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BARBARA E. WARD
early stages of a boom in fishing which had been ushered in by a new system of marketing and was to be accompanied by the rapid mechanisation of the junks. This was a general movement affecting cargo carriers as well as fishing craft in China as well as Hong Kong. Connected closely with it was an upsurge in the demand for education (for legal running a mechanised boat requires a certificated coxswain-engineer) and a strong movement towards dwelling ashore. In a few years Kau Sai was to have its new school, and the first of the gay, new, colour-washed houses was being built. The removal of the Hakka land families had merely made it a little easier for the Cantonese Boat People of Kau Sai to find building sites and maintain their unity as a relatively homogeneous group.
3. KAU SAI: THE RHYTHMS OF LIVING
In this chapter I continue the description of Kau Sai with a general account of the on-going framework of activities into which a fisherman is born and in which he spends most of his life. It is necessary first to complete the picture of the physical setting with a more detailed account of the lay-out of the anchorage.
The lay-out of the anchorage
Between 1950 and 1970 the water front changed. In 1950, the sea wall, running from the temple westward along the whole length of the village, was made of rough granite blocks and boulders. Only in front of the temple were these held in place by mortar. There were four jetties, built also of granite boulders. The largest, best finished and most used was almost directly in front of the main shop. A second somewhat smaller one lay about twenty-five yards west of this. The third and fourth, flanking these two, were rather small and tumbledown. By 1970 the entire water front had a concrete wall surmounted by a concrete pathway. In place of the two old central granite block jetties stood two new concrete piers. The more westerly of the two was now the major one, a smaller one replacing that in front of the shops. The site of the old eastern jetty near the temple was now occupied by a public latrine. The fourth, most westerly jetty