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JIANN HSIEH
ground could no longer maintain links with their native places. Psychologically, this must have enhanced their eagerness to establish traditional associations aiming at the seeking of identification. Although mainland China is now (1980) becoming stabilized, those who had established and supported the voluntary associations still cannot return to their native places for a happy life. On the contrary, during the past years they have started their careers in Hong Kong and made a life far better than any they ever had before. As a result, their voluntary associations have become both temporary "native places" for expressing their nostalgia and communication centers for doing business.
As mechanisms for perpetuating and preserving a particular culture, the Waichow Hakka associations are facing a series of problems which may handicap their further development. Problems which the informants often mentioned in interviews are the alienation of young people from the associations, the leaders' old age, the small number of members, etc. In my opinion, all these are superficial phenomena and are not essential aspects of the problem. For instance, it should be noted that the traditional Chinese associations were in any case the preserve of seniors not juniors. Moreover, as societal complexity increases, associations organized according to new principles will surely attract a large number of young people. From my point of view, the most serious problems facing the Waichow Hakka associations may be summarized as follows:
1. Because of their long history of migration, the Hakka, as a minority Chinese group among the Chinese, have had a strong sense of group solidarity. In order to adapt to a new environment effectively, they often concentrated in particular areas and maintained very clear group boundaries with other Chinese (Lo, 1933: 65). The single-surname Hakka villages set up in the New Territories during the Ch'ing Dynasty may be regarded as typical examples. However, as I pointed out before, this is not the case for the Waichow Hakka who came alone after 1949 and thus scattered everywhere in Hong Kong and Kowloon. The patterns of both migration and settlement deter them from having a full participation in association activities. In addition to their limited kinship networks and dispersed rather than nucleated settlement pattern, high physical mobility in Hong Kong also hinders a stable linkage between the association and its members and makes established