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DOUGLAS W. SPARKS
do not visit one another's homes in the estate nor did I ever see (D) accompanying the old man to any Teochiu rituals. Although their interaction is limited to the store front, it is more than an acquaintance relationship. The old man personally knows more Hoi Luk Fung than do most Teochiu in the housing estate, largely because of his friendly personality and the location of his shop.
As I got to know (D) I learned that he had lived prior to resettlement in a squatter settlement in which many Teochiu in the housing estate had also resided. He thus knows many of the people in the local Teochiu associations and had, in fact, opened a business in the estate with one of the local Teochiu leaders. The business went bankrupt about 8 years ago, and since then the two have not been involved in any kind of business relationship and do not visit one another. This was the only business partnership between Teochiu and Hoi Luk Fung in the housing estate that I learned about.
(D) once visited the office of one of the Teochiu associations. He knew 5 or 6 of the 15 people present and was very friendly in greeting those he knew as well as the others. The ex-business partner was present and entered into the usual greeting ritual for someone one has not recently seen but did not initiate any extended conversation. (D) busily took interest in the on-going mahjong game, asked about people, etc. Two Teochiu who had known (D) in the squatter settlement were particularly friendly at his arrival and made an effort to act the role of friend seeing friend after a long period by enthusiastically greeting him, seating him, asking about his current situation, asking him to drink beer, etc. This clearly indicated the unusualness of the visit; a frequent visitor is not likely to be publicly treated as a guest. (D) spoke briefly to these two individuals and to several others, walked around and tried to take part in several conversations, and shortly made parting statements and left. My impression, confirmed by talking to some of the Teochiu afterwards, was that he was not particularly close to any of the Teochiu and was unable to enter into conversation or initiate his own simply because he was not involved in that network of individuals and, as in any culture, knew when to end the interaction at an appropriate time. The interaction was interesting in that it was the only case of a Hoi Luk Fung visiting the association office, and because that morning (D) had taken me to visit the Hoi Luk Fung temple and his visit was evidently prompted by our own prior interaction.