[ { "id": 205293, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "48\n\nL. G. AIMER\n\nJapanese Occupation, but this was only temporarily. It is reasonable to relate the decline in these two trades to two main factors. Extensive exploitation of the woodlands gradually brought about a destruction of the supply, so that today only some patches remain in their original state. What the wood-cutters had left was laid waste during the Japanese Occupation. The other factor was the introduction of paraffin which seems to have reduced the general demand for fire-wood and charcoal in a drastic way.\n\nI have been informed that women, apart from their assistance in farming tasks, used to devote spare time to weaving as a subsidiary occupation. This was particularly so in the slack season during winter, from the Chinese New Year up to the third month. The appearance of factory-made textiles on the market made handicraft industry come to an end.\n\nBy way of summing up we could say that, in the past, the insufficient production of rice in this particular valley was complemented mainly by planting tea and indigo, cutting fire-wood and burning charcoal, and weaving cloth. The tea production had apparently already disappeared before the British arrival, and the production of dye and charcoal as well as the fire-wood cutting and the handicraft industry came gradually to an end at the appearance of foreign industrial products in the market. Animal breeding has always been of some importance, but has on the whole suffered from bad transportation.\n\nIt could be added that, at an earlier stage, some shooting of deer and wild boar took place, but restrictions on fire-arms imposed by the British, together with deforestation, put an end to this. At the present time outsiders make use of some minor resources in the valley. In the summer frog collectors go hunting in the paddies, and in the winter season bird catchers come up to the mountains. Wild growing taro and other plants attract herb collectors who are often a nuisance to the villagers as they set fire to the shrub in order to facilitate their work. These trades require an intimate knowledge of very special markets a knowledge that only these 'outsider' specialists are in possession of.\n\nThus we have seen that, as a result of its confrontation with the impact of Western industrialism, the traditional economic system of these villages was deprived of the whole sector of activities complementary to the basic rice production. This situa-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205295, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 57, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "50\n\nL. G. ALMER\n\na match-factory in Yau Ma Tei in 1880, and dockyards at Sham Shui Po in the same year. A glass manufactory was also situated here. An early account informs us that Yau Ma Tei, \"the principal village\" and the main centre of development,\n\nhas increased in population and bids fair to some day become an important town. There is a considerable Chinese junk trade at this place, and amongst other industries is a preserved ginger factory. The Military and Police Rifle Ranges are at the back and near the village. Gas works were erected here in 1892.7\n\nThe New Territories came under British control in 1898 on a 99-year lease, and subsequently new communications were developed. In 1900 a start was made with the main road from Kowloon to Tai Po, and in 1906 work was commenced on the construction of the Kowloon-Canton Railway by a private company. In the middle of the 19th century the organization of the State of California and the gold rush to the Sacramento Valley created new lines of commerce to connect Hong Kong with the American Continent. This was also the beginning of a steadily increasing emigration traffic between Hong Kong and San Francisco. Much of the coolie traffic to Southeast Asia, South Pacific, the West Indies and other countries was carried out through the port of Hong Kong. Whalers began to be a frequent sight in the harbour and, in a free port, the Hong Kong shipping trade was booming in the latter half of the century.\n\nBy the close of the 19th century the valley people had come to experience a critical situation demanding economic activities beyond the framework of the traditional system. Stimuli in this process were supplied by the change in the general economic milieu, and the impact of Western industrialism was not only experienced as something negative and destructive, but also as something that directly or indirectly offered a wide range of new choices. Many men grasped at the new opportunities, and soon found advantages in their changed situation. Men from Big Stream Village took up jobs in the road and railway construction across Tide Cove. Others could be found seeking all kinds of employment in the new urban area in Kowloon. The men in Grass Field Village early specialized in masonry and worked on construction sites all over the New Territories, and in", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205301, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 63, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "56\n\nHe continues:\n\nL. G. ALMER\n\nIt was apparently open to any man of means to tie a portion of the property he left either to the maintenance of an ancestral hall already in existence or to the establishment of a new one in respect of himself or some recently dead forebear. New segments coming into being were physically reflected in the ramification of halls.17\n\nFreedman, arguing in terms of domination processes, isolates the accumulation of wealth, implying power, within certain sections as the seed of lineage proliferation; the transformation from section to segment being manifested by the establishment of a new ancestral hall.\n\nSome features of traditional Hakka society need to be examined in this context. Major lineages tended to have small numbers; for instance, in 1911 Big Stream Village had 173 inhabitants. Plum Grove Village 59, and Grass Field Village 124.18 Surveying the 23 purely Hakka villages in the surrounding mountainous area, we find that at that time Big Stream Village was the most populous place; the number of residents in the 23 villages ranging between 173 and 6, giving an average of 64.19\n\nHere in the mountains there was very small differentiation as to occupation, all people being agriculturalists cultivating small pieces of land, owned and controlled by themselves. Poverty was a characteristic of these settlements. With the exception of a few paddy fields, said to be the lands of the village founder and connected with ancestral ceremonialism and occasionally with schools, no common property was shared by villagers. Some economic differentiation will have arisen from different forms of external income, and perhaps in relation to ownership of ferry boats, charcoal ovens, and hill plantations. The ecological setting, limiting any expansion of local production, provided the framework of an unstable situation, sensitive to any increase in population or decline in economic capacity. The small numbers of inhabitants in the Hakka mountain villages seem to reveal, therefore, that growth within the social and ecological framework was not possible.\n\nThis picture of Hakka society displays localized communities on a major lineage basis, connected only through occasional common ancestor worship expressing the idea of clanship as a con-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205305, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 67, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "60\n\nL. G. ALMER\n\nExtension in Hakka society took different forms. Banditry seems to have been one,29 occasional work in the countryside,30 tenant farming in the plains,31 employment in towns or overseas others. These forms imply different depth in the extension, and it seems reasonable to assume that such differences were due mainly to ecological factors, such as the proximity to urban milieu, and facilities of communication. My attempt at interpretation of the difference in depth of extension between Big Stream Village and Grass Field Village, based on the differences in the socio-economic situations prevailing in their respective market towns, will serve as an illustration.\n\nThose who take part in the extension process live a life oscillating between their focus of social interest and their focus of economic interest. They spend much time away from home, often the main part of their lives, but they are always planning to return to the place of origin and they seldom feel attached to their place of work. They are sojourners.32\n\nOscillation is well illustrated in the career of an elderly man from Plum Grove Village. His early contact with an urban milieu was when, as a teenager, he carried fire-wood to the market in Yau Ma Tei, on which occasions he spent some four hours in town. His experiences there stimulated him to settle in Kowloon, where for a period he worked as a cook. Next we find him working in Singapore for some time. Returning home he took up a position as a salesman in a grocer's shop in Kowloon. A labour recruitment office in Kowloon offered opportunities of coolie work in the West Indies, and a four-year contract with these people brought him to Jamaica and Trinidad. The contract period over, he went to work in the phosphate mines of Nauru in the Central Pacific. Back in Hong Kong once more he took employment in a grocer's shop, but left soon again, now as a member of a ship-crew. He spent 18 months in jail in Holland, returning to Hong Kong just before the Japanese Occupation in 1940. This difficult period he spent entirely in Plum Grove Village. Immediately after the war he succeeded in going back to Holland, where he entered illegally. Finally we find him in his own village engaged in chicken raising, ginger cultivation, and pineapple planting, all on a small scale and rather unsuccessfully. He is now living entirely on remittances from his son who is working in England. During his wandering life", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205309, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 71, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "64\n\nL. G. AIMER\n\nemigrants who had left the Colony. The masons in Grass Field Village, who had their village within a day's journey, naturally had a word in all village affairs; but the Big Stream men working in Vancouver or on Aruba in the West Indies had a very limited influence on decisions made in the home community.\n\nVI\n\nTraditional leadership in these Hakka villages was gerontocratic in nature. There were no formal isu (M) or fang (M) leaders. An informal council of old men met occasionally in the ancestral hall to discuss current problems. These persons' influence was directly correlated to the distribution of economic control within the community. As long as this differentiation was small, all elders would have had fairly equal status. Age differentiation within the group does not seem to have been of vital importance.\n\nThe process of emigration created new economic groups. In Big Stream Village, where emigration abroad early dominated the scene, the informal council of village elders is made up of four former overseas Chinese. Two of them have worked in the United States, one in Canada, and one on Aruba in the Netherlands West Indies. The last-mentioned man has quite a good house and has apparently had some resources, but he is in poor health, struck by rheumatism, a fact he ascribes to excessive use of alcohol in his younger days. His sight is bad and is hardly improved by the smashed pair of spectacles on his nose. This 76-year-old man said that he was 'willing to accept anything, whatever it is and whenever it comes.' He has no children. His influence on village affairs is apparently very limited. It seems as if he is taking part in the village council meetings merely to represent the first minor lineage, even if I was never able to confirm a strict rule that all fang (M) should be represented there.\n\nOf the other three leaders, two are men who have spent much time in New York in the United States, and one who has been working in Vancouver, Canada. One of the New York men is Village Representative and the official spokesman with the British administrative authorities. He is 73 years old and a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205313, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 75, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "68\n\nL. G. AIMER\n\ncost, compared with the first scheme, being due to some difficulties in the terrain, and to higher labour costs.\n\nThus the two main groups were not able to co-operate in this affair. The overseas members of the major lineage acted along lines in accordance with their minor lineage solidarity. The example illustrates the position of the overseas sub-community in the home village situation. The first suggestion on this matter came from an overseas employee on a temporary visit to the village. The consent came from the others in Britain, that is the people who had to pay for this investment. The decision was then made by the overseas group supplying the economic resources for the village, on the suggestion of one of its members. The council of old men does not seem to have played a part in this affair — at least not until the second tank project was considered.\n\nOther examples of how vital affairs are handled by the community members residing abroad could readily be found. In Plum Grove Village the construction of a small bridge over a brook was in progress. The District Office had supplied the village with some building material but the remaining cost of about HK$4,000 was paid by members of the community working in Britain. I was told that the decision to build the bridge was made by the overseas villagers at an assembly, when they raised a contribution fund for this purpose. At first the District Office was reluctant to approve the project, and instead suggested a less ambitious scheme to erect some concrete blocks. 40 bags of concrete were supplied. It is typical that in this situation, an overseas villager who had just returned home took charge of the affair, contacted the Plum Grove men in Britain for money, and at last work on the bridge could start. The formal Village Representative, an old farmer who has spent the whole of his life in the valley and holds the position as the oldest man in the major lineage, was apparently circumvented in this matter.\n\nAs in Big Stream Village, there is an informal council of old men in this village also. It is made up of the Village Representative, and two old, but poor, former emigrants. However, it was openly admitted that most decisions came from Britain.\n\nAt the time of my work in the valley, two villagers, about 50 years old, were on a visit to their families in Plum Grove\n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205315, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 77, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "70\n\nL. G. AIMER\n\ngration inevitably created a shortage of farm labour, and large areas of arable land were abandoned as time passed. In the first place it was the less accessible terraces that were given up. Of course, rice cultivation is still a major factor in village economy, and it still supplies the people with a basic amount of staple food.\n\nOn the other hand, the rapid economic change in the Colony after the Pacific War has continued to accelerate. There has been an increasing demand for labour in the New Territories and in the absence of men, women have had to fill many of these requirements. For instance when the construction of a small dam was in progress in the valley many women from Big Stream Village were engaged in carrying pipes from the landing place at Tide Cove to the construction site. They were paid HK$8-9 a day for their work. With an economy now fundamentally based on remittances from abroad, cash has come increasingly into demand. Most unmarried girls, from about the age of sixteen and upwards, now leave the home village and take up jobs, preferably in the industrial areas in Kowloon. Textile factories seem to attract them most. Once in town, they are captivated by the urban milieu and its possibilities, and they return to their village only on rare occasions.\n\nIn the process of extension the economic capacity of women has grown in importance; first by taking over agriculture, and gradually by taking part in the extension itself. Male absenteeism has also created a situation where many activities formerly carried out more or less exclusively by men, are now handled by women. For instance, what remains of traditional ceremonialism in the villages is now to a great extent kept up by the women.\n\nIX\n\nThe extension process has also modified the selection of women that enter these communities as wives.\n\nAt an earlier period, on the initiative of the parents, brides were selected through go-betweens. These go-betweens were nearly always non-professionals, and most often agnatic or affinal relatives, who had knowledge of a friend or relative with a daughter of suitable age. With both boys and girls this was about 16 years old. Surname, hsing (M), exogamy was and still is a", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 205321, "series_id": 26, "series_slug": "histsyn-rashkb-journal-engine", "series_title": "RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊", "series_use_hku_proxy": false, "document_key": "RAS-1967", "page_number": 83, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "76\n\nL. G. AIMER\n\nthe carrying and other heavy work, \"The men do not even know how to carry water\" and probably do not demand that the women give them lessons at it.' \n\nFrank 1925, p. 210f. Even among the Cantonese-speaking Punti population in Kwangtung, traditional women's participation in the work in the fields occurred; cf. Yang 1959, p. 21f. The notes above, however, are to be read as contrasts to Punti custom.\n\n35 Investments in house building on a large scale seem to be typical for all Chinese peasant communities with a marked inflow of external income. Generalizing from his experiences with three emigrant communities in Fukien and Kwangtung, Chen Ta writes:\n\n\"The most practical way to gratify their vanity is to build a house. Even when he does not contemplate a return in the immediate future, a Chinese emigrant who has made a fortune in the Nan Yang is quite likely to send a sum of money home for the express purpose of buying a new house\"; Chen 1939, p. 109.\n\nFrom another part of China, Francis Hsu notes that\n\n\"in this Yunnan community people became rich not through South-Seas emigration, but through tin mines and trading. As soon as a family becomes wealthy, it begins to build huge but largely unused houses ...\"; Hsu 1945, p. 48.\n\nBoth authors interpret house building as the symbolic aspect of the move from one social position to another by the sojourner in his home community, the big house being closely associated with gentry status. A comment on increasing house building in the New Territories in the beginning of this century is made in the N. T. Report 1899-1912, p. 56.\n\n36 Although these people have spent many years in English-speaking countries, none of them can converse in the English language. Also, this is largely true for the younger generation now residing in Britain. The Chinese emigrant is often sojourning in a Chinese enclave, the structure of which, in many important respects, is very different from that of his home community; it is still basically Chinese and offers social security in a foreign country. I have the impression that the sojourners have a fairly limited direct contact with the people of the country where they stay, especially if this is in Europe or America. Such contacts are also often highly formalized, of the type client-waiter relations in a restaurant. The surrounding social milieu is, I feel, experienced filtered through the culture of the enclave.\n\n37 In 1963 overseas remittances, in the form of postal and money orders cashed at the New Territories post offices, amounted to the value of HK$20,973,152. The corresponding figure for 1964 was HK$24,076,719; Hong Kong 1963, p. 60; Hong Kong 1964, p. 30. Considerable sums will also have been remitted through banks: these figures are not known. One item of information from the New Territories tells that one farmer annually receives about HK$1,500 from his two sons working in England; Topley 1964, p. 176. Ronald Ng (1965, p. 35) estimates the monthly remittances at £30, or HK$5,760 annually.\n\n38 This means that the daily income for a restaurant worker in Britain would amount to nearly HK$23. This may be compared to the daily wage of a worker in the New Territories which is about HK$10. Ng gives a similar figure for restaurant workers in the U.K.; Ng (1965, p. 35).\n\n39 The situation of the members of the overseas community in Britain could be compared to that of a villager of Big Stream Village working in a grocer's shop on the island of Aruba in the Netherlands West Indies. His salary there is 'over' US$100, i.e., at least HK$130, a month. The daily", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 } ]