254
of death rituals, rites of passage, gender role, festivals and customs, ancestor worship and feng shui, Constable illustrates that the Shung Him Tong Hakkas' attempt to reconcile Hakka-Chinese and Hakka-Christian identities is an ongoing process. This ongoing process is also demonstrated in the continuous transforming images of Hakka characters. The older generation emphasises Chineseness despite being Christians; the younger generation tends to allow Christianity a far more obvious role in their lives (Chapter 6).
Chapter 2 is devoted to a discussion on Hakka migration and the Taiping Rebellion, both events thought to have been important in the construction of Hakka identity. According to the book, the former provides the Hakkas with a historical mechanism to identify themselves as "Orthodox Chinese," and the latter provided, other than lineage, an "organisational structure that helped bring together those who became influential in inventing and articulating Hakka identity” (p. 38). If these two historical events were so crucial to the construction of early Hakka identity, one would expect to know more about how they were told and utilised by the Shung Him Tong Hakka Christians to reconstruct their own Hakka identity, not through records by historians of European missionaries. Without this, it is difficult to relate the construction of early Hakka identity and the reconstruction of the Hakka-Christian identity in Shung Him Tong.
Shung Him Tong is located near Lung Yeuk Tau, a village compound dominated by the powerful Tang lineage. It is also situated close to two other influential localised lineages in the New Territories of Hong Kong: the Pangs of Fanling and the Lius of Sheung Shui. Though the political influence of the early founders of Shung Him Tong is mentioned, Constable does not explain how the marginal situation of the village contributed to the survival of the community, which is Christian and Hakka (as against Chinese and indigenous Punti villages like Lung Yeuk Tau, Fanling, and Sheung Shui). It is also unclear how, unlike the Lius of Sheung Shui, who had to change their ethnic identity from Hakka to Punti, this marginal nature of the community is manipulated by the Shung Him Tong Hakkas to reconstruct their own unique Hakka-Christian identity.
There are also some minor imprecisions. One of which is Qing Ming, which does not fall in “Spring during the third month of the
254
of death rituals, rites of passage, gender role, festivals and customs, ancestor worship and feng shur, Constable illustrates that the Shung Him Tong Hakkas' attempt to reconcile Hakka-Chinese and Hakka-Christian identities is an ongoing process. This ongoing process is also demonstrated in the continuous transforming images of Hakka characters. .e the older generation emphasises on Chineseness despite being Christians, the younger generation tend to allow Christianity a far more obvious role in their lives (Chapter 6)
Chapter 2 is devoted to the discussion on Hakka migration and the Taiping Rebellion, both events thought to have been important in the construction of Hakka identity According to the book, the former provides the Hakkas with a historical mechanism to identify themselves as "Orthodox Chinese" and the latter provided, other than lineage, an "organisational structure that helped bring together those who became influential in the inventing and articulation of Hakka identity” (p 38). If these two historical events were so crucial to the construction of early Hakka identity, one would expect to know more about how they were told and utilised by the Shung Him Tong Hakka Christians to reconstruct their own Hakka identity, not through the records by historians of European missionaries. Without this, it is difficult to relate the construction of early Hakka identity and the reconstruction of the Hakka-Christian identity in Shung Him Tong
Shung Him Tong is located near Lung Yeuk Tau, a village compound dominated by the powerful Tang lineage. It is also situated close to two other most influential localised lineages in the New Territories of Hong Kong, the Pangs of Fanling and the Lius of Sheung Shui Though the political influence of the early founders of Shung Him Tong is mentioned, Constable does not explain how the marginal situation of the village contributed to the survival of the community which is Christian and Hakka (as against Chinese and indigenous Punti villages like Lung Yuek Tau, Fanling and Sheung Shui). It is also not clear how, unlike the Lius of Sheung Shur who had to change their ethnic identity from Hakka to Punti, this marginal nature of the community is manipulated by the Shung Him Tong Hakkas to reconstruct their own unique Hakka-Christian identity
There are also some minor imprecisions. One of which is the Qing Ming which does not fall in “Spring during the third month of the
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.