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4. The Legacy of Cooperation with Authority
During the seemingly never-ending process of clearances for development in Tsuen Wan and elsewhere, the demands on the family and the individual were heavy. Major personal adjustments had to be made during an initial period of straitened family income at a time when expenditure on rents was higher than before and debts had to be incurred in removal costs and the expense of fitting out a new home.
The fact that, for the most part, little opposition was encountered by government staff during the process of removing persons from land needed for development, nearly always in accordance with tight schedules, could easily be, and often was, attributed to the government's efficiency. It may well be that the immediate reason for the success of the resettlement process was grounded in the Hong Kong government's efficient and careful approach to a potentially explosive process, and because the field staff belonging to the Clearance Division of the Resettlement Department were invariably attuned to the mood and situation of those involved. However, a moment's reflection will bring the query whether it was not just as much due to the cooperation of the people being asked to move, and to the background influences that made them generally amenable so long as the arrangements were acceptable. In this wider context, the people's behaviour has to be linked with traditional attitudes towards government.
5. Officials facing Traditional Responses
My experiences showed beyond doubt that local people had a deeply engrained respect for constituted authority but this was always conditional in nature. They had high expectations of government, but any obligations were definitely seen as being two-sided.
These twin characteristics of the Chinese people were well known outside China. An experienced British journalist visiting the country from his work-place in India, had this to say following a visit there in 1905:
"The people of China are the most law-abiding in the world; but public opinion overrides the law, being so strong that it is the ultimate court of political appeal. Officials maintain their position, not by force, but because
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4. The Legacy of Cooperation with Authority
During the seemingly never-ending process of clearances for development in Tsuen Wan and elsewhere, the demands on the family and the individual were heavy. Major personal adjustments had to be made during an initial period of straitened family income at a time when expenditure on rents was higher than before and debts had to be incurred in removal costs and the expense of fitting out a new home.
The fact that, for the most part, little opposition was encountered by government staff during the process of removing persons from land needed for development, nearly always in accordance with tight schedules, could easily be, and often was, attributed to the government's efficiency. It may well be that the immediate reason for the success of the resettlement process was grounded in the Hong Kong government's efficient and careful approach to a potentially explosive process, and because the field staff belonging to the Clearance Division of the Resettlement Department were invariably attuned to the mood and situation of those involved. However, a moment's reflection will bring the query whether it was not just as much due to the cooperation of the people being asked to move, and to the background influences that made them generally amenable so long as the arrangements were acceptable. In this wider context, the people's behaviour has to be linked with traditional attitudes towards government.
5. Officials facing Traditional Responses
My experiences showed beyond doubt that local people had a deeply engrained respect for constituted authority but this was always conditional in nature. They had high expectations of government, but any obligations were definitely seen as being two-sided.
These twin characteristics of the Chinese people were well known outside China. An experienced British journalist visiting the country from his work-place in India, had this to say following a visit there in
1905:
"The people of China are the most law-abiding in the world; but public opinion overrides the law, being so strong that it is the ultimate court of political appeal. officials maintain their position, not by force, but because
The
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