A REPORT ON SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE NEW TERRITORIES OF HONG KONG, 1963
MAURICE FREEDMAN
Introduction
This report by the late Maurice Freedman, Professor of Social Anthropology at Oxford University and Fellow of All Souls at the time of his death in 1975, has hitherto been available only in mimeographed form. It was written for the New Territories Administration, Hong Kong Government, which gave assistance during his field study visit in 1963, as recorded in the opening paragraphs. The report is reproduced in full, with the permission of Dr. Judith Freedman and of the Hong Kong Government.
Beyond making a few trifling corrections necessitated by the fact that Professor Freedman wrote the report away from his sources of reference (para. 2), I have abstained from amending the text or adding notes. Were I to do either, the report would lose some of that distinction that he gave to any study of place, time and context.
For those members who are interested in Professor Freedman's later work, some of the contents of this report were incorporated in his Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung (London and New York, 1966) and part into other work. A bibliography of his writings is appended to Professor G. William Skinner's obituary notice which appeared in the American Anthropologist, 78, No. 4, December 1976: 871-885. A useful collection of his essays will appear soon, edited by Professor Skinner.--Ed.
The Report
1. On 8 February 1963 I began a study tour of the New Territories. I planned to spend some three months making a general appraisal of social conditions and assessing the possibilities of detailed social research. This period was to be followed by a further three months during which I would undertake some intensive study in one place. My visit to Hong Kong was financed partly by the London-Cornell Project for research into Chinese and South-East Asian societies (a body which came into existence in August 1962 and which receives its funds from the Carnegie Corporation