HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE
51
I will here jump ahead and say that one study which is urgently needed to restore one of the missing pieces in our puzzle before it melts away, is the collection preferably on tape recordings, of local stories, legends and above all, songs and rhymes. These were formerly widely heard, especially among the Tanka43 and Hokloss boat people and among the Hakka149 villagers of the high plateaux where they are called shan-ko.117 When I was District Commissioner, New Territories, I attempted to arrange a performance of some of these shan-ko for the then Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, but the star performer, who was a very old man, was afflicted by stage-fright and would not sing a note until after the Governor had left; nor would he allow the songs which he afterwards rendered to be recorded. However, I am sure this kind of reluctance could be overcome, perhaps by a little alcoholic inducement, but the point I really wish to emphasize is that now everybody has a transistor radio, no one wants to listen to the old songs and they are remembered only by the ancient. The evidence which they enshrine of the origin of our local people may be of high importance, quite aside from the artistic and musical merits of the songs and stories, and I think a determined effort should be made to ensure that this evidence, which we have so outrageously neglected while it was plentiful, should be put on record before it is too late.
Two non-Chinese words are the word yong for a village and the word kan53 for a water channel; if only more studies of the Yao languages were available, the list could be much longer. The late S. L. Wong of Hong Kong University, previously of Lingnam University, who had done original research among the Yao of two districts of Kwangtung Province, including his own native district of Tsang Shing,159 told me many years ago that one thing to look for when testing whether a "Chinese" village was of Yao origin was to keep a watchful eye and ear for traces of the cult of Pan-ku.112 At the same time he warned me that where the memory of tribal origin still lived among village traditions they were careful to conceal the fact from strangers, so that any direct question would almost certainly meet flat denial. This, I need hardly say, is characteristic of rural communities the world over and I have encountered similar difficulties even in recording the local names of mountains and streams, including one instance
HONG KONG BEFORE THE CHINESE
51
I will here jump ahead and say that one study which is urgently needed to restore one of the missing pieces in our puzzle before it melts away, is the collection preferably on tape recordings, of local stories, legends and above all, songs and rhymes. These were formerly widely heard, especially among the Tanka43 and Hokloss boat people and among the Hakka149 villagers of the high plateaux where they are called shan-ko.117 When I was District Commissioner, New Territories, I attempted to arrange a performance of some of these shan-ko for the then Governor, Sir Alexander Grantham, but the star performer, who was a very old man, was afflicted by stage-fright and would not sing a note until after the Governor had left; nor would he allow the songs which he afterwards rendered to be recorded. However, I am sure this kind of reluctance could be overcome, perhaps by a little alcoholic inducement, but the point I really wish to emphasize is that now everybody has a transistor radio, no one wants to listen to the old songs and they are remembered only by the ancient. The evidence which they enshrine of the origin of our local people may be of high importance, quite aside from the artistic and musical merits of the songs and stories, and I think a determined effort should be made to ensure that this evidence, which we have so outrageously neglected while it was plentiful, should be put on record before it is too late.
Two non-Chinese words are the word yong for a village and the word kan53 for a water channel; if only more studies of the Yao languages were available, the list could be much longer. The late S. L. Wong of Hong Kong University, previously of Lingnam University, who had done original research among the Yao of two districts of Kwangtung Province, including his own native district of Tsang Shing,159 told me many years ago that one thing to look for when testing whether a "Chinese" village was of Yao origin was to keep a watchful eye and ear for traces of the cult of Pan-ku.112 At the same time he warned me that where the memory of tribal origin still lived among village traditions they were careful to conceal the fact from strangers, so that any direct question would almost certainly meet flat denial. This, I need hardly say, is characteristic of rural communities the world over and I have encountered similar difficulties even in recording the local names of mountains and streams, including one instance
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