hoi Luk Fung (D) calls (C) the honorific title "uncle" and usually stops and chats with the old man when passing the store. I met (D) on such an occasion and learned that his great great grandfather was originally from the old man's village in Hui Lai and that he moved to Hoi Luk Fung. Thus the old man and (D) consider themselves very distantly related as "fellow villagers". Both (D) and the old man label (D) as Hoi Luk Fung, and (D) speaks Hoi Luk Fung rather than Teochiu. He is involved in the local Hoi Luk Fung festival organization and in the only major Hoi Luk Fung temple organization in Tsun Wan (which is not in the immediate vicinity of the housing estate). The old man (C) had heard of this temple but had never been there. (C) and (D)