[
    {
        "id": 207260,
        "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-1975",
        "page_number": 28,
        "title": "RAS-1975",
        "content_text": "20\n\nJOHN T. MYERS\n\nin personal expenditures. Cult members assert that he is the Tai Wong Ye of their temple. The manner of his becoming their patron deity is outlined on a scroll prominently displayed in the temple office.\n\nAccording to the scroll a General Lei fled south with the Southern Sung Court in the late 13th century taking with him the tablet of his illustrious ancestor Lei Man Chung Kung. After the defeat of the Sungs at Ling Ting Island near contemporary Hong Kong the general established residence in the Lo Fu Ngam region of Kowloon. Within the area now occupied by the Lok Fu Housing Estate he is reported to have constructed a shrine in honor of his illustrious ancestor. It is further reported that the residents of the region soon recognized the Tang statesman as a powerful supernatural advocate and developed a popular devotion in his honor.\n\nWe know little about the fate of the shrine and its deity during the ensuing 600 years other than that it persisted as a small structure tended in later years by Hakka villagers. After the Second World War the Lo Fu region changed dramatically as it became the site for squatter huts housing migrants from China. The immediate vicinity of the shrine was staked out almost exclusively by squatters from the Chiu-chow speaking region of Kwangtung Province. To the best of our present information it was with the arrival of the Chiu-chow that the shrine and its patron deity became the focus of spirit-medium activity.\n\nFormer residents of the squatter settlement indicate that they found the shrine in disrepair and untended when they established their squatter huts. A small group of the Chiu-chow migrants soon undertook its repair and began active worship of the deity. After several months one of their number, a dockyard coolie, began to act strangely. An elderly kei tung judged that he had become possessed by the shrine's patron, Tai Wong Ye, and had been chosen to serve as that deity's medium. The new kei tung soon became the central focus of religious rituals sponsored by the shrine.\n\nA new phase in the temple's existence began in 1957 when the government announced plans for the removal of the squatter area preparatory to constructing on its site the Lo Fu Housing Estate. Most of the Chiu-chow squatters were allocated quarters in the soon to be completed Kwun Tong/Tsui Ping Road Resettlement Estate. The spirit-medium and 18 male devotees of Tai Wong Ye",
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    {
        "id": 209371,
        "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-1982",
        "page_number": 28,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "6\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nenlarged and redecorated. Described as \"semi-self-contained\" units, these blocks have inside kitchens but detached toilets, and have had their centre walls removed to enlarge the over-all space. Block #21, however, has self-contained toilets in each unit. Blocks #1-4, #10, #12, #22, and #23 can be referred to as \"tap and toilet improvement\" blocks as their communal toilets have been replaced by individual, key toilets for each household. Block #5 is a \"special\" block in so far as self-contained flats were built in at the time it was erected (1959). In that sense, Block #5 is already \"converted\". The remaining Mark II Blocks (#13-#20) have been targeted for improvement.\n\nThere are now twenty-one Mutual Aid Committees established in Lok Fu Estate: Blocks #1-8, #10-20, #22, and #23 have committees. From January of 1982 to April of 1983, I interviewed the chairmen of eighteen of these Mutual Aid Committees as part of a research project to explore more fully the opinions of male members towards participation and problems of committee functioning. Such interviewing also enabled me to collect additional information on other matters relating to committee organization. The discussion presented in this paper is taken from these interviews, with additional background information collected during the previous research period of 1976-1978.*\n\nGeneral Organization\n\nThe Mutual Aid Committees of Lok Fu Estate follow the general design of committees found in other parts of Hong Kong, where the basic arrangement is to establish one committee for one building or residential block. This arrangement is the most common because it creates a neat structure that is easy to understand and administer. As public housing estates are arranged in blocks, the basic arrangement used here is one block, one committee. However, a complicating factor is the large population.\n\n* The author wishes to express her gratitude to these chairmen, and to the staff of the Tung Tau sub-office, Wong Tai Sin District Office, for their generous help. Special thanks goes to Ms. Winnie Yeung, Liaison Officer, Tung Tau sub-office for her advice and assistance. The author also wishes to thank Mr. H. S. Leung, Housing Manager, Lok Fu Estate, for his help.",
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    {
        "id": 209372,
        "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-1982",
        "page_number": 29,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "7\n\nTions living in many public housing estate blocks. As observed in 1980:\n\nOne of the largest estates where I interviewed, Tze Wan Shan Estate, is the largest in Hong Kong, housing well over 150,000 people. One of its blocks, Block #66, houses approximately 8,400 people. But it is not the largest. Across the street, Block #61, on the outer edge of the estate, houses nearly 9,900 people (Scott 1980:33).\n\nBlocks of this size, with such enormous resident populations, would make the standard arrangement not only impractical, but ridiculous. Yet, there have been some standard committees created under such situations. For example, in 1978 Blocks #62, #64, and #65 of Tze Wan Shan Estate, with a combined population of 11,000 inhabitants, were operating with one committee. Some blocks solve the population problem by dividing into floors; for example, one committee could be formed for, say, every three floors. In 1977, the Mutual Aid Committees of Block #23 of Tung Tau Estate, Wong Tai Sin District, were arranged in this way. It is also possible, if the block has wings, for each wing to have its own committee. Even with all these alternatives, there is probably no one perfect solution to the problem of committee allocation in public housing (Scott 1980:33).\n\n11\n\n“A Mutual Aid Committee must be approved by the District Officer/Assistant District Officer under delegated authority from the Secretary for District Administration on a biennial basis for the purpose of exemption from the Societies Ordinance (Cap. 151)” (City and New Territories Administration 1982:1).10 Each Mutual Aid Committee in Lok Fu Estate follows this rule and is registered for a period of two years. However, before October of 1981, the committees were registered for only one year. The lengthening of the registration period was felt to have a beneficial effect, as it would enable the committees to complete projects planned and generally function more efficiently. At the end of this time, each committee is reviewed by the District Officer or City District Officer and if found to be functioning without serious problems, its certificate is renewed. Each committee has its own biennial cycle, however, based on the time at",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209384,
        "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-1982",
        "page_number": 41,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "19\n\nwelfare director, one women's section director, and adds two new subcommittees, one sanitation director and one football instructor. The same kinds of subcommittees are found in an additional three committees (those for Blocks #16, #19, and #23) but Block #19 has two additional categories of junior police call (three members) and security (nine members), and Block #16 adds that of hygiene. Block #17's MAC has recently formed subcommittees for recreation, general affairs, women's section, and public relations.\n\nWhat do these committees do? Are there any differences with the subcommittee descriptions given earlier? Take, for example, the recreation subcommittee. The MACs of Lok Fu Estate may participate in two kinds of recreational activities, those organized through the District Office and planned for the estate as a whole and those organized by the block itself. The latter are much less common, as many committees do not have enough enthusiastic members to do the organizing nor do they have sufficient funds to pay for the expenses. Picnics are popular in the summer and fall, however, and the residents of many blocks are enthusiastic about outings to local temples to eat vegetarian food. One committee provides summer activities for its resident young people (such as camping trips, chess playing sessions, and table tennis) and a few committees have obtained basketballs and footballs for residents to use. The women's section subcommittee of one block's MAC provides a special service by seeing to the needs of old women living in the block. For example, it helps to pay the electricity bills for those in need and gives general assistance to these older women. The functions of the other subcommittees are generally the same as described.\n\nOne special subcommittee, that for security, is characteristic only of public housing estate Mutual Aid Committees. There, multiple entrances and exits make security a problem. It is true enough that private housing units also have security problems, often serious ones, but in my experience they rarely have patrol teams, relying instead on gates, an occasional watchman or two, or a company-hired professional security team. In the public housing estates, the security subcommittee is usually the one responsible for the neighbourhood security patrols, the regularly-rotating groups of committee members and residents who patrol",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209385,
        "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-1982",
        "page_number": 42,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "20\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nthe halls and the entrances of the blocks, watching for intruders and generally keeping an eye on the safety of the building. The majority of public housing estates have set up some kinds of patrol, or have had patrols in the past until the setting up of gates made them unnecessary (Scott 1980:38). While these neighbourhood security patrols are extremely common in other estates, there are very few at Lok Fu.\n\nWhy is this? There are a number of possible reasons, beginning with the smaller size of these blocks. Lok Fu Estate is designed on the older Mark I and Mark II structural designs which accommodate fewer people to start with, and recently, a number of blocks have been losing residents to newer estates elsewhere, or to home ownership schemes. In addition, the conversion of many blocks has meant fewer units, and therefore, fewer resident families. Fewer residents suggests fewer problems to many people, and so residents of some blocks do not see the need for a patrol. In addition, the H-shape of the Mark II blocks with outside balconies makes it easier to spot intruders, and makes residents feel safer. It should also be remembered that Lok Fu Estate has a Neighbourhood Police Unit in Block #13, and all the MAC officers are acquainted with its director. In fact, all the chairmen but one stressed again and again how safe and peaceful life was in the blocks. Another reason, one probably more to the point, is that residents of most blocks are simply no longer enthusiastic about patrolling, and they are not willing to give money to pay for the service, even if earlier in the committee's history they had supported such a team. The result has been half-hearted attempts to form patrols, and numerous failures.\n\nFor example, one committee had planned to establish a patrol team, but both interest and funds were insufficient to support it. Committee officers then decided that it would be more effective to hire a watchman for the front gate, but residents would not give money for that either, so up to now nothing has been accomplished. A similar lack of funds (and authority) prevented another committee from starting a patrol team. \"The MAC organizations were mainly set up in 1973, assisted by the City District Office, because public order was very bad at that",
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    },
    {
        "id": 209391,
        "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",
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        "document_key": "RAS-1982",
        "page_number": 48,
        "title": "RAS-1982",
        "content_text": "26\n\nJANET LEE SCOTT\n\nNOTES\n\nIt might be mentioned that the adult population of Hong Kong was, at the time of Mutual Aid Committee formation, already well acquainted with the idea and work of urban organizations. While the Mutual Aid Committees had (and still retain) their own unique design, their structure (and their functions) were not unfamiliar and they were not viewed as mysterious committees having no resemblances to other, more traditional, Chinese organizations.\n\n* The other five subdivisions are: Kam Kwok Mansion, Luen Hop Building, Mei Tung Estate, Pui Man Tsuen Cottage Area, and Pok Oi Village (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:271).\n\n* The exact total, provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate, was 21,221 at the end of February, 1983.\n\n• At the end of 1982, the exact figure was 523,927.\n\n* The Mark I blocks include Blocks #1-5, #9, #10, and #12, and the Mark II group is made up of Blocks #13-20 and Blocks #22 and #23. The remaining blocks (#6-8, #11, and #21), already rebuilt, are now referred to as Converted Buildings (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:272).\n\n• This information was provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate.\n\n* At the end of February, 1983, there were 26 Mutual Aid Committees in the Lok Fu Area and 286 Mutual Aid Committees for the entire Wong Tai Sin District.\n\n* The selection of male members is because all but one of the chairmen of the Lok Fu Estate Mutual Aid Committees interviewed were male. In addition, the opinions of female members towards participation were investigated during the research period of 1976-1978.\n\n* Block #23 of Tung Tau Estate is still divided into floors for the purpose of MAC formation. In early 1983, it had five MACs, one for each three floors.\n\n10 In 1982 the old titles of City District Commissioner and City District Officer were changed to District Officer and Assistant District Officer respectively. At the same time the old Home Affairs Department and New Territories Administration were amalgamated into a new department known as the City and New Territories Administration.\n\n11 The official certificates of registration are framed and prominently displayed in the committee's office, or if the committee lacks an office, are kept by an officer, most often the chairman.\n\n19\n\nHowever, given the apathy of many residents and the low attendance at many MAC meetings, one might wonder if any committee has been dissolved by popular action, the second alternative.\n\n10 This is the schedule as described by the Wong Tai Sin District Office, Tung Tau Sub-office. The office of the Housing Manager, Lok Fu Estate, explained that the conversion has already been completed and that 114 families (the figure as of March, 1983) had already moved in.\n\n\"These figures have been provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate, and are accurate as to the end of March, 1983.\n\n16 The C.C.C. number is a code number found on the Hong Kong Identification Card and is written under the Chinese characters of the individual's name.\n\n10 According to the Tung Tau Sub-office of the Wong Tai Sin District Office, there are no instances of the mishandling of MAC funds known in",
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