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D. Outsiders in the villages and the immediate vicinity
Besides outsiders who rented houses from the Dangs for residence or workshops/factories in recent years, there are some non-Dangs who have lived in the Kam Tin villages for many generations. These "resident outsiders" were believed by the Dangs to have been ha-fu, a term which can be translated as hereditary servants. When a Mrs. Dang mentioned to me that some people of the surnames Man and Sam lived in Naam Bin Teng, a part of Tai Hong Tsuen, she added that they had been ha-fu. Her logic was that any non-Dang who lived in Kam Tin must have been ha-fu. The present Dangs applied the term to servants of the lineage, as well as to settlements of tenants of the Dangs. My general impression is that there was more than one usage of the term, and the status of some groups might have changed in the passage of time.
The elders explained to me that ha-fu meant ha-yan, servants, and the fu in this term was the same fù as in kiu-fu (“sedan chair carriers”). Another term for ha-fu is sai-man. In this connection, one of them added that the villagers of Sha Po, Chuk Yuen and Pok Wai had been tenants of the Dangs of Kam Tin, and that ha-fu were not the same as tenants.
At Wing Lung Wai and Tai Hong Wai, some elders still remembered some ha-fu in their village. A Wing Lung Wai elder remembered only one ha-fu in his village. The person belonged to the great grandfather of an elder, a Yeui jou descendant who had a large land holding. The ha-fu carried sedan chairs for his master, among other things. A ha-fu had lived in Tai Hong Wai until he died around the time of the Japanese occupation. His given name was Loi-Fu. His surname was probably Mak. He lived in a house in the north-east corner of the wai. The house, now broken, was still there. He had to serve the whole village. His work was to do errands on special occasions such as banquets. In the old days one invited guests to banquets by sending a ha-fu. This Loi-Fu did not have to work for the Dangs on ordinary days. He often fished using his nets at a pit (haang) where the children went to swim. He would scold the children when he saw them swimming. He also kept bees, and gave some of the honey to the children. One of the villagers remembered that his mother often gave this Uncle Loi-Fu food to eat. He left no descendants. He had had no wife.
Near the centre of the Kam Tin Dang settlements is Sa Bui Leng, which has only three or four families now. According to an elder the Sa