early post-War generation of Tsuen Wan folk to their mostly very exiguous circumstances." Among the more positive attributes to be seen at that time there were, firstly, their pragmatic, realistic attitudes towards their living conditions and livelihood, and the invariable availability of leaders from among their own ranks, and, secondly, their generally co-operative and accommodating response to the Government's various demands upon them, especially with regard to clearances for development. At the same time, the limits of this co-operation were occasionally reached, and these cases I also had to deal with at first hand.
1. The Legacy of Self-Management and Local Leadership
One of these legacies from the past relates to the practice and acceptance of self-management. As Lin Yutang has said, "The Chinese people can always govern themselves, have always governed themselves". Local self-management characterized life in town and countryside, both under imperial rule and after. It did not amount to democracy, for much was left to a practically self-appointed group of local people: but the important thing to keep in mind is that they exercised their authority with the consent of the remainder.
Every town ward, every lineage, each village and sub-district had its local leaders. These men would control the people within their own circles in accordance with accepted norms, combining their wisdom whenever weightier matters demanded consultation and concerted action. In political science terms, such men constituted a genuinely local, lower-level management structure. It was a vital under-pinning of the usual and almost too well-known alliance of gentry and officials, though strange to say this fact has still not been sufficiently grasped by many of the leading historians of China.
This buttressing from below, and the managerial skills that were available at the ordinary levels of society, was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable features of traditional Chinese society. These self-management, managerial, skills were to be found wherever Chinese were to be found, inside and outside China. Even though Chinese communities on foreign soil mostly comprised former coolies and erstwhile peasants, they nonetheless exhibited these skills to a marked degree. It is, to a large extent, precisely because these traditional communities enjoyed these skills that their subsequent transition to