# “LITTLE FUJIAN (FUKIEN)”
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Kong's North Point feel more familiar and therefore more comfortable. Overhearing a conversation between friends in the accents of the homeland while listening to a soft Fujianese melody wafting gently from a shop, one could close one's eyes and imagine being back in Fujian. With eyes open again, though, Little Fujian would have to suffice.
NOTES
1 E.g. Fujianese (Fukienese) and Shanghaiese in North Point; Shanghaiese in Tsim Tsa Tsui; Chau Zhou (Chiu Chau, Teochiu) in Chai Wan, Western District and Kwun Tong; Boat People in Aberdeen and Tai Po. See Guldin (1977) for a discussion of Han Chinese ethnicity and identity levels.
2 See below, fig. 3.
3 In the parlance of the times, and to a lesser extent even today, "Shanghaiese" often referred broadly to all Central (and sometimes even Northern) Chinese.
4 Accurate figures are lacking; no detailed colony-wide or North Point censuses were conducted between 1930 and 1960.
5 Based on analyses of Census Block Tally Sheets from 1971 Census made available to me through the kindness of the Commissioner.
6 By "Fujianese" I refer specifically to "Southern Fujianese," the Min-Nan speaking Fujianese of Xiamen (Amoy), Quan Zhou (Chuan Chow), Zhang Zhou (Chang Chow) and the surrounding counties. Other Fujianese are present in Hong Kong but Southern Fujianese are the overwhelming majority.
7 Based on 1971 Census: table 4; Wai 1957:5; Lam 1967:35; 1975 Census Update.
8 Based on 1971 Census, immigration statistics, and 1975 Census Update.
9 A problem with these categories is the Hakka, a distinct ethnic group, whose places of origin often overlap with those of ethnic Guangdongese. One source though (Kuo 1964:65) has estimated the Hakka population of Hong Kong as 12% of the total. For urban North Point the percentage of the predominantly rural Hakka would be substantially lower than for Hong Kong as a whole.
10 Although membership in these "Fujian" associations is theoretically open to all Hong Kong Fujianese and some non-Southern Fujianese do indeed belong, the Northern Fujianese of the Fuzhou (Foochow) area have set up their own associations.
11 Fujianese organizations not aligned with the PRC do exist in Hong Kong but are mostly "paper" associations.
12 Few Fujianese in Hong Kong are Christians (perhaps 4 or 5%), but those that are mostly arrived in Hong Kong earlier than the bulk of late 1950s and later immigrants and have been largely isolated (both physically and socially) from most aspects of life in Little Fujian.
13 Aidan Southall (1973) makes a related point in using the concept of interaction intensity as key to a definition of "urban."