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tinued to wear the style of dress and patterned bands of their own native areas.
More broadly speaking, these aspects of women's dress and adornment serve as an assertion of Hakka identity. It is primarily Hakka women in the New Territories who wear patterned bands, the black-fringed hat, and small ornamental aprons. They also use distinctive forms of jewellery. There may be some use of these forms by other groups and individuals, including speakers of some variants of Cantonese, but they are most generally characteristic of the Hakka.
With the modern development of Hong Kong and heavy immigration, regional and ethnic distinctions are breaking down, so that these differences in dress are now less significant, and indeed are unrecognized by many people. In Tsuen Wan, only the most elderly of the indigenous Hakka people still wear traditional clothing. Virtually all can speak Cantonese, and intermarriage with Cantonese people is common. Patterned bands are rarely worn, and many of the young people know nothing about their existence, much less the technique of their manufacture. They are astonished to find that their mothers have this skill. The middle-aged and elderly women still have some treasured bands secreted away in their dowry chests, however, and the way in which they show them and talk about them demonstrates the significance they had until two or three decades ago.
This is not yet true of the more rural areas of the New Territories. A visit to the market towns of Tai Po, Yuen Long, or Sai Kung will show these traditional forms to be still in use among older women, with some available for sale, although it is unlikely that they will remain as these areas develop into urban centres like Tsuen Wan. Patterned bands are also still being made and worn in Tung-kuan County, Kwangtung, not very far from Hong Kong, according to visitors to a Hakka brigade of a commune there.12 Another visitor saw a different variety still in use in T'ai-shan county, in another part of Kwangtung.13
A large collection of these bands exists at the National Minorities Institute in Peking, according to the anthropologist Fei Hsiao-t'ung.14 However, they are kept there as examples of minority handicrafts, specifically from the Yao, Miao, and Tung peoples. Dr. Fei said that they are also known in Tibet. As the backstrap
"PATTERNED BANDS" IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG
89
tinued to wear the style of dress and patterned bands of their own native areas.
More broadly speaking, these aspects of women's dress and adornment serve as an assertion of Hakka identity. It is primarily Hakka women in the New Territories who wear patterned bands, the black-fringed hat, and small ornamental aprons. They also use distinctive forms of jewellery. There may be some use of these forms by other groups and individuals, including speakers of some variants of Cantonese, but they are most generally characteristic of the Hakka.
With the modern development of Hong Kong and heavy immi- gration, regional and ethnic distinctions are breaking down, so that these differences in dress are now less significant, and indeed are unrecognized by many people. In Tsuen Wan, only the most elderly of the indigenous Hakka people still wear traditional clothing. Virtually all can speak Cantonese, and intermarriage with Cantonese people is common. Patterned bands are rarely worn, and many of the young people know nothing about their existence, much less the technique of their manufacture. They are astonished to find that their mothers have this skill. The middle aged and elderly women still have some treasured bands secreted away in their dowry chests, however, and the way in which they show them and talk about them demonstrates the significance they had until two or three decades ago.
This is not yet true of the more rural areas of the New Terri- tories. A visit to the market towns of Tai Po, Yuen Long, or Sai Kung will show these traditional forms to be still in use among older women, with some available for sale, although it is unlikely that they will remain as these areas develop into urban centres like Tsuen Wan. Patterned bands are also still being made and worn in Tung-kuan County, Kwangtung, not very far from Hong Kong, according to visitors to a Hakka brigade of a commune there.12 Another visitor saw a different variety still in use in T'ai- shan county, in another part of Kwangtung.13
A large collection of these bands exists at the National Minori- ties Institute in Peking, according to the anthropologist Fei Hsiao- t'ung 14 However, they are kept there as examples of minority handicrafts, specifically from the Yao, Miao, and Tung peoples. Dr. Fei said that they are also known in Tibet. As the backstrap
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