RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 BOOK REVIEWS ANCESTRAL IMAGES; A HONG KONG ALBUM. Dr Hugh Baker. Hong Kong, South China Morning Post Limited, 1979. At last, a book for those interested in Chinese traditions and beliefs in Hong Kong, that is about Hong Kong, and written with the ordinary layman in mind. Dr. Baker, known to members of this Society from the several talks he has delivered, is a sinologist trained in anthropological field-work, and he brings his knowledge and first-hand experience to us here in forty very readable short pieces. Some of our longer-term residents will recognise, and may have kept, many of them as they were originally serialised in the South China Morning Post between 1977-1978, but it is unlikely that they will have preserved them all. Now they are here, all together between one hard-back cover with a dramatic photograph of “daai si,” one of the gods described in the text, on the front of the dust sheet. Although the book is entitled Ancestral Images it covers a comprehensive range of topics: from pigs to incantations, and geomancy to New Year biscuits, all amply and expertly illustrated with the author's own black and white and coloured photographs. This book would make an excellent gift for expatriate newcomers and their parents back home; and it affords a good introduction for those wishing to pursue the study of Chinese culture further. There is a useful list of secondary source references in English at the back. Hong Kong. June, 1979. MARJORIE TOPLEY HONG KONG : STABILITY AND CHANGE, A COLLECTION OF ESSAYS. Henry Lethbridge Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1978. This book contains ten essays on the social history of Hong Kong, all concerned in one way or other with questions of social stability: a stability which, as the author points out, stands in marked contrast to the conditions obtaining in many other Asian countries. Nine of the essays were previously published elsewhere (five ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 86 CHAN WING HOI events of the festival. A committee consisting of the officers (lei-si) of the residents' association was set up to organize the celebration. In the jiu festivals in the New Territories, only indigenous residents are eligible candidates who may be chosen to serve as ritual representatives. Sometimes in the New Territories each participating village has a quota of ritual representatives. Neither restriction applied in the Shek O celebration. More than 70 families, mainly those of Shek O, sent their members to compete for the places of yn-sau this time. The main yn-sau for this celebration had lived there for about 10 years. One of his deputies was a local Punti and the other a Chiu Chau. When I asked if three people were too few for the many tasks in the festival, the yn-sau replied that they did not have much to do. It was the priests who did things. The yn-saus had only to be present. I learned that the ritual representatives were not required to contribute more money. They were also given positions in the organizing committee. Many came to make offerings of incense at the temple and the different compartments of the temporary structure set up for the festival. Many of the older indigenous residents knew the names of the gods in paper images. A woman probably in her mid-sixties told her younger companions the names. She knew the name of Daai Si Wong, Yuk Wong and Yat Gin Fat Choi, and even though those names were indicated in characters she did not have to read them. She was illiterate. Descended from a Shek O family she was married to one of the newcomers to the village. She explained that this was the sixteenth celebration. They held the festival once in every ten years. Once they had had the first celebration, they had to do the same every ten years. The festival was a ping-on jiu. It was for the well-being (ping-on daai-gat) of everybody. For that purpose everyone abstained from meat during the festival. Those who could afford it bought new bowls and chopsticks to ensure a perfectly vegetarian diet. Special attention was given to the Daai Si Wong. I overheard one boy telling his companion to walk under the hips of the paper image. As a result, a child would “grow faster” (Faaigou jeungdaai). T ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 87 I did not record very much about the role of the Hoklo, Wai Chau, Chiu Chau newcomers. They were actually visible mainly through the flags in their honour and the Chiu Chau performers whom they hired to perform on the main day of the celebration. Their participation was more in contributing money to provide performances in their own dialect than in participation in the processions or in preparation of the offerings. The number of persons present in the main-day procession and the procession with the Daai Si Wong was impressive. However, they were more sharing the fun and enjoying the novelty than making a collective, disciplined presence as in the case of the same processions in the New Territories jiu festivals, in which the participants wore special clothing and hats, excluded women and were in general more organized at least in appearance. I did not see many signs of nearby villagers (who did not live in the three participating villages) coming to the jiu to visit or to offer good wishes, as was the former custom. There was a flower basket on display outside the festival office at Shek O. It was presented by the chairman of the rural committee of Cheung Chau. The only fa-paai was from Ma Hang, Laan Lai Wan, Stanley and Tai Tam Tuk, which are nearby. Near noon time on the main day some guests did come. One of them was a police officer, probably the head of the Chai Wan Police Station. Another was the District Officer for South District, who came with some assistants. Married-out daughters were expected to come back for the festival too. On the bus back to town on the main day of the celebration, I overheard a middle-aged woman telling someone that if a married-out daughter did not come back for the jiu, she could not come back until ten years later, presumably during the next celebration. Other than the villagers, participants at the jiu included the professionals, among whom the most important were the priests. The yn-sau, or his companion, explained to me that they had hired a team headed by the priest Chan Wa as they did for the last celebration. I had thought, when he explained this was because Chan was 'familiar', he had in mind familiarity with the local ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 90 CHAN WING HOI Daai Si Wong and Baak Mou Seung, an altar for the dead to receive blessings, an altar for Tin Hau and local earth gods, paper images of Yuk Wong and his underlings, and the festival office. Except for the dead, the spirits noted on the altars were the usual ones found in jiu festivals. Among Tin Hau and her companions were gods of Shek O itself. The Daai Si Wong, a deity related to the underworld like the Baak Mou Seung, had the important role of overseeing the ghosts which came for the offerings. On one of the altars, there were 105 spirit tablets of ancestors to whom offerings were to be made. Mr. Lau, the restaurant owner I talked to, did not think this a new feature of the festival. But he associated the spirit tablets with the Chiu Chau and Hoklo newcomers. Those immigrants had left their ancestors at their native places. Because it was not easy to return to these places to sacrifice to them, it was necessary to entertain and make offering to the ancestors through the festival. The indigenous villagers had no need to set up the spirit tablets of their ancestors there. They worshipped their ancestors at home where they had set up their altars. Whatever the validity of the reasoning, what Mr. Lau said suggested that very few of the locals had put up spirit tablets for their deceased relatives in the ritual. More than half of these tablets bore only the characters hin-hau or hin-bei, indicating they represented only either the father or the mother. I think this indicates that the other parent was living, and this must mean that these tablets were set up for the recently deceased rather than ancestors of old. In the case of many jiu festivals in single surname settlements, the spirit tablets of the common ancestors were included on one of the festival altars. Here the ancestors were parents of people who had paid for the privilege of leaving the tablets there. In a broader sense the ritual site should also include the other areas delimited by flag posts (faan-gon). There were four of those posts at Shek O, marking out the north, south, east and west corners, I was told. In addition, there were two each at Tai Long Wan and Hok Tsui. We learned from the New Territories that faan-gon posts were indications set up for wandering ghosts to inform them they might enjoy offerings at the jiu. However, responding to my question about the faan-gon posts, a local woman replied that the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 94 CHAN WING HOI The procession of the daai-si-wong prior to the offering to the wandering ghosts. "Walk around the legs (of the daai-si-wong) and you will win the Mark Six lottery." ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 97 saw a young man carrying the paper image of a horse, and another young man chasing him. Both were running in the direction of Tai Long Wan. This was part of the se-su (letter of pardon) rite. I learned subsequently from one of the ritual representatives that the two were expected to pass the same spots as the procession of the previous day did. The priests read the memorial after the horse and chaser returned. The rite was followed immediately by a brief performance of Floating the Water Lanterns, the usual rite preceding the final Offering to Ghosts. There were more than a dozen middle-aged women preparing paper offerings for the Offering to Ghosts. They claimed to be indigenous residents. This was confirmed by another person I asked. The villagers present were well aware of what was going to take place: "This evening the daai-si-wong is going to be paraded to as far as Tai Long Wan, and the priests will chant until midnight.” At Tai Long Wan where I went with the priests and the ritual representatives for the haang-chiu procession in the early afternoon, I overheard one young man telling somebody to send someone to Shek O to prepare the Tai Wong Ye [daai-si-wong] for the procession. The procession started at about 6:15 in the evening. The daai-si-wong was carried by young men down the main streets of Shek O and then to Tai Long Wan. I later noticed that Mr. Wong and the other leaders in the festival were in the crowd. Most of the participants were young men. At Shek O a few women came out from their homes to greet the procession. Mr. Lam, the seaman, was among the crowd with his wife, but only as an on-looker. He told me that half the participants of the procession were indigenous villagers and half more recent settlers, and that the man who gave command through a loudspeaker was a Tanka whose parents had moved here almost 20 years ago. (He said descendants of newcomers like him mostly worked in the civil service. "They are indistinguishable from us the indigenous boys.”) Many children and some married women followed. I heard some of the latter making the remark to themselves "gan-jy haang, haang hou-wan” (follow the daai-si-wong and have good luck). When the procession started for Tai Long Wan one woman came to relay the warning that women were not to follow the daai-si-wong, or at least not ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 98 CHAN WING HỘI to see it face to face. Some of the others replied that there was nothing to fear, as it had been the practice for several hundreds of years for women to take part. Later when the procession was returning to Shek O I noticed a little boy with his ball and a young couple with their children in a pram. The comment was heard: “gou-hing, tai-ye” (Have a nice time and look at interesting things). The women were chatting all the way, and there were many young girls too. When the procession had gone down Tai Long Wan Road, I heard three or four women talk among themselves about Seung Wai, where their homes had been. A young one recalled that they used to have banana trees there, which produced good bananas and some rice-like stuff, which, her grandmother had told her, was good as chicken feed. The place being more spacious, they had been able to raise chicken too. Her grandmother had pointed out to her where the daai-wong-ye's place was — near where the paddy fields were. At one point the bus from Shek O approached, and the young man with the loudspeaker called out to the driver by name “Come on, it is all right if you want to switch on the headlights." I noticed many cars were hindered from proceeding before the bus, but this did not seem to have bothered the young man at all. The procession made way for the bus to pass, neglecting the other vehicles. When the procession reached the edge of Tai Long Wan village, the daai-si-wong was put down on the ground facing the village. Many individuals, mainly middle-aged and young women, came to make offerings of incense. A table had been set up for the purpose. Some older women and men looked on. Children were led to walk around the legs of the paper image for good luck. Someone said, “Walk around the legs and you will win the Mark Six lottery". The procession was back at the main ritual area at about 8:30. The daai-si-wong was left facing an altar used by the priests, where an extra table had been set up for the concluding rite. Many came to make offerings at all the altars, but they paid more attention now to the daai-si-wong. Many more, not only small children, but ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 99 also young women, walked around the legs of the paper image. I heard a man say, perhaps as a joke, “Girls who walk under the legs will marry quickly.” The concluding rite known as Great Offering to Ghosts started at about 9:00 p.m. The priests chanted and sang while about 60 people watched. About the same number of people, mostly young, were looking at photos they took on the previous days. They left soon afterwards. When the chanting finished, the villagers, including many middle-aged women who had prepared the paper money, took the offerings to the main beach where a huge hole had been dug. Incense and paper offerings were burnt. The daai-si-wong and his companion, yat-gin-faat-choi, were later taken there, with their faces towards the sea. The final burning was supervised by some of the priests. The photographer Mr. Yue remarked that there were more people at this rite than in the case of Kam Tin. However, in this case, most of those present were onlookers rather than worshippers. The head priest had advised in the previous evening the leader Mr. Wong that roast pork and other specified kinds of pork (seung-yuk, laam-yuk) in specified form and quantities were needed for the rite in the morning. The rite is presumably chau-san, Thanksgiving to the Gods. The local gods would be sent away two days later because the day after the main rites was an unlucky day (po-yat). I heard in the procession in the previous evening the comment that those who had contributed more than a certain amount of money were entitled to a meal and roast pork to take home. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 100 CHAN WING HOI NOTES Besides "three-day jius", there are more elaborate “five day jiu” celebrations in the New Territories. The annual ritual takes place typically in Chiu Chau, Wai Chau and Hoklo settlements to make offerings to uncared-for dead spirits. 1 The oldest dated object in the Tin Hau Temple, which housed the main god of the festival, was about one hundred years old. I shall refer to this again later. 6 There could have been more than one "chairman". Probably part of the golf club, or otherwise a similar establishment. Tanaka Issei 田仲一成, Chugoku saishi engeki kenkyū 中国祭祀演劇研究 (Tokyo: Institute of Oriental Culture, University of Tokyo 1981) p. 891. 7 The Fuk-Wai-Chiu immigrants had their own gods and their operas in the Tin Hau festival. According to Tanaka, eleven or twelve gods other than Tin Hau were sacrificed to (op. cit., pp. 891-3). One of them, the Daai Wong Paak Gung of Naam Bin Chyn, is attributed by Tanaka to the Hoklo residents. Tanaka also points out that the Fuk-Wai-Chiu members of the organizing committee were alone responsible for a special part of the festival, that is, the performance of Wai Chau and Chiu Chau operas. 8 Piu-sik are usually carried on frames at a height far above that of the audience in a parade. Because of the rain during the procession this time they stood in a lorry instead. About half of the gods sacrificed to in the Tin Hau Festival, including the Fuk-Wai-Chiu deity mentioned above, were not found among the spirit tablets in the jiu festival. 10 "Picking green". In this case the two lions competed in capturing a bank note hanging near the entrance to the house. Glossary Choi Paak Lai 蔡伯勵 choi-cheng 採靑 Dai Wong (Ye) 大王(爺) ba-wong-dei 霸王地 Chiu Chau 潮洲 baai-chaam 拜懺 Baak Mou Seung 白無常 Baak-gung 伯公 Bak Dai 北帝 Bao'an 寶安 bui 杯 bin-ngaak 匾額 Chai Wan 柴灣 Chan Wa 陳華 Cheung Chau 長洲 Daai Si (Wong) 大士(王) daai-gat 大吉 diu-lau 碉樓 Dongguan 東莞 fa-laam 花籃 fa-paai 花牌 Faaigou jeungdaai ... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h TABLE 1.2 Partial Genealogical Chart of the First Branch of the Dang Lineage of Kam Tin Yam Generation 16 Ching-Lok (Ching Lok Tong) Wan-Guk Wan-Gaan San-Fung Saan-Chyun So-Hin Naam-Kai Wan-Yu (Loi Shing Tong) Gwong-Yu 17 Sam-Chyun Ging-Chyun Fong Hei-Ye Gwai-Gok Lei-Yun Yun-Fan Sing-Ngok Poo-Am 19 20 21 12 Lam-Mau Jeung-Luk Fuk-Chai 23 (Gwok Yia Jou) Gwok-Yin Yu-Chung Yu-Man Yu-Ji 24 Lok-Sin Chiu-Yip Chiu-Yung Gwan-Leung Gwan-Haak Si-Daan 25 ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ 26 Ying-Yun 27 307 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 310 in Guangxi, Documents preserved in genealogies testify to his involvement in clan matters. He was credited with having compiled a genealogy. He and his son headed the short name list on the new grave stone for the wong-gu prepared in 1471. A preface he wrote in 1472 for a genealogy written by a certain “clan uncle” can be found in many existing genealogies. They also record accounts of the wong-gu and her husband written in 1489 by a jeun-si of the surname Lau from Dongguan at Ting-Jing's request. The Xin'an gazetteer of 1688 named Hung Yi as the tax-payer for two local ferries. The two ferries had most probably provided income to an ancestral fund in his honour. But it was unlikely that his trust had any significant income. Present-day elders remember that in earlier days the expenses for the worship for Hung-Yi had to be shared among the villages of Kam Tin. In terms of ancestral trusts and ancestral halls, however, the lower level ancestors in whose names the segments of the lineage below the branches were organised were probably even more important. Besides the annual worship at the ancestral halls and graves, such segments had various ways of reinforcing their solidarity and maintaining their network of information. In the case of Ching-Lok jou it used to be the case that the managers, heads of the main branches (ga, or "family") and the accountant were invited to a banquet on the day before each of the major festivals of the year. A member of Ji-Ga Tong, another lineage segment, mentioned to me a customary get-together of all the male members on one day at the New Year. I have heard of a similar practice in another segment, Gwong-Yu Tong. They hold a get-together on the first day of the New Year at their ancestral hall from early in the morning, and again worshipped at the Daai-Wong Temple, a temple the founding ancestor had started, on the seventh day of the First Month. C. Wan Guk and the Ching Lok Ancestral Hall The senior branch (descended from Yam) was the most successful until late in the seventeenth century. Hung-Yi's eldest son Yam had three sons. Yam had the second, now known as Naam-Kai jou, adopted to be heir of his (Yam's) youngest brother Gyun. The two remaining sons of Yam were Ching-Lok and Loi-Sing (alias Gwong-Yu, but not to be confused with the Gwong-Yu of Gwong-Yu Tong). Ching-Lok had four sons, the eldest of whom was Wan-Guk. According to oral tradition ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 314 10 the Dangs of Kam-Tin in the dispute with the Dangs of Ping Shan over the grave of the gwan-ma several decades before 1737. The descendants of Man Wai and his brothers (i.e. the members of the Gwong Yu Tong and the Lei Ging Tong) are all also members of the Sung-Kok jou segment which derives its name from the "pen name" of Man Wai's father. E. Loi-Sing Tong To avoid confusion with Gwong-Yu Tong (i.e. the descendants of Man-wai) I shall call the Gwong-Yu jou segment (Le, the descendants of Gwong-Yu) by the name of their ancestral hall, the Loi-Sing Tong. The first datable event relating to this segment was the building of the ancestral hall in 1701 by Jeung-Luk, a sixth generation descendant of Gwong-Yu. Probably the best known of the Loi-Sing Tong ancestors was Si-Daan. The details of Si-Daan's descent are obscure. He was probably a descendant, perhaps a grandson, of Jeung-Luk. Sung (1973:63-65) records a story that upon his birth there was an unmistakable sign that he was destined to be a rich man. According to Sung (1974:164) he “built himself a very big house called Naam Teng, the remains of which can still be seen on the South side of Kat Hing Wai". In 1755 when Si-Daan's uncle presented a bell to Ling-Wan Ji his name was included as one of the donors. The family probably had become rich before his father's generation. That uncle of his, Dang Yu-Jung, had purchased a minor official title. The donation list for the rebuilding of a temple in 1744 recorded a single sum donated by four Yus that included Yu-Jung and Si-Daan's father Yu-Man. Among the four, Yu-Ji had purchased a gung-sang degree in the Yongzheng period (1723-1735), and two others had degrees of gaam-sang. Si-Daan himself had purchased an official title of jau-tung. Of the ancestors whose tablets were housed in the hall Puk-Chai, gung-sang degree holder, is remembered by his descendants, who still keep an embroidery presented to the father of this degree holder on the occasion of a birthday." He was probably one of Jeung-Luk's brothers. F. Mau Ging Tong The period of the late Ming and the early Qing was an eventful period for the people of the Xin'an county. The Kam Tin jiu festival itself had started as a response to experiences in this period, especially the serious ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 321 These accusations were made at the county magistracy. The Kam Tin Dangs got news of the accusation and arranged that all their young men gathered in the various ancestral halls and temples to read, so as to deceive the investigators from the county government. The county magistrate was deceived, and believed that the Kam Tin Dangs were all scholars and would not give any time to the accusation. Therefore he did not pursue the case any further. Some of the Dangs believe that the fighting between the people of Kam Tin and those of Pat Heung was over agricultural resources such as irrigation water. The Dangs of Kam Tin used only one bei reservoir, the one called Fui Sha bei. The water flowed from Pat Heung, near Lin Fa Tei, and the Pat Heung people could stop the water. One recent (about 100 years ago) example of a dispute over agricultural resources was the Ngau Wong Wui association which had been started to organize the cowherds of Kam Tin, to protect them against their Pat Heung counterparts, and to preserve Kam Tin pasture rights. One piece of documentary evidence of the conflict between the Dangs and their Pat Heung tenants has survived. It is a stone inscription dated 1777 found in both the Daai-Wong Temple of Yuen Long Old Market and the Jau and Wong Temple of Kam Tin. It records a rent dispute. Five Dangs are named as the landlords in this inscription. In general terms, the document calls the landlords "the Dang surname", and the land "the land of the clan". It is therefore clear that the landlords were all from the same lineage and the property was considered as linked to the lineage as a whole albeit it was probably individually owned. Four of the five names can be found in various documents from Kam Tin. All four appear in a silk embroidery presented to a Dang of Kam Tin to celebrate his birthday in 1771. We have more specific information about two of them: one, Dang Si-Daan, was a descendant of Yam's second son Gwong-Yu, and the other, Dang Chung, is a descendant of one of the other sons of Hung-Yi, most probably Gyun. It is therefore clear that one of the parties to the dispute were many of the Dangs of Kam Tin, including members of different branches and represented in general terms the Dang lineage. A few names are also given of the tenants. There were about the same number of Dangs and non-Dangs among them. While the landlords were referred to as members of a lineage, the tenants were referred to as ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 335 A. Places of worship The gods worshipped in Kam Tin can be divided into four categories. They are gods housed in temples, localized gods in outdoor space, gods on family altars, and the general gods of Heaven. The gods of heaven (Tin-San) are worshipped outside the house door, often with a tablet saying "Blessings from the Gods of Heaven" (Tin-Gwun Chi-Fuk). More important for the community as a whole are temple gods and localized gods. Firstly there are the Ling-Wan Monastery and the Jau and Wong temple, which were important to the Dangs of Kam Tin as a whole. Stone inscriptions show that villagers of Kam Tin as a whole contributed money for rebuilding or repair, doing so on the basis of villages and higher order lineage estates, notably Ching-Lok Jou and Naam-Kai Jou. According to Sung (1973 and 1974) and the Si Kim Tong genealogy the Ling-Wan Ji was established by the Dangs of Kam Tin for the second wife of their founding ancestor Hung-Yi. But it is probable that Sung's source for this information was the author of the Si Gim Tong genealogy himself, and other villages seemed less aware of the connection of the monastery with their ancestor. Perhaps even more important is the idea that Ling-Wan Ji was the jyu-lou, or “head” of Kam Tin. That is why, a Mr. Dang explained to me, all the village gates should face Kwun Yam Shan, where Ling-Wan Ji is, and there is no need for a tall san-teng. Ko Po and Wing Lung Wai are exceptions to this rule. He knew that the position of the gate in Wing Lung Wai had been altered. He thought that the direction of the Ko Po one had been altered too. Interestingly the Xin'an gazetteer has no entry for the Ling-Wan Monastery under that name, but records the existence of a Gwun-Yam Temple on Kwun Yam Shan at the foot of Tai Po Shan, which matches the location of the monastery. The Xin'an gazetteer of 1688 is probably the earliest document mentioning the temple. Under the entry for the temple it mentioned a man of Dongguan county in the Ming dynasty who had lived there. It is not completely clear if this man was a Daoist. When Dang Si-daan's uncle donated the bell now at the monastery in 1755, the inscription referred to the place as the nunnery at Kwun Yam Shan. No one had heard about the temple named in the gazetteer, but Gwun-Yam is worshipped in the monastery, with various other gods such as Gwaan-Dai, and it is the goddess who has a central position, with Page 360 Page 361 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 338 two less common gods. The villagers have very little to say about the gods per se. They have more to say about who is responsible for worshipping which god. For example, when I asked who Ngau-Wong was, the response was "Ngau-Wong is Ngau-Wong", and I could not get any further than that. But the informants have very interesting things to say about who worshipped the god. The Ngau-Wong of Naam-Bin was worshipped by an association known as Ngau-Wong Wui. The Wui was started by a group of cowherds who spent their time on the same hilltop during their work. They gambled using coins. They decided that each time a person won he would give a portion of the money to a fund. This money accumulated and with it farm land was bought to endow the association so that descendants of the members would get their share of pork in the annual celebration. The place is an ordinary stone on the hill top, which they did not worship until the association was started." There is another Ngau-Wong near Shui Mei, whose responsibility it is to worship the god. Before each jiu festival the ritual representatives of Shui Mei will fetch the god from his place on the top of a hill, and walk him back afterwards. The only story about the god a knowledgeable elder could tell me is that, in a previous jiu celebration, the person responsible for walking the god home neglected his duty. Without reaching the hilltop he went home. He got sick soon afterwards, and as if in possession revealed the anger of the god. Probably the most important thing about any god is its place in the social framework. 45 Neither Juk-Yun Nunnery nor San-Sin Fu, the two nunneries within Kam Tin, exists any more. Still extant is Miu-Gok Yun, which was built by the [Dang] Tung Fuk Tong. The tong was a charitable association which collected unburied human bones and buried them in a charity tomb (yi chung). "It was started to collect gam-taap bones that were not worshipped by anybody. Some of those containers would have been broken, and animals might eat them". The Tong also cares for the Temple for Dei-Jong Wong, whose role, similar to that of Daai-Si Wong in the Offering to Ghosts ritual in the jiu ritual, is to watch over the ghosts. The date and the circumstances in which the Tung Fuk Tong started is no longer remembered. There were Dangs who had shares in the association. They contributed towards buying some landed property as endowment to the Dei-Jong temple. The nunnery with an altar for the Buddha was built in 1936, before which time there were already some monks and nuns resident at the temple. They did not rebuild the temple ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h Ching Lok Ancestral Hail Faan Posts Site for fetching water Faan Posts N Mau Ging Tong) Ancestral Hail Jau & Wong Temple Site for posting the name list Paak Mou Seung Wing used as kitchen General Gods Jade Emperor & City God Faan Posts A 8 Site for offering to gods Guardian Gods Yau-Saan Daai Si Wong Gwon Yam Compartment for villages Compartment for villages C Ancestral altar 0 Puppet altar Theatre A-B-C-D Main paang Later used for opera (Map taken from Tanaka 1989) The Kam Tin Jiu Festival Ground 343 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 344 police. A cluster of smaller temporary structures were built to house the paper images of the Jade Emperor, the City God, the Daai-Si Wong and Baak Mou-Seung. The Daai-Si Wong, also known as Gwai-Wong (King of Ghosts) is a transformation of the goddess Gwun-Yam, who has a fierce appearance befitting his role in the ritual: to oversee the ghosts when they come for the offerings. The Baak Mou-Seung, literally the White Unpredictable, is one of the two Unpredictables, both members of the Underworld bureaucracy who take peoples' spirits when they are to die. Further away from the main paang was a larger structure for general gods, which was to house most of the gods invited from local temples and shrines. Decked out with many fa-paai banners from the villagers and outsiders, the main structure had several partitions. At the entrance in front were two huge paper images of two armed gods, who served as the supernatural guardians of the paang. Beside them were two horses with attendants, and a pair of lions. Furthest from the entrance was a stage divided into three sections, all facing the entrance. The middle one is the Taoist altar where the priests performed many of their rites. To the right was the altar for the Dang ancestors Hung-Yi and his two wives. On the left side was the puppet stage, on which plays were performed. On both sides of the central area of the paang were rooms for each of the five gu villages/groups of villages, plus Ying Lung Wai. On the same rows were two rooms for the guards for the festival site, one for guards drawn from the young men of Bak-Bin and the other from those of Naam-Bin. Nearer the front on the right side was a temporary altar for Gwun-Yam. On the left side was a large partition dedicated to four separate groups of paper images, many with pottery/ceramic heads. The area was known as the yau-saan, a place to harbour ghosts. Each of these groups was divided into three levels. Two large groups depicted the ten Kings of the Underworld on the topmost level. Under the Kings on the middle level were ten shops, each with signs indicating the business: barber's, brothel, sundry goods shop, pawnshop, second-hand clothing, department stores (two), tailors, porters, and “cool” drinks. On the lower levels were some devils, ghosts under torture in the Underworld, and many shoppers. The subjects of the two other groups were more difficult to identify. One of them was labelled Zizhu Lin, “Purple Bamboo Grove”, the place associated with the Goddess Gwun-Yam. She and her male and female attendants were recognizable among the images on the topmost ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 364 They left the festival site, passing Tai Hong Wai and Ko Po, where those who took part were offered drinks. They next reached Ying Lung Wai, where they were met by the lion dance of the village, and treated to soft drinks. They first worshipped at the altar of the God of Earth and Grain of Ying Lung Wai, then the san-teng and the village gate. They proceeded to Tung Tau Tsuen, where they worshipped at the Tin-Hau Temple and then the Gwun-Yam Temple. No one came to meet them. But nearby two elderly ladies exchanged these remarks among themselves, "The two temples belong to Kam Tin fellows, they wanted to repair them, but Tung Tau Tsuen would not let them". They proceeded to the Old Market. First they worshipped at the market gate then at the Bak-Dai Temple, and then at the Daai-Wong Temple. Then they moved on to Nam Pin Wai, where they worshipped at the altar of the God of Earth and Grain, the san-teng and the village gate. A man in his fifties sitting under a tree cursed the Dangs when he saw the Ambulance which was in attendance in case anyone was overcome by the heat. He said, "Right. Let this Ambulance carry these Kam Tin fellows". At the nearby Sai Pin Wai they worshipped at an altar for the God of Earth and Grain. There was a reception. They proceeded to a Lam Yi-Hing Tong” inside Sai Pin Wai, and then the village gate and an altar of the God of Earth and Grain. The procession finished with the Old Market and the surrounding villages, and went on to Yuen Long New Market. When they reached Sau Fu Street, they were offered soft drinks by people who had come from Kam Tin for that purpose. From there they walked back to the festival site at Kam Tin. F. The Procession with the King of Ghosts The procession with the King of Ghosts took place during the evening before the Great Offering to Ghosts. In the first stage the Bak-Bin villagers carried the huge image of the Daai-Si Wong through their villages. Their Naam-Bin counterparts waited near Kam Hing Wai to take over the paper image for the second part of the procession. These were 22 young men, many carrying long bamboo poles with metal ends ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 365 for supporting the back frame of the King of Ghosts. From their conversations I learned that the procession was to exorcise "dirty" things. Such evil spirits resided at places such as waterfronts where people had been drowned and the sides of the road where traffic accidents had taken place. Such spots were "cleansed” by letting the King of Ghosts face them for a short moment. The procedure was referred to as "shining on [the dangerous place]" (jiu) by the villagers. As in the other rites where ghosts were involved, speaking peoples' names out loud in the procession was taboo. One of the young men told his companions to phone the Ko Po people, "Tell them not to speak peoples' names", as it was unauspicious to do so. Although those young men gave the impression of a taboo against women seeing the King of Ghosts in the procession, this was denied by an elder and a middle-aged lady whom I talked to. According to the elder it was unlucky only for pregnant women to see it. The lady told me that some women, including herself, were afraid of the ghosts, and therefore would avoid seeing the Daai-Si Wong. The procession was accompanied by simple gong patterns played by one of the villagers. The exact pattern to use was made clear near Tai Hong Wai when the gong beater was told to correct the rhythm. The pattern he was beating was that for funerals (which was a quick succession of beats). The appropriate rhythm was two medium quick beats followed by a short pause, which sounded, to me, the same as the one used in processions with the statues of the gods. At about eight o'clock in the evening the Bak-Bin team arrived with the King of Ghosts, which was about 25 feet tall. The first thing their Naam-Bin counterpart had to do was to take over the gong and continue the beating. The paper image was lowered from the supporting poles of the Bak-Bin villagers and was carried flat before it was raised on the poles of the Naam-Bin team, who performed the second part of the procession. The Naam-Bin procession went towards the Mung Yeung School, avoiding trees and lamp-posts on either side of the narrow road. From near the school they proceeded towards Ko Po on the main road. On the way they turned the paper image occasionally towards either side of the road. Once they were in Ko Po the team shouted to a few young girls who watched, “Close your doors, and do not come out to look”. Page 390 Page 391 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 368 Sung, Hok-p'ang et. al. (1984), pp. 1-9. 1973 "Legends and stories of the New Territories: Kam T'in', JHKBRAS xiii, 1973, pp. 28-40. 1974 "Legends and stories of the New Territories: Kam T'in", JHKBRAS xiv, 1974, pp. 160-185. Taga, Akigoro Tanaka, Issei 1982 Chugoku Sofu no Kenkyu, vol. 2, Tokyo. 1985 Tsui, Bartholomew Watson, Rubie S. Wolf, Arthur P. (ed.) A Chiu 亞潮(?) baai 拜 baai-san Baak Mou-Seung Ú Baak-Ging Baishe Zhuan Lineage and Theatre in China. Interdependence of Festival Organization, ritual, and theatre in the lineage society of South China, Tokyo. 1989 Village Festivals in China: Backgrounds of Local Theatres. Tokyo forthcoming "Daojiao Yili ya Jishen Kiju zhijian de Guanxi”, forthcoming "Taoist Ritual Books of the New Territories". 1985 Inequality Among Brothers: Class and Kinship in South China, Cambridge University Press. 1974 Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, Stanford. GLOSSARY chiu-gaan chiu-dou * Chiu-Yip # chu 柱 Chuk Yuen 竹園 Chung E Chung Yeung 重陽 Chung-Saan U Bak Bin 北便 Bak Dai 北帝 bei 陂 bong 榜 Bou-Dak Chi #AM bui cha-gwo 茶果 Chan Gau 陳九 Chan 陳 chau-san + Chenghua 成化 cheun-ding T cheun-fu 巡撫 Cheung-Cheun Yun cheung-saam Chi-Naam Ching Ming U Ching-Lok Chung-Yut Я chyun 村 Daai-Si Wong ✰± Daai-Wong E daai-yan ★A daai-yau daam daam-jung da-jai 打仔 da-jiu 打醮 dan 躉 Dang 鄧 Dang Chung 鄧璁 Dao 道 da-saat Dei-Jong Wong E ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h deui-lyun dim-dang Wif ding-hau T`LI Dongguan 東莞 dong-ji Dung Ping Guk 東本局 faan Fa-Gung Fa-Mou (EAEN fa-paai TEMP Fau-Ng ởH Fong 兒 fong fong-jeung Fu Qing (47 fu 伏 Fu-Hip gwan-ma 郡馬 Gwok-Yin Gwong-Yu K Gwong-Yu Tong Gwun-Yam #E Gyun 銷 Ha Tsuen 厦村 Ha Che 下崟 haang 坑 ha-fu F Hak-Sa ha-yan FA Hei-Ye 起野 heui-lok Heung heung Fui-Sing !! Fung Yuk-Daan MƒU!! Gaai-Yut gaam-sang Gai-Jau # heung-on Ho fil hoi-dang EH hou 號 Hung-Fan Taam gam-taap Gam-Tin Gaozong h Gau Ga Chyun **† hung-jeuk FL Hung-Ji 孔子 Hung-Ji 洪贄 Hung-Sing # Hung-Yi 洪儀 geui-yan git-jing #7 Git-Sau gu l Guangdong MAC Guangzong 光宗 guk 榖 gung-chou Y gung-sang Gwaan-Dai BNR Gwai-Ting gwai-waan (?) Gwai-Wong E gwan 棍 Gwan-Haak 7K Gwan-Leung R jaap-fo 雜貨 Jai Baak-Fu Jan 鈞 Jan-Ting Jau M Jau-Man B jau-tung 州同 Jeung Hoi Jeung 張 Jeung-Luk A jeun-si 進士 Jiangxi 江西 Ji-Ga Tong #18 2 Jik-Gin jiu BE Page 369 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h san wui Sap Pat Heung -|- A sau宿 sau-choi 3 sek Zi Seui 瑞 seui-jeun-si :: Sha Tau T Sha Po 沙埔 Sham Chun 深圳 Sheung Che 1: Sheung Tsuen Sheung Shui 1: Shing Moon San Tsuen Shun Fung Wai MAN Si-Daan MILL sing-bui Sing-Ngok ! siu-cheng Siu-Geui siu-yan 小人 sona 嗩吶 Song 柒 Sou-Lau Yun VTMN Tin-San toi-wai 枱圍 Tong Fong #† tong Tsi Tong Tsuen Tsiu Keng 蕉徑 Tsuen Wan # Tung Tak 通德 Tung Tau Tsuen Tung Fuk Tong Wa Bou 華寶 waang-mei (?) waan-san Wa-Gwong #* wai wai-jyu Wai-To 韋陀 Wang Toi Shan Wan-Gaan S Wan-Guk Wan-Yu H wing-bou ping-on *RTE Wing Lung Wai 永隆圍 Wing-Sau 永壽 Wong E Wong Loi-Yam E wong-gu Wudan Shan 武當山 suk-jing wui-bei Suk-Leun #KA Sung-Gok Taai-Seui Taai-Yut Jan-Yan AZHA wui Tai Shue Ha AMF Tai Hong Wai Tai Hong Tsuen 泰康村 Xin'an A Yam Tai Kiu 火樾 Tai Mo Shan 1 Tai Po Tau 大埔頭 yamen 衙門 yan-hau A Yau-Leun Tong yau-saan Tim-Kau Yeui銳 Ting-Jing NVI yeuk # Ting-Sam Tin-Dei-Seui-Yeung Tin-Hau G Tin-Gwun Chi-Fuk X Yeung 楊 Yeung-Hau A yi * Yi-Chung Wui 371 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 114 of it are hard to come by One of the best-known sources in English, whose descriptions I shall speak of later, is Charles G. Leland. In his book, "Pidgin-English Sing-song" published in 1876, Leland polishes off his introduction to the language with the words: "There are, in all, not more than thirty altogether foreign or strange words in ordinary use, and a number of these are familiar to all persons of the least general information. What remains can present no difficulty to anyone who can understand negro minstrelsy or baby talk" To the modern person who has not lived in the Pacific Islands or Papua New Guinea, Pidgin English brings to mind partly apochryphal stories of Duke-of-Edinburgh worship and terms like "mixmaster-bilong-Jesus" (a helicopter) and "big-man-box-you-bash-him-teeth-he-cry" (a grand piano). We have set the background to the article. Before we go further, let's just remind ourselves what China Coast Pidgin English spoken in the later part of the last century really did sound like. Listen carefully for the baby talk. "O-lo dim Hongkong sai hab dou-mat-ji man tok-gi Ying-li-sı a-la sim mai. Je-sı naau no hap gat; a-la daat man go dai. Je-si naau mai ding-ki you no gen hi-ya wan pr-si Chee-na man tok-gi long daat o-lo dim man sim, fa-san. ++ Historical background Macau was occupied by the Portuguese in 1557. They had previously been trading with south China for many years from a place called, in Portuguese, Lampacau Dr Graciete Batalha, who has carried out extensive research on the Portuguese dialect of Macao (Glossario do Dialecto Macaense, Instituto Cultural de Macau. 1988 from original articles published from 1971-1977), has formed the opinion that during this early period of the development of the Macau "patoa”, the formative influence was not so much the way that Chinese people learned to speak Portuguese, but the manner in which the Macau Portuguese formed the habit of speaking to the Chinese in the Portuguese language. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 126 Hong Kong newspapers, stories and reports mentioning or quoting Pidgin (or Anglo-Chinese, as it came to be called) gradually disappear in the 1960s. The most recent book we have been able to obtain which teaches English in Pidgin pronunciation is "English and Chinese Dialogues" or "Ying Yue Chi Nam" by Wong Lui Hing, first published in 1927, and re-published continually until the 17th edition in 1974. The character set used to spell English in this publication are the same as those in Tong. What was China Coast Pidgin of the last century like? First, it was not pronounced in a consistent way by Chinese and English speakers, nor was it pronounced consistently among the Chinese themselves. When first learned by Chinese, words would be pronounced as their individual Chinese characters. As the speaker got more experience of speaking to foreigners, he would mould his pronunciation closer to the English, as far as he was able. Tong's materials show that there was no contrast in Pidgin (as he spoke it) between aspirated and unaspirated consonants, even though such contrasts exist in both Chinese and English. Thus in the word for “price”, pou-laai-si and bou-laai-si were in free variation, “Proper” is rendered ba-lap-bu, pou-lap-ba or pa-lap-ba. The stock of consonants used in Tong are b/p, d/t, g/k, h, j/ch, l, m, n, r/l, s, v/f, and w. One of the innovations claimed for Tong's book was that he was the first to draw attention to the full range of proper English pronunciation, in contrast to the conventions of Pidgin. The vowels are those of standard Cantonese. However, long and short vowels and diphthongs are not generally contrastive (although Tong points out on one occasion that the English word "die" should be pronounced daai in English but dai in Pidgin). We believe this reflects quite accurately the perception by the average Cantonese speaker not frequently exposed to English: the timbre and energy used in distinguishing aspirated and unaspirated sounds in normal English is much less than that in Chinese. Lacking the reinforcement of the printed word, the distinction must have been largely lost on the learner. Likewise, long and short diphthongs are not contrastive in English, and it would have occurred correctly to Cantonese ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 128 你將 你就 知 # 来你 支數上過一邊 米皮上埋一邊 Fig. 3. The Accounting example in Chinese As you can see, this is largely achieved in Pidgin with the verbs "put", "get", "pay" and "take". The technical terms "gon-da", an account, and "ba-loen-sı", balance are all that were needed. Indeed, in this context, the term ba-loen-sı is unusual, "Di-fa-loen-sı" is more commonly used. Much of the syntactic structure of Pidgin follows that of Cantonese; however, a significant departure from Chinese syntax is the handling of time and place. In the Chinese sentence, the conventional order of words is: time, place, action. In Pidgin, however, English structure is adopted, so that you get sentences like. mai go si hi dou-ma-la (tomorrow) (I shall go and see him) tik-gi daat ka-gou but yin-sai gou-dang (take those goods into the godown) Tong points out in a note that in standard English, there is a distinction between singular and plural noun forms, but that no such distinction exists in Pidgin. Nor was there any distinction in sentence structure between statements and questions. “hi hap go o-lit-dar” could be "He has already gone." or "Has he gone yet?" 此廣部打劑: 培在一字一數 分東媽 十月1日厘亞音傳話 别 正士 世話話如 Fig 4 Tong's explanation of the difference in singular & plural forms T ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 86 step (Baker; 1981,15). The matshed consisted of a light bamboo frame clad with thin metal sheets, which are more fire resistant than the old rattan mats that were used years ago (see Figure 1). A compartment at one end housed four henchmen and their god, called by the villagers Tai Wong Ye, sometimes translated as 'Great Ancient King' (Myers; 1975,19)(see Plate 3). The same god in urban Hong Kong is usually called Daai Si Wong (Baker; 1979,121). Different names for the same god can cause confusion. The matshed faced southeast (feng shui south), in the direction of the Kwan Yin Ancient Temple. The number of Taoist priests taking part in the ceremony inside the matshed, with some arriving late, fluctuated from five to seven. Even priests get caught in traffic jams. There was a small group of musicians in the matshed playing, between them, a trumpet, gongs, cymbals and a small drum. Percussion instruments took pride of place. The matshed also contained dishes of fruit, to be offered up to the gods, and paper offerings. Joss sticks were burned. There was a great deal of incantation, much read from a book taken off the altar, and some kneeling. Rice wine was deliberately spilled on the floor in the process of purification and offering it up to the gods. The gods of east (the Green King), south (the Red King), west (the White King), north (the Black King) and centre (the Yellow Emperor) were beseeched, in rising and falling tones, to come down to protect the district in words that were not easy to link together and to understand. The Chinese animal sign of the year is said to represent a direction. There the planet Jupiter is located (Lo; 1992,162). This has important feng shui implications. One should not disturb the earth in this direction. The Taoist priests who perform such ceremonies are often called, in slang, naam moh lo.$ Looking at Figure 2, in the bottom right-hand corner one can see a metal container in which are situated the five bamboo talismans on which, during the ceremony, are written the respective entreaties to the appropriate gods. Also on the crudely framed timber altar (see Figure 2), draped with a red cloth, are bowls of fruit, three cups of tea, three cups of wine and various items used during the ceremony." They include a book of chants, a crown worn by the head priest, musical instruments and sticks for the musicians to strike the percussion ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 102 REFERENCES Baker, Hugh 1979, 'Daai Si', Ancestral Images, A Hong Kong Album, South China Morning Post 1980, 'Magic', More Ancestral Images, A Second Hong Kong Album, South China Morning Post 1981, 'Trees', Ancestral Images Again, A Third Hong Kong Album, South China Morning Post Burkhart, V R 1982, Chinese Creeds and Customs, South China Morning Post Chan, Eliza 1997, 'Jyuht Fohng Neuih Female Inheritance and Affection', The Anthropology of a Chinese Metropolis, eds. Grant Evans and Maria Tam, Curzon Chan, Selina Ching 1997, 'Negotiating Tradition: Customary Succession in the New Territories of Hong Kong', Hong Kong: The Anthropology of a Chinese Metropolis, eds. Grant Evans and Maria Tam, Curzon Cheung, Sidney C H 1999, 'The Meanings of a Heritage Trail in Hong Kong', Annals of Tourism Research, a social sciences journal, vol. 26, no.3, Pergamon Chiu, Vivian 1999, April 5, 'The "Fresh Meat" Market', South China Morning Post Doyle, Christine 2000, April 10, 'The Placebo as Panacea', Hong Kong Standard Endacott, G B 1958, A History of Hong Kong, Oxford University Press Evans, Grant and Maria Tam ================================================================================