Intermarriages are now common in the lower ranks of society. Descendants of boat people have been settling on shore for three generations and are also now admitted to public examinations by force of custom. Thus the ancient exclusion which branded these boat people as pariahs is steadily dwindling away in South China.
In town, the descendants of boat people generally decry their descent and merge in the mass successfully into the Chinese or Eurasian population, so it would be impossible to ascertain in any school in town which of the scholars are boat people by descent. Most of the boat children in town are ignorant of or ashamed to avow their descent.
In the fishing villages, where all know each other, those boat people who are actually residing in boats are still looked upon as a lower class, but those boat people who are permanently residing on shore are part of the rest of the people.
The only places in Hong Kong where the boat people are still recognised as a distinct class are Cheung Chau, Shau Kei Wan, Yaumati, Mong Kok Tsui, Ap Lei Chau and Sham Shui Po. In all other parts of the Colony, they may be considered as absorbed in the general population. But even in these places, where the boat people still occupy a distinct social class, there is no objection felt among the Chinese people to their intermarrying.