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within the Hakka group. Using the Li family in So Kwun Wat Village in the New Territories, settled by Waichow Hakka during the Ch'ing Dynasty, as an example: from their genealogy we know that the family's ancestor Shih-chuan (+) of the twenty-first generation, ancestors Tê-mao (†) and Mu-yu (**) of the twenty-second generation, and ancestor Chên-k'un (*) of the twenty-fourth generation all married women of the surname Kan from a nearby Hakka single-surname village (Li, 1957). According to an informant in So Kwun Wat village, intermarriage among the nearby Hakka villages was very common in the past. However, it is difficult for the new Hakka immigrants to keep up the practice of speech group endogamy because of their settlement pattern and other social factors. It has been pointed out by Skinner (1960:86) that whereas in Indonesia thousands of Chinese can trace back their genealogical descent for as many as twelve generations because of strict Chinese endogamy, in Thailand even fourth-generation Chinese are practically nonexistent because of rapid assimilation. As first-generation immigrants, those Waichow Hakka who came to Hong Kong after 1949 were left with no chance to continue Hakka endogamy. How then can they encourage their descendents to keep up the tradition of Hakka endogamy? The only difference between the Waichow Hakka in Hong Kong and the Chinese in Thailand is that the Waichow Hakka in Hong Kong will be incorporated into the larger Chinese society speaking the Cantonese dialect rather than a host society of foreign origin. This may be the first time that a group of Hakka, always historically a distinctive minority group in China, will be assimilated with a larger segment of other Chinese.
4. Last but not least, the split of the powerful leadership stratum into two parts led to the formation of antagonistic association clusters centered respectively on the Waichow Clansmen General Association and the Ten-Districts of Waichow Association. This in turn resulted in small and low-level associations behaving in an uncoordinated manner, sometimes even hesitating to join either side. In other words, as a group with an estimated population size of about one million, the Waichow Hakka need a central authority, similar to that of the umbrella structure of many Chinese communities in Southeast Asia (Heidhues, 1974:54), an authority which could further the integration of
48
JIANN HSIEH
within the Hakka group. Using the Li family in So Kwun Wat Village in the New Territories, settled by Waichow Hakka during the Ch'ing Dynasty, as an example: from their genealogy we know that the family's ancestor Shih-chuan (+) of the twenty-first generation, ancestors Tê-mao (4) and Mu-yu (**) of the twenty-second generation, and ancestor Chên-k'un (*) of the twenty-fourth generation all married women of the surname Kan from a nearby Hakka single-surname village (Li, 1957). According to an informant in So Kwun Wat village, intermarriage among the nearby Hakka villages was very common in the past. However, it is difficult for the new Hakka immigrants to keep up the practice of speech group endogamy because of their settlement pattern and other social factors. It has been pointed out by Skinner (1960:86) that whereas in Indonesia thousands of Chinese can trace back their genealogical descent for as many as twelve generations because of strict Chinese endogamy, in Thailand even fourth-generation Chinese are practically nonexistent because of rapid assimilation. As first-generation immigrants, those Waichow Hakka who came to Hong Kong after 1949 were left with no chance to continue Hakka endogamy. How then can they encourage their descendents to keep up the tradition of Hakka endogamy? The only difference between the Waichow Hakka in Hong Kong and the Chinese in Thailand is that the Waichow Hakka in Hong Kong will be incor- porated into the larger Chinese society speaking the Cantonese dialect rather than a host society of foreign origin. This may be the first time that a group of Hakka, always historically a distinc- tive minority group in China, will be assimilated with a larger segment of other Chinese.
4. Last but not least, the split of the powerful leadership stra- tum of the Waichow Hakka into two parts led to the formation of antagonistic association clusters centered respectively on the Wai- chow Clansmen General Association and the Ten-Districts of Wai- chow Association. This in turn resulted in small and low-level associations behaving in an uncoordinated manner, sometimes even hesitating to join either side. In other words, as a group with an estimated population size of about one million," the Waichow Hakka need a central authority, similar to that of the umbrella structure of many Chinese communities in Southeast Asia (Heid- hues, 1974:54), an authority which could further the integration of
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