PERSISTENCE & PRESERVATION OF HAKKA CULTURE
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voluntary associations entitled "Waichow" are Hakka and few are Hoklos. People often regard "Waichow" as synonymous with "Hakka" and neglect the very significant language and cultural differences between these two groups. Geographically, the districts of Hai-feng and Lu-feng border upon Chao chow and some of their territories were even separated from the later. This is why the Hoklos' culture is so similar to that of the Chao-chow people but quite different from that of the Hakka. This also makes the Wai-chow Hoklos adopt a special strategy to unite with the Hoklos from other places in order to organize their own associations.
In contrast to the kinship principle, the traditional locality principle is still very important in organizing voluntary associations in Hong Kong. Among the forty-nine Waichow associations that I have been studying, there are thirty associations, roughly 60 per cent of the total, based on the locality principle. In China the idea of locality comes from the idea of "domicile of origin" or of legal residence, in Chinese (chi-kuan). Although, unlike the surname, the domicile of origin is not transmitted hereditarily, it cannot be changed easily because it is not simply determined by one's birth place or place of current residence. According to Ho (1966: 1-9), in addition to the dialect factor, the ethics of filial piety stressed by the Confucianists, as well as the administrative laws for regulating legal residence in order to control the quota system of candidates in the civil examinations, have been important factors in shaping the idea of domicile of origin. From the anthropological point of view, I think that the Chinese emphasis on kinship relationships, from which the tradition of localized lineages is formed, and the formation of the idea of domicile of origin, interact both as cause and effect.
With the passing of time, the organizing principles of associations are usually no longer only traditional but become diversified following societal complexity. My investigation has shown that there are also cultural associations (such as education funds), athletic associations (such as lion-dance clubs), and recreational associations (such as music clubs). Kerri (1976:23) writes:
With increasing modernization, industrialization, and urbanization and the concomitant large-scale rural-urban migrations, social scientists have found that kinship and territory are no longer effective means for the organization of new social groups