160
NOTES AND QUERIES
At the two villages of Old and New Heung Kong Wai near Aberdeen a group of villagers had to come before a Squatter Board in 1893 to help determine and register legitimate holdings. From the information then recorded, and happily preserved, the following facts emerge:
(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.
Elsewhere on the island I obtained and wrote down the following account of house occupation in the small Hakka village of Tai Tam Tuk for the period before this village was removed to make way for a reservoir in 1914:
Some of the houses were in a ruinous condition in 1914, which is usually the case in the smaller and poorer villages in South China where frequent typhoons and heavy rains combine to shorten the life of these simply-constructed dwellings. Perhaps in consequence, most families in the village had several houses. For instance, one of my informants, her husband, his parents and his younger unmarried brother shared three houses and one shed, but ate together as one household.
These examples seem to bear out Mr. Nelson's reinterpretation of Dr. Aijmer's figures i.e. that at that time (1911) there were about 35 households in Big Stream Village, owning on average 2.2 houses each; and that Plum Grove contained 12 households with 3 houses each.*
Hong Kong 1969,
JAMES HAYES
* Since writing the above I also recall a case at Law Uk, Pui O where, speaking of her early married life there well before 1900, a very old village woman said theirs was "a three table household" with something over 20 persons eating together. It was also a multi-house one.
160
NOTES AND QUERIES
At the two villages of Old and New Heung Kong Wai near Aberdeen a group of villagers had to come before a Squatter Board in 1893 to help determine and register legitimate holdings. From the information then recorded, and happily preserved, the following facts emerge:
(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.
Elsewhere on the island I obtained and wrote down the follow- ing account of house occupation in the small Hakka village of Tai Tam Tuk for the period before this village was removed to make way for a reservoir in 1914:
Some of the houses were in a ruinous condition in 1914, which is usually the case in the smaller and poorer villages in South China where frequent typhoons and heavy rains combine to shorten the life of these simply-constructed dwellings. Perhaps in consequence, most families in the village had several houses. For instance, one of my infor- mants, her husband, his parents and his younger unmarried brother shared three houses and one shed, but ate together as one household.
These examples seem to bear out Mr. Nelson's reinterpretation of Dr. Aijmer's figures i.e. that at that time (1911) there were about 35 households in Big Stream Village, owning on average 2.2 houses each; and that Plum Grove contained 12 households with 3 houses each.*
Hong Kong 1969,
JAMES HAYES
* Since writing the above I also recall a case at Law Uk, Pui O where, speaking of her early married life there well before 1900, a very old village woman said theirs was "a three table household" with something over 20 persons eating together. It was also a multi-house one.
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