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was uncommon, though, for women to go to school, and the only schools the boat-people went to were the "winter schools" that operated only in the winter months.56
Pupils who did well in the village schools could enter Sung Chen School in Sai Kung Market, but better off families preferred to send their children to Nam T'au, or even Canton. Graduates of Sung Chen could try to enter the Government schools in Kowloon, or the Tai Po Teachers Training School. A minority went on to the Roman Catholic school in T'am Shui, and it was possible to go from there to Roman Catholic schools in Canton.57
Schools were locally organized, but from 1913, the Hong Kong Government gave a selected few a subsidy. By 1922, seventeen schools were subsidized in Sai Kung. From the wide selection of people who graduated from the Sung Chen School, it is clear that the contribution of the Roman Catholic Church to the education of the pre-war Sai Kung population was notable.
Medical facilities
At Sai Kung Market, traditional doctors and herbal medicines were available, and some western medicines too, from the Government Medical Officer who came here regularly. In 1934, a Government dispensary was established, where a midwife was permanently stationed. Nonetheless, for most illnesses, villagers relied on treatments that were available closer to home. Some villagers had studied traditional medical texts and could offer treatments. "Old ladies" who served as midwives could readily be found. Medicinal herbs were gathered from the hillsides as alternatives or supplements to what could be bought in the market. Religious cures were not infrequently resorted to.58
Written literature
Most villages had written lineage genealogies, handbooks for various purposes (medicine, etiquette, village regulations, fung shui, fortune telling, worship), written land deeds, account books both in connection with ancestral land and of individual household expenses, and occasionally books of songs to be sung on various occasions. Novels were uncommon, but the more literate read printed texts of the Cantonese songs known as the naam yam. Many villagers would not have been sufficiently literate to understand all of these texts, but in almost all villages