PERSISTENCE & PRESERVATION OF HAKKA CULTURE
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all segments, cut across diverse organizational identities, emphasize what is common to all, regulate competition among the associations in complementary and cooperative rather than in emulative and suppressive terms, and thus maintain a holistic and united community.
Do the problems stated above imply that the Waichow Hakkas' voluntary associations in Hong Kong will disappear after the vanishing of their culture? Of course not. As anthropologist R. Anderson (1972:21) said: “Voluntary associations do not themselves initiate or hinder socio-cultural change." Man, only man, is the master of social institutions. It has been shown in my survey that the Waichow Hakkas' voluntary associations based on traditional organizing principles have changed both their organization and content in certain circumstances in order to adapt to the ever-changing urban situation in Hong Kong. In the future, as long as division of labor by locality and dialect exist, their associations will still be an important adaptive device. Therefore, the only real problem to be examined is: How will they change? This is a problem which demands long-term field research (Foster et al, 1978).
NOTES
1 To my knowledge, only Aline K. Wong's papers on the Kai-fong associations describe voluntary associations in Hong Kong (1968, 1971, 1972a, 1972b).
2 The bulk of my expenses for the present study was borne by a generous grant from the Chinese University of Hong Kong, which I acknowledge with deep gratitude. Help was also received from the Institute of Social Studies and the Humanities and the Social Research Centre of the same university, for which I am grateful. I also wish to express my gratitude to many association leaders who spent hours talking to me and instructing me in the history of their associations.
3 In the early Ch'ing Dynasty the imperial court adopted a policy of "clearing up the border," i.e., removing the people living along the sea coast, in order to prevent them from a possible collusion with the rebels overseas (CCCHS, 1950: 27-29).
4 According to my survey made in 1970, some single-surname villages in the New Territories of Hong Kong still exist even under the strong impact of the modern delocalization process. The Lis' village in So Kwun Wat is a good example.
5 In 1975 there were 185 clan and surname associations in the Chinese community of Singapore; the organization of some of these associations cut across locality or dialect boundaries (Hsieh, 1977: 87).