[
    {
        "id": 207652,
        "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-1976",
        "page_number": 40,
        "title": "RAS-1976",
        "content_text": "The Teochiu: Ethnicity in Urban Hong Kong\n\nDOUGLAS W. SPARKS*\n\nThe Teochiu1 are a highly visible ethnic group2 in Hong Kong. They are aggressive, belligerent, likely to be involved in triads or narcotics, highly organized and shrewd businessmen. This is the stereotype of Teochiu that is widely held by non-Teochiu in Hong Kong. Emotional reactions to Teochiu at times seem to approach the vehemence of racist beliefs, although the diacritics signalling identity are not phenotypic but linguistic, cultural (food, emphasis placed on certain rituals rather than others) and most importantly for this article an individual's self-identification as Teochiu and concomitant involvement in largely Teochiu social networks and possibly in Teochiu organizations. It is difficult, however, to explicate the meaning of this identity in that there is tremendous diversity in the Teochiu population of Hong Kong. Some estimates of this population suggest that it is as high as one-fifth of the total population (see below). There is no clear-cut relationship between ethnicity and occupation in urban Hong Kong, much less between ethnicity and class. Teochiu are found in all sectors of the economy and at all socio-economic levels.\n\n* The author is a postgraduate research student from The Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, who recently carried out 18 months field work in Hong Kong. This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Research Grant, for which he expresses his indebtedness and appreciation.\n\n1 The most widely recognized romanization for this ethnic group in Hong Kong is \"Chiu Chow\" which is the Cantonese pronunciation of the characters 潮州. Newspapers, government publications and even Teochiu associations in Hong Kong use this romanization. “Teochiu\" and other variants (Taechew, Tiochew) represent the romanization corresponding to the pronunciation of the characters in the Teochiu language and are widely used by Western scholars in South East Asia.\n\n2 The Teochiu as well as other Chinese ethnic groups in South East Asia and Hong Kong have until recently been labelled \"dialect groups\" and their languages considered to be dialects of \"the\" Chinese language. This terminology is inappropriate in that these so-called dialects are quite clearly languages, being for the most part mutually unintelligible. The use of the term \"dialect group\" not only reflects the lack of interest and possibly the unawareness of the importance of ethnicity as a variable in studies of overseas Chinese, but has also served to obscure and minimize that importance.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q",
        "rank": 0
    },
    {
        "id": 207684,
        "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-1976",
        "page_number": 72,
        "title": "RAS-1976",
        "content_text": "INTERETHNIC INTERACTION – A MATTER OF DEFINITION: ETHNICITY IN A HOUSING ESTATE IN HONG KONG\n\nDOUGLAS W. SPARKS*\n\nThis article examines interethnic interaction and ethnic boundary maintenance in a public housing estate whose residents include many former refugees from mainland China. Attention is focused on relationships between two ethnic groups who are similar in language and culture and between whom there is some intergroup passing but which are, paradoxically, separated by rigid cognitive boundaries. The historical origins and relationships between these two ethnic groups in China are related to interaction and communication patterns in the housing estate. Variation and confusion in categorization of people from villages in the border area between the two ethnic groups in China is shown to be a function of participation in social networks which include people from the border villages.\n\nThe fieldwork for this research was undertaken in a resettlement estate in Tsuen Wan, an industrial new town in the New Territories of Hong Kong, and was primarily concerned with the Teochiu ethnic group which is generally described in the companion article in this issue of the Journal.\n\nThe housing estate in which I worked is located in North Kwai Chung, in the eastern part of the new town, an area of heavy industrial concentration and the location of several large housing estates. This particular housing estate was chosen as the primary fieldwork site largely because I had very good contacts with Teochiu leaders in local religious associations. My major concerns in the research were with the analysis of group dynamics and leadership within these associations and within the dense Teochiu networks within the housing estate.\n\n* The author is a postgraduate research student from The Department of Anthropology, University of Texas at Austin, who recently carried out 18 months field work in Hong Kong. This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Dissertation Research Grant, for which he expresses his indebtedness and appreciation.",
        "txt_file_path": "txt/dfo323lmgvd/RAS-1976.txt",
        "external_url": "https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q",
        "rank": 0
    }
]