164
NOTES AND QUERIES
(a) the New Village was built entirely by inhabitants of the old village;
(b) two of the houses in the New Village were built 1860-70 and some earlier, some later;
(c) many families owned houses in each village;
(d) many families owned 2 or 3 houses;
(e) none of the cultivated land in the valley was (1893) owned by outsiders:
(f) one of the villagers had been away in Singapore for over 10 years, another (most likely the future Sir Shou-son CHOW) was in Shanghai and one was “a cook for an Englishman”.12
The People of the Villages. The inhabitants of the two villages were all Cantonese, as opposed to Hakka etc.13 There were five clans in 1893. The CHOW family accounted for most of the Old Village and part of the New Village. This clan is of particular interest to us because Sir Shou-son CHOW, the well-known leader of the Chinese community before the war, was one of its members (see below). This lineage has other branches in several villages on Lamma Island, to which they seem to have migrated from Hong Kong. The other old families in the two villages came from clans whose main settlements are to-day still in Pokfulam on Hong Kong Island and other villages on Lamma. The marriages of those surviving old people in the village born in the decades 1880-1900 still reflect the close ties of family and village which bound together the scattered settlements of old Hong Kong. Enquiry showed another aspect of this unity, i.e. the participation of the two villages and the old village of Wong Nei Chung - with whose people they were related by marriage - in the series of ten yearly Ta Chiu or Pacification of Spirits ceremonies which appear to have been held regularly up to 50 or 60 years ago and in which my informants participated on several occasions in their youth.
Origin of the Name Hong Kong. According to Prof. LO Hsiang-lin of Hong Kong University, the name Hong Kong means "incense port" and the village along the northern shore of the present Aberdeen, "extending as far as the present settlement of Little Hong Kong", once acted (in Ming and early Manchu ...)
164
NOTES AND QUERIES
(a) the New Village was built entirely by inhabitants of the
old village;
(b) two of the houses in the New Village were built 1860 - 70
and some earlier, some later;
(c) many families owned houses in each village;
(d) many families owned 2 or 3 houses;
(e) none of the cultivated land in the valley was (1893) owned
by outsiders:
(f) one of the villagers had been away in Singapore for over 10 years, another (most likely the future Sir Show-son CHOW) was in Shanghai and one was “a cook for an Englishman", 12
The People of the Villages. The inhabitants of the two villages were all Cantonese, as opposed to Hakka ete.13 There were five clans in 1893. The CHOW family accounted for most of the Old Village and part of the New Village. This clan is of particular interest to us because Sir Show-son CHOW (
) the well-
known leader of the Chinese community before the war, was one of its members (see below). This lineage has other branches in several villages on Lamma Island, to which they seem to have migrated from Hong Kong. The other old families in the two villages came from clans whose main settlements are to-day still in Pokfulam on Hong Kong Island and other villages on Lamma. The marriages of those surviving old people in the village born in the decades 1880 - 1900 still reflect the close ties of family and village which bound together the scattered settlements of old Hong Kong. Enquiry showed another aspect of this unity, i.e. the participation of the two villages and the old village of Wong Nei Chung - with whose people they were related by marriage
in the series of ten yearly Ta Chiu or Pacification of Spirits ceremonies which appear to have been held regularly up to 50 or 60 years ago and in which my informants participated on several occasions in their youth.
Origin of the Name Hong Kong. According to Prof. LO Hsiang- lin of Hong Kong University, the name Hong Kong means "incense port" and the village along the northern shore of the present Aberdeen, "extending as far as the present settlement of Little Hong Kong
once acted (in Ming and early Manchu
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