15
deities worshipped in the local temples, a Chinese author touches on one important aspect of these events:
**In raising the funds they [the organizers] talk about their god, what he did in the past and what he still means to the people. The theatricals dramatize the divine history. The idol in the temple characterizes him. The tablets and the scrolls in the temple and the opera matshed] call to mind his traits and his relation to the people.**25
It was the practice on these occasions to prepare and distribute festival brochures which contain such information. This was a tradition that was followed in some of the more popular Tsuen Wan temples.
(c) The Surroundings
As if the process of indoctrination was not already thorough, the decoration of the temples and the better class of houses, shops and ancestral halls provided a milieu in which cultural influences were strong and could make an impression on youthful minds. Although a small place, Tsuen Wan District had its share of old buildings (and some not so old, dating from as late as the 1920s and 1930s) whose walls were decorated with eaves-paintings in the traditional style. Besides depicting the usual auspicious symbols for long life, good fortune, advancement, wealth and posterity, and the flowers and animals with similar associations, they also carried paintings of well-known stories and persons known to history or from the opera. Verses from T'ang poetry were also commonly included.29 Obviously, the better class of local buildings were not to be regarded as complete without this impressive cultural array.
(d) The Lion and Unicorn Dance Teams
30
Besides what was taught in the rural schoolroom and learned outside its doors, one of the most powerful influences upon young village males was undoubtedly exercised through their training in the village lion or unicorn dance team. In Tsuen Wan and the other settlements of the Hong Kong region, these teams were at the heart of village ceremony. On social, political or religious occasions, they were the personification of the village's collective respect for important visitors and the means of marking the main events in the social life of the
15
deities worshipped in the local temples, a Chinese author touches on one important aspect of these events:
**In raising the funds they [the organizers] talk about their god, what he did in the past and what he still means to the people. The theatricals dramatize the divine history. The idol in the temple characterizes him. The tablets and the scrolls in the temple and the opera matshed] call to mind his traits and his relation to the people.25
It was the practice on these occasions to prepare and distribute festival brochures which contain such information. This was a tradition that was followed in some of the more popular Tsuen Wan temples.
(c) The Surroundings
As if the process of indoctrination was not already thorough, the decoration of the temples and the better class of houses, shops and ancestral halls provided a milieu in which cultural influences were strong and could make an impression on youthful minds. Although a small place, Tsuen Wan District had its share of old buildings (and some not so old, dating from as late as the 1920s and 1930s) whose walls were decorated with eaves-paintings in the traditional style. Besides depicting the usual auspicious symbols for long life, good fortune, advancement, wealth and posterity, and the flowers and animals with similar associations, they also carried paintings of well- known stories and persons known to history or from the opera. Verses from T'ang poetry were also commonly included.29 Obviously, the better class of local buildings were not to be regarded as complete without this impressive cultural array.
(d) The Lion and Unicorn Dance Teams
30
Besides what was taught in the rural schoolroom and learned outside its doors, one of the most powerful influences upon young village males was undoubtedly exercised through their training in the village lion or unicorn dance team. In Tsuen Wan and the other settlements of the Hong Kong region, these teams were at the heart of village ceremony. On social, political or religious occasions, they were the personification of the village's collective respect for important visitors and the means of marking the main events in the social life of the
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