PENG CHAU
85
between the Tanka fishermen and the land dwellers. The traditional picture is one of the two communities rigidly separated, with the despised fishermen exploited by the land dwellers whenever they came on land at the sheltered anchorages and excluded from a share in the amenities of village life, including the important one of education. It is supposed that the villagers or townsfolk would not let them take essential items like grass and firewood for themselves but insisted on selling everything to them, even charging for the use of the beaches where they beached their boats on the average once a month, and carried out running repairs.39
How far is this assessment borne out in Peng Chau in the period under review? In the first place, it has been shown that it was not only the Tanka who owned boats and obtained a living from the sea. Apart from the Hoklo fishermen who maintained an uneasy existence between land and sea and are generally considered to be more sea dwellers than landsmen, a number of land people, Hakka and Cantonese alike, owned and operated boats and sampans. Other land people were accustomed to fish from the rocky coast by line or by means of a stake net. The latter represented fishing for profit and was not just a way of supplementing a livelihood gained by other means since the financial outlay for a stake net was considerable. The fishing community was therefore wider than the group of Tanka who chose to base themselves on the island. Though this is not really surprising when the sea was near at hand and could provide a living for all, it led to a blurring of the sharp lines of differentiation commonly imagined to exist between the traditional boat people and the land dwellers.40 This must have assisted participation in religious activities, including the repair of temples, in which task both sea and land people were equally concerned because they all in some measure lived by the sea, if not all of them actually on it.41 Shopkeepers living on an island had as much reason to pray for the gods' blessings on their cargoes and customers as the fishermen for good catches and the safety of their boats and families. In such a small community, too, business connections were probably on a very personal basis and the boat people customers no less well known by the shopmen than their land neighbours.
PENG CHAU
85
between the Tanka fishermen and the land dwellers. The traditional picture is one of the two communities rigidly separated, with the despised fishermen exploited by the land dwellers whenever they came on land at the sheltered anchorages and excluded from a share in the amenities of village life, including the important one of education. It is supposed that the villagers or townsfolk would not let them take essential items like grass and firewood for themselves but insisted on selling everything to them, even charging for the use of the beaches where they breamed their boats on the average once a month, and carried out running repairs.39
How far is this assessment borne out in Peng Chau in the period under review? In the first place it has been shown that it was not only the Tanka who owned boats and obtained a living from the sea. Apart from the Hoklo fishermen who maintained an uneasy existance between land and sea and are generally considered to be more sea dwellers than landsmen, a number of land people, Hakka and Cantonese alike, owned and operated boats and sampans. Other land people were accustomed to fish from the rocky coast by line or by means of a stake net. The latter represented fishing for profit and was not just a way of supplementing a livelihood gained by other means since the financial outlay for a stake net was considerable. The fishing community was therefore wider than the group of Tanka who chose to base themselves on the island. Though this is not really surprising when the sea was near at hand and could provide a living for all, it led to a blurring of the sharp lines of differentiation commonly imagined to exist between the traditional boat people and the land dwellers.40 This must have assisted participation in religious activities, including the repair of temples, in which task both sea and land people were equally concerned because they all in some measure lived by the sea, if not all of them actually on it.41 Shopkeepers living on an island had as much reason to pray for the gods' blessings on their cargoes and customers as the fishermen for good catches and the safety of their boats and families. In such a small community, too, business connections were probably on a very personal basis and the boat people customers no less well known by the shopmen than their land neighbours.
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