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of life that would strike me as exceedingly fascinating and which as far as I could see remained unknown. The list of them can go on for hours if I was to express them: but, for instance, the tales that we heard about how buying and selling property was conducted, about the local weavers, about how irrigation and dams were mended, together with details of how villagers managed their affairs, the treatment of the sick, how houses were built, where you went to buy a boat, where you went to buy a bed, how you bought it, how you paid for it and what you did if all you had was rice and somebody demanded silver, and where you went to convert the one into the other. None of this, as far as I could see, had been recorded.
Consequently, I threw myself in at the deep end, trying to record some of this, although I was grievously ill-prepared for it having no sinological background. It was merely that there was nobody else showing the slightest willingness to do it, except David who was up to his ears collecting inscriptions and books and doing his history projects. However, he had no time, and if I did not do it nobody was going to. I therefore came to the conclusion that it had better be done badly than not at all; for in another 10 years there won't be any chance of anyone doing it, well or ill, because the people will all be dead. And so, being there and being ready, I landed up with two jobs.
The first major interview that I attended was one done by David with the oldest senior villager in Shatin, the last villager in Shatin who could actually remember visiting the Magistracy in Kowloon City before the British came. He could just remember seeing in his youth the Chinese tax collectors coming to his village, and could recall being taken into the Magistracy by his great uncle who was a clerk there.
About six months later this old man died. He was the father of a very senior district leader. My connection with him is very good, and so we were able to convince him that his father would not object to having the entire funeral proceedings taped, photographed and described from beginning to end. David, myself and Barbara Ward did this. About 400 photographs were taken by various people, about 4 hours of taping was done, and about 15
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of life that would strike me as exceedingly fascinating and which as far as I could see remained unknown. The list of them can go on hours if I was to express them: but, for instance, the tales that we heard about how buying and selling property was conducted, about the local weavers, about how irrigation and dams were mended, together with details of how villagers managed their af- fairs, the treatment of the sick, how houses were built, where you went to buy a boat, where you went to buy a bed, how you bought it, how you paid for it and what you did if all you had was rice and somebody demanded silver, and where you went to convert the one into the other. None of this, as far as I could see, had been recorded.
Consequently, I threw myself in at the deep end, trying to record some of this, although I was grievously ill-prepared for it having no sinological background. It was merely that there was nobody else showing the slightest willingness to do it, except Da- vid who was up to his ears collecting inscriptions and books and doing his history projects. However, he had no time, and if I did not do it nobody was going to. I therefore came to the conclusion that it had better be done badly than not at all; for in another 10 years there won't be any chance of anyone doing it, well or ill, because the people will all be dead. And so, being there and being ready, I landed up with two jobs.
The first major interview that I attended was one done by Da- vid with the oldest senior villager in Shatin, the last villager in Shatin who could actually remember visiting the Magistracy in Kowloon City before the British came. He could just remember seeing in his youth the Chinese tax collectors coming to his village, and could recall being taken into the Magistracy by his great uncle who was a clerk there.
About six months later this old man died. He was the father of a very senior district leader. My connection with him is very good, and so we were able to convince him that his father would not object to having the entire funeral proceedings taped, photo- graphed and described from beginning to end. David, myself and Barbara Ward did this. About 400 photographs were taken by various people, about 4 hours of taping was done, and about 15
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