[ { "id": 205404, "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": 166, "title": "RAS-1967", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES \n\n159 \n\nThe clan possesses a small ancestral hall in the second row of houses, and here are housed the ancestral tablets of the most important ancestors. \n\nThese tablets usually have a sliding wooden slot at the back on which is given a short biography of the person commemorated, usually his birth and death, and sometimes a geomantic description of his grave site. From these records and the recollections of the present generation, information was obtained about two of the more distinguished clansmen of recent times. \n\nCHAN Jit-meng (M) alias Tak-hang (7) of the 20th generation, was born on the 2nd day of the 10th month in the year of the Tao Kwang (†) (i.e. 1828) and died on the 3rd day of the 12th month in the year of Kwang Hsü (**) (i.e. 1891). \n\nHe was a successful businessman who had a shop at Fat Shan (#) near Canton and a large cargo junk with which he traded to and from the Kowloon area. With the trading junk he brought a large amount of stone and building materials to the Tseung Kwan O area and is said to have been responsible for many public works: the village school, the pier at Hang Hau market (},□) nearby and the stone paved paths up the valley to Tseng Lan Shue and along the line of the present Clear Water Bay Road. \n\nHe also owned a shop called Yi Hing (M) just outside Kowloon City. He was a member of the Kowloon City Kaifong and one of the founder members of the Lok Sing Tong (#44) in 1879. This was an association of local gentry and leading villagers from the surrounding areas. \n\nIn later life, he bought the degree of Kwok Hok Shang (M *) in Canton, \n\nAccording to his ancestral tablet he had a wife NG (A) and a concubine WONG (£). \n\nCHAN Kwok-yan (RQ) alias Wai Tong (†) son of the above. This man's ancestral tablet does not show his dates of birth and death, but these are thought to be 1872-1933. As his father CHAN Jit-meng was a fairly rich man, he had a middle school education in Canton or Fat Shan. At some time in his career he met Sir Cecil Clementi (✯✯) the future Governor", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1967.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 208843, "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-1980", "page_number": 5, "title": "RAS-1980", "content_text": "204\n\nDAVID FAURE\n\nhsü 12 (1886). In the Kau Sai Hung Shing Temple, the lintel is dated Kuang-hsü 15 (1889), and the altar Kuang-hsü 20 (1894); and in the Hang Hau T'in Hau Temple (besides the 1840 bell), the lintel is dated Kuang-hsü 1 (1875), a tablet Kuang-hsü 2 (1876), an altar is of the same year, a wooden board of Kuang-hsü 4 (1878), a shrine of Kuang-hsü 10 (1884), a pair of stone lions of Kuang-hsü 13 (1887), and a pair of incense burners of Kuang-hsü 20 (1894). The bell and the incense burner at the Tin Ha Wan T'in Hau Temple are both undated, but Mr. Ip Ch'un, who lived nearby, told us that the temple was already in disrepair over fifty years ago. Historical inscriptions found in Sai Kung and elsewhere in Hong Kong and the New Territories have been transcribed as a special project and may be found in David Faure, Alice Ng, and Bernard Luk, \"A collection of historical inscriptions in Hong Kong\". The report is available in the Institute of Chinese Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and will, it is hoped, be published shortly.\n\n7\n\nMr. Hoh Taai of Ko Tong, aged over 60, knew of the whereabouts of a charcoal burner, but never saw it in operation (Int. 10.6.81). Lime kilns were reported in Wong Yi Chau, Wong Keng Tei, Tai Mong Tsai Tso Wo Hang, Tai Wan, Kiu Tsui, Sha Ha, Pak Sha Wan, Che Keng Tuk, Ta Ho Tun, Tai Tan, and Yau Yu Wan (Ints. Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 15.5.81, 22.5.81, Mr. Wong Yung Ts'ing 20.5.81, Mr. Tang Kei Faat 25.6.81, Mr. Lei Yau 28.6.81, Mr. Wong Ping Lin 29.6.81, Madam Liu 20.5.81, Mr. Lau Lui Faat 23.6.81, Mr. Tse Wing 9.6.81, Mr. Tse Shui Kam 24.6.81, Madam Lo Koon Mooi 21.6.81, Mrs. Hoh née Lei 28.6.81, Mr. Chung 23.7.81, and Madam Lam Yau Ch'un 19.8.81.) The Liu family at Kiu Tsui built the ancestral hall that can be seen today on the main road into Sai Kung Market. For an impression of the long history of lime making in Sai Kung, it should be noted that Madam Lo Koon Mooi was 85 and Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 87 in 1981, and it was their fathers who were engaged in the lime business. Mr. Yau continued working the kilns until his early 40's. Brick kilns were reported in Chek Keng and Pak Tam Chung (Ints. Mr. Chiu Sz 7.5.81 and Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 15.5.81, 22.5.81). The lime industry, of course, also provided income for fishermen who collected coral for the kilns. See \"Return of the approximate number of fishermen employed in taking coral and shell from the sea adjoining the New Territory\", in Hong Kong Legislative Council, Sessional Papers, 1901, p. 685.\n\n\"The best indication of the growing importance of the trade in pigs is a set of account books that belonged to Mr. Yung Sz Ch'iu of Pak Sha O, a photocopy of which is held by the Oral History Project. See also ints. Mr. Chan Tsz K'eung 28.5.81 and Mr. Hoh King 5.6.81.\n\n• There are many instances of seamen recruited by recruitment firms (haang shuen koon); see, eg. Mr. Chiu Sz (Int. 7.5.81). Remittance from abroad was sent back to the village through import-export houses (kam shan tsong), see Mr. Yau T'aai Hong (Int. 11.8.81).\n\n10 Mr. Cheung T'o's grandfather was a cook on Hong Kong Island, and his father was employed on the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Mr. Cheung, of Ho Chung, was c. 70 in 1981 (Int. 15.6.81). Mr. Tsang Yau of Tai Mong Tsai (age unknown, but who married before World War II) worked in a shop started by his father in Shaukiwan on Hong Kong Island (Int. 23.6.81).\n\n11 Ints. Mr. Cheng Chung Ting 21.5.81, Mr. Chan P'aang Hing 29.5.81, Mr. Chan T'aai 22.7.81; Bernard Williams, \"Visit to Ho Chung and Sheung Yeung villages in the Sai Kung area”, in Marjorie Topley, ed. Aspects of Social Organization in the New Territories, Hong Kong, 1965, pp. 46-47, and \"The Chan family of Tseung Kwan O\", JHKBRAS 7 (1967), pp. 158-160.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1980.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 209316, "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-1981", "page_number": 219, "title": "RAS-1981", "content_text": "NOTES AND QUERIES\n\n205\n\nfarmers could ever raise enough cash for those expenses requiring substantial cash payments, e.g. to build or repair extensively a house or buy a new plough. I was told that careful management could make a plough last almost indefinitely: a completely new plough was needed only if the old one shattered into fragments. The wooden parts could be replaced by the farmer cutting and preparing wood himself, the coulter had to be regularly replaced by a coulter bought new but could be fitted on by the farmer. The blacksmith in Tai Po would accept the old coulter in part payment for the new one; he would then melt it down to recast it. Small expenses (e.g. extra rice, sugar, oil, other comestibles) could be met by the sale of firewood etc. Sugar was very cheap: sale of 1 picul of firewood would enable enough sugar and oil to be bought to last a thrifty family several weeks. As for houses, these were repaired as soon as the slightest signs of wear, cracks, leakage or ants appeared, and would thus survive almost for ever, barring typhoon or fire damage. If a home did get so damaged a poor family could only repair it by mortgaging its fields at a high price (say, at the rate of 1 or 5 picul per harvest per tau). If good years supervened in which there were good harvests and opportunities for wage labour such a family could recover and pay off the mortgage, but if bad years came the mortgage might be foreclosed and “that family would starve and might well die\". Substantial wealth in ready cash \"usually came from outside\" from remittances from seamen etc. as in Wai H.L.'s father's and uncle's case, or the Ng family in West Lane etc. One member of Chan family (Name given me by Wai H.L. but I forgot it) in Tai Wai “about 30 or 40 years older than Wai Siu-ling” (i.e. born about 1855-1865) became very rich as a seaman at the turn of the century or thereabouts or a little earlier. He became the \"leader” of an American ship. Villager wanting to go to sea would have to receive his recommendation, and would have to pay to get it. He also smuggled opium to Chinese communities in the U.S.A., making great profits which he used to buy up houses and fields in Tai Wai. He shamed the other villagers \"by wearing only silk when they could afford only hemp, and eating pork and chicken when they could afford only rice and salt fish” He also married the most beautiful girl in Sha Tin, However, he was caught when his last smuggling adventure \"just before he retired\" (1915?) went wrong and was fined very heavily. He could not pay and had to sell all his belongings at an auction. He was considered a \"bad man\" - not because of his smuggling but because he did not help the village. \"Other men who became rich like this would repair the r'ong (ancestral hall) or do other communal acts, but he not only refused but would not even help his", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1981.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 211923, "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-1989", "page_number": 338, "title": "RAS-1989", "content_text": "313\n\nDocuments confirm that Sing-Ngok's descendants had a large portion of the more than 160 acres of Kam Tin Dang land-holdings on Hong Kong island.\n\nD. Sung-Kok jou and the Gwong-Yu Tong and Lei-Ging Tong\n\nI have mentioned before that the second ancestor of the fourth branch, Naam-Kai, had been adopted from the first branch. This connection might be expected to serve to make the two branches feel closer together. However, fung-sheui stories hint at feelings of rivalry between the first and the fourth branches, especially after the rise of the latter during or after Dang Man-Wai's time in the later seventeenth century. However, it was only a few segments of the fourth branch which prospered: a letter from the leaders of the Kam Tin Dangs in 1941 claimed that the ancestral fund for Naam-Kai used to be a broken house in the county town of Xin'an until it was expanded to a farmland holding of over 200 sek in rent value under the management of the youngest son of Dang Kyun-Hin (1755-1822). It was only the families of Dang Man-Wai and of his brothers who enjoyed great prosperity from early in the Qing dynasty.\n\nThe present descendants of Dang Man-Wai attribute the prosperity of their segment (known as Gwong-Yu Tong) to the jeun-si degree of Man-Wai, which he won in 1685. But from 1657, i.e. almost 20 years earlier, he was already a geui-yan, one of only two or three ever achieved from the Hong Kong region, which should have placed him in a very advantageous position especially in this period. According to a stone inscription, Man-Wai started the Yuen Long Market in 1669, and until it was replaced by the New Market in 1898 this market was run by the ancestral trust of Man-Wai, the Gwong-Yu Tong. Man-Wai was also credited with having compiled a genealogy and having initiated the building of an ancestral hall for the larger Dang clan. His sons and grandsons included many imperial degree/title holders involved in lineage matters.\n\nThe spirit tablets of two of Dang Man-wai's brothers are housed in the Lei-Ging Tong, an ancestral hall which used to be in the present playground, but which was later moved to near the Sun Ngai Brass factory on Kam Sheung Road. The original building was only a little smaller than the Gwong-Yu Tong. One of the two brothers was Dang Ng-sang, who, according to Sung (1974:185), built the ancestral hall. Some village elders confirmed that he was the same Ng-sang who was the leader of", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1989.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 212658, "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-1991", "page_number": 212, "title": "RAS-1991", "content_text": "193\n\nto and honouring the memory of Wang Te-lu, an Imperial fleet commander who helped clear the Straits of Formosa of pirates during the early years of the nineteenth century. The Wang Clan Temple in T'ai-pao village in Chia I county in central Taiwan was an elegant building first built during the late 19th century by the proud clan whose surname Wang Te-lu bore. It was rebuilt in 1979, this time a modern metal frame construction retaining the comparatively small single hall in which there is but one altar on which stands one large multi-ancestor tablet and three ancestral tablets. The flanking walls bear texts, with Wang Te-lu referred to in a number of the captions as Wang Ta-jen, i.e. His Excellency Wang, and paintings of Wang Te-lu stage left and of his primary wife stage right.\n\nAlthough we know little about Wang's early life apart from what has been retrieved from local folk memory which, as with all family recollections, is highly subjective and probably exaggerated out of all reality, we do have official records of the highlight of his life. This \"five minutes of glory\", depicted in a painting hanging in his Memorial Chapel illustrating the incident, was his victory over pirates who had been causing immense and terrible problems up and down the coasts of the southern provinces of Chekiang, Fukien and Kuangtung since the late 1790s. One pirate fleet in particular had sailed the Fukien coast under its dreaded Fukienese leader, Ts'ai Ch'ien. The Chinese Imperial naval commander, Li Ch'ang-keng, commanding the joint fleets of Fukien and Chekiang province, determined to suppress them, successfully defeated the pirates on a number of occasions but was killed in action in 1808, following which his two subordinate admirals, of whom Wang was one, were entrusted with continuing the task. Wang, in charge of the Imperial Fukien fleet, together with the Chekiang fleet under Admiral Ch'iu, fought the major battle in September 1808 near the Tai-chou islands off the Chekiang coast. The pirate fleet was destroyed with Ts'ai Ch'ien going down with his ship.\n\nWang was born and named Te-lu, literally meaning \"To become prosperous and happy\", in 1771, the thirty-fifth year of the emperor Ch'ing Ch'ien Lung, in Kiangsi's provincial city of Nanch'ang, and in later years acquired the courtesy name of Pai-ch'u, literally \"All Honours are concentrated within Him\"; and the literary name, Yü-feng, literally meaning \"The Jade Peak\". He died at the age of 71 in 1842 on the Pescadores, an archipelago in the middle of the Straits of Formosa, and having been borne in honour back to Taiwan, was buried in Hsin-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1991.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/k356gt84j", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214640, "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-1999", "page_number": 55, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "19\n\nnineteenth century that Sha Po started to establish itself as a separate village.\n\nAs well as the residences outside the walls, the village had its latrines outside the walls, on the northern side of the moat. There were three or four of these.\n\nTo the southwest of the walled village, and adjacent to the important footpath from the village to the South-East Gate of the Walled City, there were a string of important structures. Two or three large houses stood near the moat (one, owned by Ng Kit-san jointly with Ng Yuk-chan, was about 45 feet wide by 60 deep, with a courtyard and an outhouse as big as fourteen of the houses within the walls). Next to Ng Kit-san and Ng Yuk-chan's house, was the Ng clan Ancestral Hall, another large building (about 50 feet wide by 55 deep, with an outhouse, and a well) fronted by a courtyard: the village school was held in this building\". The school was managed by the Ng Shing Tat Tso Ancestral Trust, which went to great pains to hire a good teacher. They provided him with a spacious house outside the walls since the houses within the walls were too cramped to attract a good teacher. The teacher was probably housed in one of the houses owned by the trust in the Market perhaps the large house with a courtyard behind owned by the trust in Hoklo Tsuen, near the sea. With a house in the Market, the teacher would have been in close contact with the scholars who were to be found around the Sub-Magistracy and the Lok Sin Tong. The school had an excellent reputation, and attracted boys from the Market, as well as the village.\n\nThere was a wide footpath, which surrounded the moat on all sides. Four important footpaths fed into this path around the moat. To the northwest was the footpath which connected the Market at Kowloon City with Tai Wai and the villages of the Sha Tin valley. This path crossed the mountains by the pass below Lion Rock, and came into Sha Tin past the Che Kung Temple. To the northeast was the very important footpath which, having crossed the river, passed by Po Kong to the ferry pier at Yuen Chau Kok in Sha Tin (this was the main path between Kowloon City and Tai Po, Sham Chun, and Wai Chow). A branch of this path went to Siu Lek Yuen in Sha Tin. These paths crossed the mountains into Sha Tin by Sha Tin Pass and Grasscutters' Pass. To the southwest was the path to the South-East Gate of the Walled City", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214641, "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-1999", "page_number": 56, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "20 \n\nand the upper end of the Market (the Ng clan Ancestral Hall stood next to this road): this path went through the scattered houses of Tung Tau Village. To the south went a path which led to Sha Po Village, the lower end of the Market (where most of the shops owned by Nga Tsin Wai people were), and on to the pier. Of these, the path from the South-East Gate and on to Sha Tin Pass and the pier at Yuen Chau Kok was of major importance.\n\nThe Hong Kong Government did a traffic survey at Sha Tin Pass in late 1904, in an attempt to consider the profitability of the Railway then under planning20, 600 persons a day were recorded as crossing this pass, 280 of them \"carrying goods\" (a good deal of this trade was of fresh fish from Tolo Harbour being carried for sale at Kowloon City Market, and through the Market on to Hong Kong). This was a very summary and unsophisticated survey, and probably under-estimates the traffic (it took no account of the higher numbers passing on Kowloon City market days, and it is unlikely to have been undertaken from dawn to dusk), but still suggests very heavy traffic (even as it stands, it implies someone crossing the pass every daylight minute). The \"goods carried” would have been carried in the standard loads of 75 catties (100 pounds), and hence at least 12½ tons of goods were being man-handled over the pass every day at that date.\n\nBefore the opening of the Railway in 1912, wealthy men would hire sedan chairs and coolies to carry them over the passes. Sha Tin village elders remember the Tai Wai man who was, before 1898, a clerk in the Sub-Magistracy at Kowloon City, and who travelled to and fro by sedan chair, and remember also that, if a villager called a doctor from Kowloon City to visit them, and then the doctor would insist on being carried over the mountains in a chair. All these would have passed under the walls of Nga Tsin Wai.\n\nThis constant heavy traffic along the paths around the village brought business to Nga Tsin Wai. Cakes (Cha Kwo), and tea could be sold to passers-by, and also fruit and so forth. It is not known if any of the Nga Tsin Wai villagers worked as chair-coolies - it is perhaps more likely that the chair-coolies mostly lived in the Market - but there can be no doubt that all this traffic brought a lot of business the way of the village.\n\nJ", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214645, "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-1999", "page_number": 60, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "24\n\neighteenth century. The Fungs () came there much later, at the end of the nineteenth century: they had fled from the Tai Ping rebels to Shek Lung Tsai in Sha Tin, and from there moved to Ngau Chi Wan. Very little is known of the Six Villages Alliance, and it is likely that it was more loosely structured than the League of Seven.\n\nIt will be noted that Tai Hom, of the League of Seven, is completely surrounded by land that formed part of the Six Villages Alliance. Tai Hom, which is a single-surname village of the Chu (*) clan, is the only village of the League of Seven with no genealogical connections with Nga Tsin Wai. That it formed part of the League of Seven, rather than the Po Kong Six Villages Alliance is probably due to the circumstances of Tai Hom's foundation. The Founding Ancestor of the Chus, Chu kui-yuen, was a Hakka from Ng Wah District far to the northeast of Hong Kong22. He was a stone-cutter. He came to Hong Kong in 1762, to look for work in the quarries which were at that date starting up in the eastern part of what is today Victoria Harbour. He prospered, and established a quarry at Shek Tong Tsui in 1771. Later, he found Shek Tong Tsui rather remote, and exposed to pirate attack, and moved to Sha Po near Kowloon City. Later still, he bought quarry-land at the tip of Cape d'Aguilar Peninsula, and founded nearby the village of Hok Tsui. He had eight sons. His eldest son died unmarried, and Hok Tsui is today lived in by the descendants of his second, third and fourth sons. The fifth and sixth sons died unmarried or disappeared later. Chu kui-yuen bought more land, at Tai Hom, for his seventh son, Yan-fung, leaving his youngest son, Cheung-fung,\n\n, the land at Sha Po. After Kui-yuen's death, his widow lived at Tai Hom with her seventh son, who acquired a minor official post at Kowloon City, presumably after the re-establishment of the yamen there in 1841. Yan-fung was born in 1781, and died in 1857. Tai Hom was, therefore, a late settlement. It is unlikely to have been founded earlier than 1800. The land at Tai Hom was not fertile, and was steep and rocky (the Chus ran a quarry there, which supplied poor quality stone used for laying foundations in the Kowloon City area). Until 1992 a few remnants of Tai Hom, including the Chu clan Ancestral Hall, remained, buried within the Diamond Hill Squatter Area. It is likely that Po Kong refused to guarantee the good behaviour of these incoming Hakka (some already settled family was always required to guarantee incomers under the Pao-chia rules), while Nga Tsin Wai was willing, and that it was this which brought Tai Hom into the League of\n\nPage 60\n\nPage 61", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214650, "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-1999", "page_number": 65, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "29\n\nNga Tsin Wai in 1902\n\nA great deal of information on Nga Tsin Wai can be gathered from the Block Crown Lease, which in Nga Tsin Wai dates from 1902. Nga Tsin Wai forms part of Survey District 1, the very first area to be surveyed, and, as a result of experience gained, the later surveys were improved, particularly by the inclusion of the Chinese characters for the names recorded, and the recording of the village the landowner claimed to belong to. Although this useful information is omitted from the Nga Tsin Wai Lease, a good deal of information can still be had.\n\nAt the Appendix is a summary of the land-holdings of Nga Tsin Wai as recorded in the Block Crown Lease. For the purposes of this summary, any villager owning a house in Nga Tsin Wai in 1902 is considered a villager of Nga Tsin Wai, even if he owned other houses elsewhere. Any villager not recorded as owning any house is considered an Nga Tsin Wai villager if the bulk of his farmland was near the village. Any trust is considered a Nga Tsin Wai trust if the Manager (or any one of the Managers) was a Nga Tsin Wai villager, or if it owned a house within the village: any manager of a Nga Tsin Wai trust is also considered a Nga Tsin Wai villager, even if he would otherwise not be. There were other landholders in the Kowloon City area - especially men of the Ng clan resident in Sha Po - who are here considered as Sha Po villagers rather than Nga Tsin Wai villagers, and so are not included in the summary. This is not entirely satisfactory since, in 1902, there was probably no clear distinction drawn between Nga Tsin Wai and Sha Po, and the distinction drawn here between Nga Tsin Wai and Sha Po villagers is one unlikely to have been accepted by the villagers in 1902. However, it is the best that can be done.\n\nThe village consisted in 1902 of about 140 houses within the walls (not including the Tin Hau Temple and the Village Office), and some 48 outside the walls, plus the Ng clan Ancestral Hall and school. Six of these 188 houses were owned by village trusts: 73 individual villagers or groups of villagers owned the others. A further twelve house-owners classed here as Nga Tsin Wai villagers owned houses only in Sha Po, and five more owned houses only in Kowloon City. These villagers are here classed as Nga Tsin Wai villagers because of acting as trustees of Nga Tsin Wai village trusts or because the bulk of their agricultural land lay near the village, or because they formed part of groups of villagers.", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214657, "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-1999", "page_number": 72, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "36\n\nbehind the Sham Yam Tso (holding 0.55 acres of arable land, with the trustees the grandsons of the pivotal ancestor, plus a further 0.60 acres held jointly with two other trusts where the Sham Yam ancestor's brothers were the apical ancestors), and the Wai Wing Tso (with 1.09 acres of arable land, with the trustees being the great-great-grandsons of the pivotal ancestor).\n\nAll the above trusts can be called \"family trusts\", designed to make family land-holdings more flexible. There were, however, also a few genuinely ancestral trusts. The Shing Tat Tso was set up in the name of the Founding Ancestor of the Ngs, and it owned the Ancestral Hall, two houses in Kowloon Market and 0.78 acres of arable land. The houses and arable property were designed to provide adequate income for the clan's ritual needs, including the maintenance of the Ancestral Hall. As with many other clans, this, the highest and most revered of the ancestral trusts, was left by the Ngs without excessively large land-holdings, as villagers felt that the income from land held by the High Ancestor should be used only for ritual and other entirely worthy purposes; it would be improper to give the trust more land than would be needed for this, to avoid the trust becoming involved in money-lending, or other less desirable practices. The prime ancestral trusts of the Lis and the Chans (the Li Shing Kwai Tso and the Chan Chiu In Tso) shared with the Ng Shing Tat Tso the ownership of the Tin Hau Temple and the Village Office within the walls: the Li Shing Kwai Tso also owned 1.09 acres of agricultural land.\n\nAggressive land-buying and speculation were left by the Ngs to other trusts, and especially the Sz Ko Tso (this was the trust to which all members of the junior three descent lines of the Ngs belonged, which equalled about a third of the clan). This Sz Ko Tso trust was certainly involved in money-lending on mortgage. This was common throughout the New Territories, and allowed the trust in question to acquire land when mortgages were foreclosed. It was doubtless to avoid the temptation of involvement in this business that the Shing Tat Tso was kept to a relatively small land holding. The Sz Ko Tso owned in 1902 a large house in Kowloon Market, and another large house in Sha Po, and no less than 8.73 acres of arable land. A large block of this (1.19 acres) lay in the heart of the Po Kong village land, and must have come to the Tso by foreclosing on mortgages taken out by one or more of the Lams of Po Kong. There were also trusts in the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214659, "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-1999", "page_number": 74, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "38\n\nThe Li clan also had a range of ancestral trusts. In the absence of any Tsuk Po, however, it is never very clear whether a particular trust is a \"family trust\" or a genuine ancestral trust. The two main trusts, however, the Shing Kwai Tso (named from the Founding Ancestor - the transliteration should be Shing Kai, rather than Shing Kwai), and the Luk Wa Tso (this was most likely named from the six descent lines of the clan, and thus probably equated in membership with the Shing Kwai Tso), both had substantial land-holdings (1.09 acres and 1.43 acres respectively), as had also the Ching Wun Tso (0.93 acres): this latter Tso was named from the pivotal ancestor of the largest of the clan descent lines. All three of these Tso had as their trustee Li Lai-ting, who was, in 1902, clearly the dominant elder of the Li clan. Other trusts were probably family trusts, as for instance the Kwan Fong Tso (0.24 acres), also with Li Lai-ting as trustee, but probably in this case as the manager of his own family estates. Other Li clan trusts, including the Sz Fo Tso (“Four “Fo” Ancestors”), Sz Cheung Tso (\"Four \"Cheung\" Ancestors\"), Sz Kwong Tso (\"Four \"Kwong\" Ancestors\"), and Sz Pin Tso (“Four “Pin\" Ancestors\") were probably vehicles for the holding of land used to provide income for rituals and grave-maintenance - none of these trusts were very wealthy (0.43 acres, 0.09 acres, 0.19 acres, and 0.30 acres respectively, with a further 0.13 acres owned jointly by the Sz Pin and Sz Kwong Tso). Li Lai-ting was trustee for the Sz Pin Tso, which must have been the trust of his own sub-descent line.\n\nIn general, the Li clan of Nga Tsin Wai had 5.70 acres held in trust, 28.12% of their total holdings of 20.21 acres, much the same percentage as the 28.92% held by Ng clan trusts. The land-holdings of the Lis averaged 0.77 acres per recorded house-owning household, only a little above half of the 1.31 acres per recorded house-owning households of the Ngs. This, again, illustrates the greater prosperity of the Ngs in 1902.\n\nWithin the Li clan there was much the same range of wealth as in the Ngs, although there were fewer joint households. Land-holdings include, as in the case of the Ngs, some households with only houses recorded (Li In-ting, Li Kong-fuk, Li Tso), or else with only tiny plots of arable land (Li Kam-tsing, 0.09 acres; Li Yung-wan, 0.04 acres), or else with just house property and a vegetable garden (Li Tin, 2 houses within the walls and 0.08 acres; Li Kun-sang, 1 house within the walls", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214660, "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-1999", "page_number": 75, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "39 \nand Li Kun-fuk, 2 houses within the walls, and then with these two brothers or cousins holding 0.17 acres of land jointly, and Kun-sang in addition a further 0.01 individually; Li Tin-hi, 2 houses within the walls and 0.18 acres; Li Tin-yau, 1 house within the walls and 0.11 acres). The reasons for these households with far less arable land than could possibly allow for subsistence are likely to be the same as in the case of the Ngs, although, in this case, some of the Li households may have been in the process of moving out of the village. In the case for Li Kun-fuk and Li Kun-sang, however, who were important elders of the clan (Kun-fuk was the trustee of three trusts, and Kun-sang of two), the tiny-recorded individually owned areas of agricultural land must hide far more substantial areas actually under their control.. \n\nOf those households of the Li clan which recorded their land-holdings under the family head's name, the holdings varied from 0.31 acres (Kun-tai), and then through 0.45 acres (Yung-tai), 0.67 acres (Yung Wa and Yung Fat jointly), 0.89 acres (Yuk-hing), 0.93 acres (Kam Tak), 1.15 acres (Lai-ting, the dominant elder), 1.5 acres (Ping-shan, part of this was held jointly with Tak-hing and Chiu-hing, and another tiny part jointly with Ip Shi); to 3.81 acres (Loi: he also owned 0.86 acres jointly with Li Hau-fuk). Kun-tai, who held no less than 5 houses within the walls, must have been wealthier than his 0.31 acres of agricultural land-holding would suggest: he was also one of the trustees of the Luk Wa Tso. He probably had access to a significant amount of trust property. Yung-tai also had a significant amount of house property - three houses within the walls. \n\nRelatively wealthy villages like Nga Tsin Wai were usually marked by an interest in education. The village had a fine school, which was held in the Ng clan Ancestral Hall. Villages like Nga Tsin Wai often also had \"literary clubs\", where the more scholarly and better educated of the villagers would meet to write poetry together, and drink wine in the light of the moon. The Sub-Magistrate in Kowloon City encouraged such literary groups, in particular by sponsoring poetry competitions and so forth. Nga Tsin Wai villagers had access to such a club (probably in the Market), and the Li clan had a small trust to support it, the Man Lau Tong (\"Association for the Literature House\"). This owned only 0.05 acres, the income of which probably supported the costs of tea and wine for the Li clan members of the club, but it demonstrates the scholarly ambitions of the village. \n\nPage 75\n\nPage 76", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214661, "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-1999", "page_number": 76, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "40\n\nThe 1902 Lease also shows us a glimpse of how women were treated in the village then. It was a frequent occurrence that men died, leaving widows. Traditionally, there were three ways of dealing with this. In poorer households, the widow would live in a corner of the house, which would be taken over by her sons. Where this happened, the Block Crown Lease, of course, does not show it. However, in other cases, especially where the widow was elderly, with adult sons, she would be given the house she had lived in for life, while the sons took the other houses and the farm, guaranteeing the mother a certain fixed amount of food per month for her upkeep (in some villages, the sons would execute a legally binding deed to this effect). At least three examples of this practice can be detected in the Nga Tsin Wai Block Crown Lease. The widow Ng Chan Shi (“Madame Ng, of the Chan surname”) is recorded as owning merely 1 house within the walls, and 1 house in Kowloon Market. Li Chan Shi (“Madame Li, of the Chan surname”) owned a house outside the walls, and 0.37 acres of land - probably to provide her with vegetables, and possibly for a small market garden plot. Li Ip Shi (“Madame Li, of the Ip surname”) had a house outside the walls, two houses in Kowloon Market, and a vegetable plot of 0.06 acres, with a further 0.05 acres held jointly with Li Ping-sang.\n\nThe alternative method of dealing with widows, especially where there were infant children, was to allow the widow to occupy the land in trust for her sons' coming-of-age. Sometimes this was formalised, with the widow shown in the Block Crown Lease as Trustee, but very often the widow is shown as full owner, everyone understanding the arrangement. There is one clear case of this in Nga Tsin Wai. Li Ng Shi (\"Madame Li, of the Ng surname\") is recorded as the owner of three houses within the walls, and a very large house at Sha Po, together with 1.24 acres of arable land. While it was theoretically possible for a woman to own land (e.g. land she bought with her own money), it was very rare, and it can be confidently assumed that this land was land held by her as widow, in trust for her infant sons.\n\nThe 1902 Block Crown Lease, therefore, shows us a prosperous village, filled with people, surrounded by what, for the New Territories, were broad areas of arable land, with the essential components of a self-confident village of a fine Ancestral Hall and School, and with access to a literary club. The Lease shows us that the village families were mostly holding enough land for their subsistence, especially if", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214679, "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-1999", "page_number": 94, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "58\n\nsmall patches of vegetable fields. The present Diamond Hill Squatter Area, with the remains of the old Tai Hom Village at its centre, is all that remains of this huge area today.\n\nNga Tsin Wai was buried in this squatter area. Squatter huts were built up against the outer face of the old walls of 1724. The old moat area was not built over, however, because the ground there was too unsafe and damp. The Ng clan Ancestral Hall disappeared into the centre of the new Tung Tau Squatter Area, and the area north of the village was covered with a network of vegetable plots and squatter huts. As before, the villagers were, in most cases, quite unable to get any rent from the squatters, and just lost control of their sole economic asset - their fields.\n\nTo the northwest of the village an even larger squatter area developed around the Wong Tai Sin Temple (founded here in the 1930s), and the villages of Ta Kwu Leng and Shek Kwu Lung. This squatter area was cleared from 1955 for the construction of the Wong Tai Sin Housing Estates: Ta Kwu Ling and Shek Kwu Lung villages were cleared with the squatter huts which surrounded them. No special compensation was paid to the villagers of these villages, who received cash for their fields, and a unit in the new estates. Thus, by the middle 1950s, Nga Tsin Wai was left as the only indigenous village left in the whole area, except for Chuk Yuen, Yuen Ling, and Ngau Chi Wan to the east.\n\nNgau Chi Wan with Pak Uk Tsai was in turn cleared for development in the late 1960s (the villagers here were given a resite just north of the new road), Ngau Chi Wan for the construction of Lung Cheung Road, and Pak Uk Tsai for the site formation for Ping Shek Estate. What was left of Chuk Yuen went in the early 1980s (some of the village had disappeared a decade or so earlier), for the development of Open Space along Po Kong Village Road. Both the Yuen Ling villages went in the early 1990s, with the squatter area which surrounded them, for the site formation for the Chi Lin Nunnery.\n\nAt Nga Tsin Wai itself, the site formation for the original Tung Tau Estate (1960), and its access roads, led to the resumption of all the remaining village fields. The Ng clan Ancestral Hall was cleared with the squatter area around it. A resite was given for the Ancestral Hall, at the western end of the old moat (the resite was less than a quarter the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214684, "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-1999", "page_number": 99, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "63\n\n16 The date is engraved on the earth god shrine in the village\n\nFor the Ta Tsiu at Nga Tsin Wai, see J W Hayes, The Rural Communities of Hong Kong Studies and Themes, Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1983, pp 157-159 See also p 162\n\n18 These guns were all sunk in the moat immediately to the south of the village gate when the Japanese came\n\n19 In the 1902 Block Crown Lease, the Ancestral Hall is shown as the Ng Kit-san house, and the Ng Kit-san house as the Ancestral Hall by some strange error\n\n0\n\n1\n\n༣།\n\nDespatch from Sir M Nathan to Colonial Office, January 11th, 1905, in file CO882/6, printed in Eastern No 88, Confidential Hong Kong Correspondence [December 15 1903 to February 27 1907] Relating to the Proposed Canton Kowloon Railway', printed for the use of the Colonial Office, April 1907, No 59, pp 81-88\n\nThe slopes to the east of Lion Rock were under the protection of Kwun Yam These slopes were called Tsz Wan Shan (Fill, “Mountain of the Cloud of Compassion one of the titles of Kwun Yam) There has been a temple to Kwun Yam half way up to the pass since at least 1853, probably much earlier The early ownership of this temple is unclear\n\nInformation on the Chus is taken from their Tsuk Po, a copy of which I was kindly given by Dr James Hayes, and from notes of interviews Dr Hayes had with Chu clan elders in the 1960s See also, Southern District Board, 1996, p 138\n\nOn the Tung Shan Temple, see J W Hayes, \"The Kwun Yam - Tung Shan Temple of East Kowloon, 1840-1940”, Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Vol 23, 1983 pp 212-218\n\n*For instance, in Aed (), Joint Publishing (Hong Kong), 1994, p 44, and RPF Lam, ed The Hong Kong Album, Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1982, p 66\n\n25 I am indebted to Dr James Hayes for much of the detail of this section\n\n26 See A Lui, Forts and Pirates, op cit p 31", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 214702, "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-1999", "page_number": 117, "title": "RAS-1999", "content_text": "Kak Hang\n\nPo Kong, Sha Tin Pass,\n\nYaen Chru Kok, Tai Po\n\nSha Tei Yoen\n\nFlekkda\n\nTiu Sam and Tai Wai\n\nFields\n\nCL Courtyard\n\nLatrines\n\nMetres\n\nFluids\n\nRiver\n\nMoat\n\nSEBO SERIA\n\nThe Has Terapie\n\nEntrance Causeway, and Gate,\n\nwith Guard Chamber Over\n\nMont\n\nWall\n\n日\n\nWall\n\nMAP 2\n\nNga Tsin Wai in 1902\n\nFlekk\n\nSouth-East Gate of Walled City\n\n100\n\nLower Sha Po and Pier\n\nFielde\n\nUpper Sha Po\n\nNg Clan Ancestral Hall (Village School)\n\n+7\n\nCL\n\nD\n\n81\n\n24-", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1999.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x", "rank": 0 }, { "id": 215210, "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-2000", "page_number": 306, "title": "RAS-2000", "content_text": "270\n\nconnection, as my mother was a Yip from Chan Uk Village, also at Nam Tau. There were over ten families of Ng in Kowloon Tsai, but we had no ancestral hall there. There were two parts to the village, an upper and lower part - Sheung and Ha Wai. We lived in the Ha Wai. There was a Tin Hau temple at the village, and we had puppet shows on the goddess' birthday every year when I was young. We also had a Ta Chiu in the village every ten years.\n\n'I was married to a Li of Sheung Sha Po Village when I was 18. My husband was a revenue officer in the Customs service. We had three houses in the village, but they were all demolished for the airfield extension. We were sent first to a vacant tenement house in Cheung On Street [not identified in a modern street guide, but very likely to have been in nearby suburban Kowloon] whose owner had left. We were there for 4-6 months, before moving to Model Village.\n\n'I am Shing Sung, now 55, a Hakka. I was born at Nam Tau and came to Kowloon when I was 18 to join my uncle who owned a wooden house at Tsat Kan Uk [The Seven Houses], a place north of old Kowloon Tsai Village. I later built a wooden hut there for myself. I came to Model Village after the war. I remember that there were private fields in the general area, as well as government land. People named Fung, Hui and Tsang owned fields there before the war.\n\n'I am Madam Law Mui, aged 57, also Hakka. I was born at Nam Tau, and came to Kowloon when I was 20, to marry Shing Sung's elder brother - also to The Seven Houses. We farmed government land there, for which we had a permit and paid fees, both before and after the war. There were many people at Ap Tsai Wu (Duckling Pond), the name of the general area where we lived and farmed. They were scattered here and there, because we were all vegetable farmers and you built your own house beside your own plot of land. Like Shing Sung, we moved to Model Village after the war.\n\n'I am Madam Kwai-fung, aged 64. I am a Hakka, born at Sha Po Tsai, Kowloon, where my family had lived for several generations. My father kept a store in Lower Sha Po, near Blacksmiths' Street in the Kowloon City suburb. When I was 22, I was married to Ng Sam-hong, a Punti, of Old Kak Hang Village, next to Nga Tsin Wai, when we had gone to live in a newly repaired house. We had two houses of our own at the", "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-2000.txt", "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n", "rank": 0 } ]