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HUGH D. R. BAKER
one's own lineage or clan, nor indeed from any of the other four clans, I think. Descendants of these people still live amongst the master clans, though their servitude ended in most places shortly before the Second World War.89 Thus, single-lineage settlements often contained more than one surname due to this system, the Sai Man sometimes now constituting quite a high proportion of the total as is the case in the Hau village of Ping Kong, for instance, but politically the Sai Man were not to be reckoned with, and I was told, “As with women, we don't count them."
Nowadays, however, they tend to be treated as near-equals by members of the master-lineages, certainly as superior to other outsiders. For instance, Sai Man descendants surnamed Lam still live in Sheung Shui, and their children attend a private kindergarten run by the Lius at the same reduced fees which Liu children pay; in fact, they do not count as 'outsiders', who have to pay the full fee. In the Mung Yeung School at Kam Tin, the list of subscribers to the fund raised to found the school includes one man of the surname Sham,92 a descendant of a Sai Man family of Kam Tin, who has become wealthy.93 In Ping Kong, as noted above, many Sai Man descendants are still living; but yet other descendants of these people in the various villages have removed out of the villages of their ancestors' degradation now that they are free to do so. Near the town of Shek Wu Hui there is a small village started some years ago by such Sai Man descendants of the surname Chiu.94
Finally, in our discussion of the effects of landed wealth, we may point out that it has made a difference to the adaptability of the five clans to recently developed ways of acquiring money. For several generations now, smaller lineages and mixed-lineage villages have been sending men overseas on a large scale, and amassing a great deal of money, which is invested in better housing and sometimes in urban business ventures. Already wealthy, the five clans did not feel the need to indulge in this kind of enterprise on a large scale, and only since the 1950's have they succumbed to the lure of the easy money to be earned in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other overseas territories. Particularly since the Communist victory on the Mainland, agriculture has been hard hit in the New Territories. Pigs and chickens cannot be raised to sell at a competitive price with
36
HUGH D. R. BAKER
one's own lineage or clan, nor indeed from any of the other four clans, I think. Descendants of these people still live amongst the master clans, though their servitude ended in most places shortly before the Second World War.89 Thus, single-lineage settlements often contained more than one surname due to this system, the Sai Man sometimes now constituting quite a high proportion of the total as is the case in the Hau village of Ping Kong, for instance but politically the Sai Man were not to be reckoned with, and I was told, “As with women, we don't count them."
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Nowadays, however, they tend to be treated as near-equals by members of the master-lineages, certainly as superior to other outsiders. For instance, Sai Man descendants surnamed Lam still live in Sheung Shui, and their children attend a private kinder- garten run by the Lius at the same reduced fees which Liu children pay
in fact, they do not count as 'outsiders', who have to pay the full fee. In the Mung Yeung School at Kam Tin, the list of subscribers to the fund raised to found the school includes one man of the surname Sham,92 a descendant of a Sai Man family of Kam Tin, who has become wealthy.93 In Ping Kong, as noted above, many Sai Man descendants are still living; but yet other descendants of these people in the various villages have removed out of the villages of their ancestors' degradation now that they are free to do so. Near the town of Shek Wu Hui there is a small village started some years ago by such Sai Man descendants of the surname Chiu.94
Finally in our discussion of the effects of landed wealth, we may point out that it has made a difference to the adaptability of the five clans to recently developed ways of acquiring money. For several generations now, smaller lineages and mixed-lineage vil- lages have been sending men overseas on a large scale, and amassing a great deal of money, which is invested in better hous- ing and sometimes in urban business ventures. Already wealthy, the five clans did not feel the need to indulge in this kind of enterprise on a large scale, and only since the 1950's have they succumbed to the lure of the easy money to be earned in the United Kingdom, France, Germany and other overseas territories. Particularly since the Communist victory on the Mainland, agri- culture has been hard hit in the New Territories. Pigs and chickens cannot be raised to sell at a competitive price with
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