BOOK REVIEWS
349
it is necessary to emphasize this point anew. Secondly, with their likely (outward) bias against it, they did not bring out the importance of the popular religion for its own sake. They also missed its importance as a factor shaping local management. The popular religion emphasized the protection of the people against disease and harmful influences of all kinds, not only as individuals but as families and communities. Hugh Baker's own series Ancestral Images (SCMP Ltd. 1979, 1980 and 1981) and Joan Law and Barbara Ward's recent book on Chinese Festivals (South China Morning Post 1982) help to fill this gap. Thirdly, the daily life of ordinary people and its strong cultural base need to be added to the record. Fortunately, detail on these areas is now being recovered through recent field research conducted mainly from the Chinese University.
The interested reader could expand his studies beyond the gazetteer, with the help both of Dr. Baker's complementary text and the notes, and the additional material research workers continue to provide for later synthesis. Dr. Baker has touched on land (pp 44-45) and has filled out the account provided in the gazetteer about settlement, especially after the "Evacuation of the Coast 1662-69" (pp 26-28) but more information is now becoming available. On land and land-related matters, Edgar Wickberg, David Faure and Michael Palmer have work published or in preparation. For settlement details, the collected genealogies of the long settled families of the New Territories, large and small, are producing a wealth of new material. A new listing of local genealogies, mostly held in manuscript, with an explanation of their contribution to local history, is given in Anthony K. K. Siu's recent book Genealogies and Hong Kong's Local History (in Chinese) published privately by the Hin Chiu Institute in 1983. Mr. Siu has also pointed to the use that can be made of the other and older Chinese sources for the region. This kind of documentary research would greatly assist with identifying more of the (too large) number of village names which remain unidentified on maps 7 and 8 referred to above. The gazetteer's listing of temples can also be extended. It is certain from my field research and enquiries that more existed than are stated in the 1819 edition, and many more were added after that time.