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the businessman's enterprise disguised as a rustic farmstead. The emergence of vegetable cultivation is a spill-over from the urban areas. What we deal with is the city's adjustment to the countryside rather than the adaptation of the rural husbandry to meet urban demands.
This is not to say that rice peasants have not switched over to vegetable cultivation at all. Obviously this kind of person is not common in Sha Tin, but he occurs and there are a few native vegetable farmers in nearly every village. Still, it is a noteworthy fact that the present village gardeners did not give up their rice cultivation until they had precedent models for action in the form of immigrant garden enterprises. The example of the successful immigrant truck garden was something to be envied and reproduced, and thus a primary incentive for a new agricultural order.
Paradoxically, the indigenous villagers have been able to remain in their traditional rice world by giving up rice cultivation. The main sources of change lie in the urban areas, in Hong Kong and overseas. New ideas flowing into the villages will not disrupt traditional notions concerning land, although land use may have changed in that land is rented to outsiders, abandoned or converted into building lots. The few native villagers who have engaged in horticulture did not venture the shift in land use until they had access to models in the form of outsider gardeners. I feel that the general lack of response to city needs for food in the Sha Tin valley is due to the proximity of the valley to the city, a feature which involved people directly in city life. On the other hand, we have found that city people have become involved in rural production.
Thus, the change in land use in the New Territories is no simple process generated by the maximization of profits. Only our awareness of the social characteristics of the actors in the drama will allow us to gain some understanding of the complexity of the situation.
University of Gothenburg, 1972.
GORAN AijMER
Footnote: This is an abstract from a report intended to form a chapter in a monograph on social life in the Sha Tin valley. Field work was conducted from June 1967 to February 1968, and in Summer 1969 for three months. The field work was supported by the Humanistic Foundation of Sweden. The writing of the report was carried out at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge, Mass., with the support of Carl-Bertel Nathhorst Foundation and Stockholm University. I gratefully acknowledge the generosity of these institutions.
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206
NOTES AND QUERIES
the businessman's enterprise disguised as a rustic farmstead. The emergence of vegetable cultivation is a spill-over from the urban areas. What we deal with is the city's adjustment to the countryside rather than the adaption of the rural husbandry to meet urban demands.
This is not to say that rice peasants have not switched over to vegetable cultivation at all. Obviously this kind of person is not common in Sha Tin, but he occurs and there are a few native vegetable farmers in nearly every village. Still, it is a noteworthy fact that the present village gardeners did not give up their rice cultivation until they had precedent models for action in the form of immigrant garden enterprises. The example of the successful immigrant truck garden was something to be envied and reproduced, and thus a primary incentive for a new agricultural order.
Paradoxically, the indigenous villagers have been able to remain in their traditional rice world by giving up rice cultivation. The main sources of change lie in the urban areas, in Hong Kong and overseas. New ideas flowing into the villages will not disrupt tradi- tional notions concerning land, although land use may have changed in that land is rented to outsiders, abandoned or converted into building lots. The few native villagers who have engaged in hor- ticulture did not venture the shift in land use until they had acess to models in the form of outsider gardeners. I feel that the general lack of response to city needs for food in the Sha Tin valley is due to the proximity of the valley to the city, a feature which involved people directly in city life. On the other hand we have found that city people have become involved in rural production.
Thus, the change in land use in the New Territories is no simple process generated by the maximization of profits. Only our awar- eness of the social characteristics of the actors in the drama will allow us to gain some understanding of the complexity of the situa- tion.
University of Goteberg, 1972.
GORAN AUMER
Footnote: This is an abstract from a report intended to form a chapter in a monograph on social life in the Sha Tin valley. Field work was conducted from June 1967 to February 1968, and in Summer 1969 for three months. The field work was supported by the Humanistic Foundation of Sweden. The writing of the report was carried out at the Harvard-Yenching Institute, Cambridge, Mass., with the support of Carl-Bertel Nathhorst Foundation and Stockholm University. I gratefully acknowledge the generosity of these institutions.
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