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Finally, as I have mentioned above, the Peel Street shrine was developed by Hoklo speakers living in and around this older part of Central District. This prompts me to add a few more words about them. Hoklo speakers in Hong Kong were, and still are, a distinctive group. I have been friends with a number of them since the mid 1960s, when the caretaker of the block of flats in which we were then living at Mount Austin, who was one of them, introduced me to a growing circle of his fellow countrymen. Others introduced themselves! I was always glad to meet more members of this interesting group of people, whose attachment to their home area and its customs has been of special and abiding interest to me. Many belong to groups centered on new shrines and temples, developed in the manner described above. In fact, my caretaker friend has long been a leader at the Peel Street shrine and has a connection with another Hoklo temple in Sau Mau Ping, in East Kowloon. Others are connected with them in other places, and have spent years in their service.
These two accounts are based on notes taken in 1974.
Hong Kong, November 1988
JAMES HAYES