76
Hakka villages in the area.
Summary
Thus, the 1911 and 1921 Censuses throw considerable light on the late pre-modern traditional society of the New Territories. The evidence the censuses provide should be used more fully than it has been. That the censuses have inaccuracies is manifest, but the inaccuracies are not of so serious a character as to preclude detailed use of their tables for analytical work. Analysis, freed of the biases which oral evidence invariably introduce, shows what traditional village life was like before modernisation became a significant factor to the New Territories. It shows us a complex society, with the heavy mortality rates and overwhelming dominance of the economy by primary producers typical of such a traditional society, but it shows us also the vigorous market towns and ports, and the complex life of a well-settled and confident, if small-scale and rural, community.
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