RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 26 T HUGH D. R. BAKER The five clans bear the surnames Tang2, Hau3, Pang, Liu,5 and Man. The Tangs were the first of the five to settle in the area as far as is known, coming in at the beginning of the Northern Sung Dynasty, probably in 973 A.D.,8 giving them a history of some thousand years of settlement. Their first village (and still one of their largest) was Kam Tin. Other major villages which are occupied by members of the Tang Clan are those of Ping Shan,10 Ha Tsuen,11 Tai Po Tau2 and Lung Kwat Tau,13 while these few names by no means complete the list. The Haus arrived towards the end of the twelfth century in the Southern Sung Dynasty.14 Their first settlement was at Ho Sheung Heung,15 the lineage later segmenting to form three branch-villages at Yin Kong,16 Kam Tsin17 and Ping Kong,18 Spatially there is quite a distance between these four villages, and while they still recognise that they are kin, recognise obligations of mutual aid, and appear to hold certain property in common, they are politically four distinct units under four leaderships, each of which is divorced from the others, so that they must be considered a clan. They themselves call the group either the 4 (Hau Clan) or the 5 (Hau Alliance). The Pangs claim to have arrived during the Sung Dynasty also, and are said to be in their twentieth generation at the moment. Freedman has pointed out that "poverty postponed marriage",19 and the Pangs were poor, so that we may allow thirty-five years per generation of this lineage, which would in fact date their arrival in the last years of the Sung Dynasty. The lineage village is called Fan Ling.? 20 The Lius of Sheung Shui have a history of approximately 630 years, their first ancestor arriving from Fukien Province towards the end of the Yuan Dynasty.22 They have not lost any branches through hiving-off, and the entire lineage still lives together in the one village-cluster. The Mans have two large groups of villages. The first is at San Tin, the second at Tai Hang.24 Each of these village groups is a separate lineage, separated by a great distance, apparently owning no property in common, and each under separate leadership. The two lineages together are spoken of as the ✯ (the Man Clan). Page 26 ... Page 20 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 OLD BRITISH KOWLOON 133 NOTES The place names are all in Cantonese and can be found in the Hong Kong Government's publication The Place Names of Hong Kong and the New Territories (1960). Where not otherwise stated my authority for information given in the paper comes from the old people mentioned in note 16. The aim of this article is to recover as much of the pre-1899 past of the Hong Kong region as possible, with special reference to the nineteenth century. 1. E. J. Eitel, Europe in China, London: Luzac & Co., 1895, p. 360. 2. The Convention of Peking, 9 June 1898. The text can be found on pp. 198-199 of the Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers, i.e., papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1899. 3. Report on the Sanitary Condition of Hong Kong and Kowloon for 1864... presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty in 1865 to be found in Parliamentary Papers, China, 1861-66, p. 16. 4. C.O.129/85 in the Public Record Office, London. 5. The Commissioners sent an abstract of these documents to London. These were as follows: "No. 1 | List of Red Deeds Owners not belonging to the Teng Family—contains 91 Deeds, comprising an area of 176 acres value computed at $25,865.32 No. 2 List of Deeds belonging to the Two Branches of the Teng Family contains 78 Deeds comprising an area of 276 acres value computed at $40,561.52 No. 3 List of squatters showing the number to be 222—spread over 90 acres value computed at $13,226.16* The "Teng" family mentioned in Nos. 1 and 2 above is the Tang (*) family of Kam Tin, who are Cantonese and are the oldest, richest and best-known of the New Territories landed families. See SUNG Hok-Pang. "Legends and Stories of the New Territories" Parts III-IV, Kam Tin, in The Hong Kong Naturalist, Vols. VI and VII. 6. Hong Kong Government Gazette, Government Notification 41 of 1860, dated 24 March 1860. The population at this time contained a preponderance of men; 3356 to 971 women and 778 children (Hong Kong Government Gazette, 22 February 1862). 7. For instance, the genealogies (##) of the Ng (吳) clan of Nga Tsin Wai and Sha Po and the Lam (林) clan of Chuk Yuen and Po Kong show that their settlement dates back to this period. 8. I base this statement on personal knowledge of the fifty or more Hakka villages in the Sai Kung district of the New Territories. 9. Hong Kong Government Blue Book for 1871 p. 148. 10. See G. N. Orme's "Report on the New Territories 1899-1912" in Sessional Papers 1912 p. 55 and J. H. Stewart Lockhart in Sessional Papers 1899, p. 189. My second statement is based on conversations with families of Hakka stonecutters at Ngau Tau Kok Village, Kowloon. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d MILITIA. MARKET AND LINEAGE 63 61 Ibid., p. 154. 62 Ibid., p. 159. 63 Liu Wan-kuk, of Sheung Shui, later described the inaugural meeting and its consequences in the following terms. "On the 1st of the 3rd moon (10th April), the Un Long Division made a great show of force, and stated in a most peremptory manner that if we refused to join in the resistance of the British, thousands of men from the Un Long Division with arms would proceed to level to the ground the villages belonging to the Liu, Tang and Pang families. The Sheung U Division was therefore compelled on the 3rd day (12th April) to request the Hau, Liu, Pang, Tang, Man clans to meet in the temple dedicated to a former Governor of Kwang Tung province. There it was decided to raise a small public subscription.... It was also decided that the various villages in our Division should have their trainbands (or militia) in readiness so that we should not be....powerless to check disorder. Our Division was the victim of circumstances.... Our trainband (or militia) was intended solely for the protection of the old and young in our Division." Translation of a statement made to the Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, 26th April 1899, Papers. Despatches..., op. cit., p. 74. Here and subsequently, the spelling of place names and parenthetical remarks are those of the original translator. Remarks in brackets are my own. 64 Correspondence ..., op. cit., p. 226. Jingals are "long tapering guns, six to fourteen feet in length, borne on the shoulders of two men and fired by a third. They have a stand, or tripod, reminding one of a telescope being less liable to burst than cannon, they form the most effective gun the Chinese possess." J. Dyer Ball, Things Chinese, London, 1904 edition, p. 44. Page 13 Correspondence 65 Stewart Lockhart described the flag as follows: "the flag has a red border and a white centre, on which are seven Chinese characters meaning: Train band sanctioned by the Government: -Tai Kai (village), surname Man.' The village referred to.... is also known by the name of Tai Hang , op. cit., p. 180. The militia were so martial in appearance and conduct that the British at first thought they were regulars. The Viceroy commented: "the Governor of Hong Kong suspected that they were regular troops from the fact that they had guns, cannon, and uniforms. He was not aware that the villagers of Kwangtung, in their constant fights with each other, are always erecting forts, and use guns and cannon, and wear uniforms. This is a matter of common notoriety." Ibid., p. 304. 66 Ibid., pp. 188ff. These and similar letters were found in the T'ai Ping Kung Kuk at Yuen Long. A proclamation issued by the Council of the Yuen Long Division was also discovered. It supports Liu Wan-kuk's claim that coercion was a feature of the resistance movement: "The English barbarians are about to enter our territory, and ruin will come upon our villages and hamlets, All we villagers must enthusiastically come forward to offer armed resistance and act in unison. When the drum sounds to the fight, we must all respond to the call for assistance. Should anyone hesitate to take part or hinder or obstruct our military plans he will most certainly be severely punished, and no leniency will be shown. This is issued as a forewarning." Ibid. 67 Ibid., p. 171. 68 Papers 69 Ibid. Despatches , op. cit., p. 66. op. cit., p. 166. 70 Correspondence ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES 181 It is an ancient custom in China when a man passes a Government degree examination or is appointed as a Government official, for him to have his new official title carved on a wooden tablet and hung in the Hall of his ancestors. By this means the good news is reported to the ancestors that their descendant has become a man of rank, and at the same time an example is set to future generations to encourage them to do their best to rise to the same honour, as the tablet is left hanging in the hall permanently. There are many of these title-tablets hung in Sz Shing Tong, put there not only by Kam T'in men, but by other descendants of the Tang family who have sent their tablets from places far away, where they have gone to live. The oldest among them is the "Man Fui” or Kui Yan degree put there by Tang Ting Ching who passed it in the 7th year of Shing Fa, A.D. 1471. The most highly honoured title-tablets are the two from Tang Yung Keng from Tung Kwun district. He passed his Kui Yan degree in the 3rd year of Tung Chi, A.D. 1864 and became "Hon Lam Yuen Shue Kat Sz" (H.K.N. VIII, p. 110) in the 10th year of T’ung Chi, A.D. 1871. He held the office of On Ch'aat Sz (Provincial Judge) of Kiangsu province, and in 1900 during the Boxer trouble he was appointed by Lei Hung Cheung, the Prime Minister and then Viceroy of Kwangtung and Kwangsi provinces, to be the Superintendent of volunteers in Kwangtung. Tang Ts'ing Lok's eldest son, Tang Wan Kuk was a very rich man, and he owned a lot of cultivated land in San On District. During his time there were twenty-eight Sau Ts'oi (B.A.'s) and nine very rich men all members of his family and living in the same street where his house was situated in Shui Mei village. His house was called Kam Ts'un Tong "ornamental stream hall"; it has long since been destroyed and a vegetable garden is on the site of where it once existed, but the remains of a large stone gateway can still be seen (plate 20). Tang Wan Kuk owned a large library in this house, and a fine stone fish-tank, made of pink coloured stone, 2 Chinese feet high, 14 wide and 24 long. (Plate 19). Two scholars of the Tang Family have written inscriptions about this tank, speaking very highly of it, but it now lies in a destroyed school building in Shui T’au village, and no-one cares about it. The dates of Tang Wan Kuk's birth and death are not recorded, but we know that his grave, which is in Noh Mai Ham about seven li from Kam T'in was made before the 8th year of Ching ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 206 MAURICE FREEDMAN ship of the struggle over the market; for up to that point they were perhaps strong enough to be independent, becoming a yeuk (and so assimilating themselves to an older pattern) in response to the needs of the new situation. (I may add that the Man of Tai Hang, the Liu of Sheung Shui, and the Tang of Lung Yeuk Tau were three particularly prominent clans in the area, and that their interrelations probably fluctuated as their respective fortunes waxed and waned. When the Man and their allies ruined the old market a Liu of Sheung Shui wrote a poem congratulating the Man leader; the poet was clearly pleased to see Tang 'arrogance' humbled). The villages in the Luk Yeuk of Sai Kung were subject to Tang landlords or taxlords (which they were it would not be possible to decide without a long debate on the relation between rent and the taxes exacted, officially or otherwise, by strong clans), and they may have used their contacts with the Kowloon organisation to protect themselves. In a part of the Empire where the state could certainly not be relied upon to redress wrongs and protect property and lives, the weaker communities were forced to seek among themselves (and sometimes, as the case of the Ts'at Yeuk illustrates, with the aid of a stronger one) protection against oppression by local powers. In many parts of what were to become the New Territories the Tang were regarded as being unduly dominant, their riches, scholarship, and connexions with officialdom being the bases of their strength; and smaller communities banded together against them. But on their home ground in the Yuen Long area Tang dominance was so complete that yeuk could not emerge. That, at least, is one possible conclusion. 27. It is time now to examine the word yeuk more closely. It can be taken to mean a pact or agreement, and several of my informants interpreted yeuk and yeuk-complexes as contracts or joint enterprises freely entered into. (It is like a business partnership, one man told me, in which people take shares). But in fact it is possible to argue that what we have been examining at the end of the Ch'ing dynasty may not have been some spontaneous and popular form of grouping so much as a development of an official and imposed system of control. Yeuk is an abbreviation of heung yeuk (‘hsiang-yüeh'), a term with a long history in Chinese local government and administration. It appears first in the Northern Sung period when (late eleventh century) a Confucian scholar set out a scheme for a kind of village self-government in which country people were to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p NOTES AND QUERIES 295 styled a kung shoh (ABT) with a 'lock-up' for offenders. They were located in some old houses with small windows, near the Tin Hau temple and inside the wall. According to elders born in the 1880s, the village had watchmen when they were young, even though there was still a moat round the village at that time, albeit used as a fishpond. A new office was built above the main entrance of the village in 1949, perhaps because the old was by then, and earlier, let to tenants. A list of the subscribers hangs in the office. The village had street lighting supplied by a public utility company requested and paid for by the office. It had had this amenity even before the war, from about 1930, and got it before it got a piped water supply. At the time of my enquiries, the village still employed watchmen, despite the small size of the enclosure. This was so not simply because it was a customary practice, but also because of the presence of many outsiders, in the village and the adjoining squatter areas. It was reported that there were 106 houses in the village, some of them occupied by several families. There were then said to be some 300 families in residence. About a hundred were outsiders, post-war arrivals who were mostly renting and sharing premises. There was at some times only one watchman, but two or three at others, dependent upon the need, and also upon how much money was available to pay for their services. They were supposed to be village people, though this condition was loosely interpreted, and was usually fulfilled by at least ten years' residence. The longest serving watchman was then Ah Lung, aged over 50, who had served continuously for twenty years since the Second World War. Ah Chong had 8 or 9 years' service. Two others were mentioned, by then retired, one of whom had served for ten years just after the war and the other for just four, (1958---62). The pay was never high. In 1967 the watchmen were paid $350 per month. I interviewed one old watchman, born in the village about 1906-07. At the time of the Tung Tau squatter village fire in 1951 he was unemployed, so he became a watchman at nearby ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 296 NOTES AND QUERIES Nga Tsin Wai until he retired over ten years later. Work usually started at the second watch and continued until dawn. There was usually one man in his time, with help if things weren't so quiet. At Tai Wai, in Shatin, the village youths would act, for instance, as watchmen during the decennial Ta Tsiu1 festival, since it could be assumed that not only would most houses then be deserted, with their residents out watching the puppet show, but also that there would be large numbers of outsiders in the area as well. Neighbouring villages would often cause trouble during the Ta Tsiu because of the Fung Shui influence of the Ta Tsiu on them. The youths would work in shifts. This was also the case during the Ta Tsiu at Shek Pik on Lantau Island, though here these protective rituals were performed every three years instead of every ten. In normal times at Nga Tsin Wai, the watchman patrolled all six lanes inside the village, and also the area round about the outside of the village. He also sat occasionally in the entrance gateway of the village during the night. The watchmen's night began at 6 p.m. The first watch (tau kaang) was from then until 9. The second (yi kaang) was from 9 to midnight. The third, fourth, and if necessary a fifth, were from 12 to 3, 3 to 6 and 6 to 8 or 9. The drum was beaten at half-hourly intervals, and it was usual to beat the number of each kaang: three during the third kaang and so on. But at dawn it was usual to beat the drum many times, indicating the finishing or 'breaking up' of the kaangs. To ta kaang (T), the watchmen used a drum made of cow hide (ngau pei koo) beaten with a wooden stick, stated to be not of bamboo. He thought that all the Kowloon old villages beat a drum, and was certain that Sha Po, a sister village, used a drum like Nga Tsin Wai. However, he added that in many other places the watch used a gong (loh) instead.5 JAMES HAYES NOTES 1 Hong Kong Government Gazette, 8th April 1899, p. 546. * CSO 1903 Ext/3690, minute of 7th May 1903, in Public Records Office, Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 275 A large clump of such "public" trees (HAB) exists, for instance, on the north-east slope of Kowloon Peak. 10 See, however, section 2 of this Note. The late Mr. T. S. Woo, MBE (formerly of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department and the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association) stated that local “Hill Tea” was once dealt in by Gibb, Livingston, but that this later died away, probably as a consequence of the great growth in Indian and Ceylonese tea exports in the late nineteenth century (Note by K. C. Iu). Plate 39. 12 Elsewhere in this journal, D. Faure in "Notes on the History of Tsuen Wan" mentions tea growing on Tsing Yi and at Chuen Lung in the earlier part of this century. 11 Section 3 of this Note discusses this "tea" more fully. 14 Plate 40. 15 Sessional Papers 1907, p. 221. 16 "A Notice of the Sanon District" reprinted JHKRRAS, Vol. 7, 1967, p. 122. 17 The Mau Tso Ngam Village Representative, Mr. Cheng Kau-hung, has also spoken to me (PHH) about herb collection. He stressed that knowledge of herb collection was kept as a secret and handed down from father to son, the father going to remote spots on the hillside to point out herbs to his son where prying eyes could not see what was done. Only some of the Mau Tso Ngam village families knew how to collect herbs, and this information was kept even more carefully from villagers from other villages. The prepared herbs were sold to shops in Kowloon City, a few cents being paid before the War for a well-prepared catty of the less frequently found herbs. The herbs were usually not those found in the Standard Pharmacoepia but "Mountain Drugs" (山藥), representing local folk remedies. Sellers of “Mountain Drugs" can still be found in the New Territories Market towns. Mr. Cheng stressed the difference between medicinal herbs the identification and preparation of which was kept secret, and those herbs usable as food in famines, which it was the duty of the elders to ensure every villager could recognise, and know how to prepare, in case the need ever arose (Note PHH). Dr. Chong Siu-cheung, with a group of local herbalists, has prepared a 5 volume book in English and Chinese “Chinese Medicinal Herbs of Hong Kong" (Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1978-84) describing and discussing the uses of about 1,100 species of plant with medicinal properties found in Hong Kong. This book, however, does not cover the place collection or preparation played in the village society or economy (Note KCI). Plate 41. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 101 some of the Au's in Honolulu, such as to Evelyn Lee Ho's mother, who was born an Au. First Uncle thought I resembled Grandmother in looks. She had six children, three sons and three daughters: Daughter Yim Chan Shee Son Ping Wing Wi Son Chung Chi BC née Chan Yung Kam hao Shing Mi BBC née Chan Yung Yick Ping I William Daughter Leong Chan Shee Daughter Auyoung Chan Shee Son Ping Yip 炳業 Grandfather, from hearsay and from a photograph taken in his 60s, was a sophisticated, handsome and bewhiskered gentleman. He had a literary degree which was purchased, no doubt to enhance his status. He evidently enjoyed the lighter side of life, and even in his old age, he would sing Chinese operas while accompanying himself on a moon harp, an instrument he left to us but which we failed to appreciate. Whether he gave Grandmother cause for worry or not, she became mentally ill after the birth of Father. She would voice concern that Grandfather would take in a concubine and would express fear of losing her children. She died on 23 November 1880, when Father was barely two years old. Grandfather remarried and by his second wife surnamed Leong had his seventh offspring, a son, Ping Lim. She was from Lung Ait Tau Village (龍隘頭村), and was born on 13 October 1860. Grandfather followed First Uncle to California, then sent for Second Uncle to join them. Grandfather then went to Hawaii and sent for his second wife and Ping Lim, but left Father in the village with the wife of First Uncle. When Father was 14, he accompanied his oldest sister, Yim Chan Shee, to Hawaii. The two families settled in a small Chinese community located on Prison road, across the road from the former site of Oahu Prison, overlooking Honolulu Harbour and the Oahu Railway Station, and easily accessible to Chinatown. Grandfather and a group of friends started a Chinese grocery business at 79 N. King Street on the Maikai side between Manunakea and Smith Streets, named Wing On Tai (永安泰). On its Waikiki side was a similar store managed by Yee Mun Wai, father of Dr. Lester Yee; on the Ewa side was Yuen Chong Mil¦ owned by Lee Lit, father of Dr. Robert Lee, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 342 The festival was estimated to cost a total of more than one million dollars. The opera cost $357,000, paper images $150,000, temporary structures $150,000, and the puppet theatre $110,000. The opera was paid for, as is the tradition, from the funds of two lineage trusts, those of the Naam-Kai jou and Ching-Lok jou. Each contributes $180,000. For the other expenses, each of the villagers paid a subscription of $300, with the no. 1 to no. 15 ritual representatives each paying an extra $500, 50 The main participants were the Dang villagers of Kam Tin. For the purpose of organizing the jiu the villagers were divided into five gu sections. Each section corresponded to a village, except that the Tai Hong gu included, besides Tai Hong Wai, Ko Po, Kam Hing Wai, Tsi Tong Tsuen and Tai Hong Tsuen. Also taking part were the villagers of Ying Lung Wai, the settlement of the second branch of Hung-Yi's lineage outside the heung of Kam Tin. They paid half subscriptions and got the last three places among the 60 ritual representatives. Some of the non-Dang residents in the heung also participated. Those include the Sa Bui Leng villagers and post-War and later immigrants from China who operated farms and shops in Kam Tin. These "outsiders", however, could not become ritual representatives. The ritual representatives were to stand for all the villagers in the Taoist rites and in some of the rites the villagers performed on their own. There were also religious activities conducted by every household. At three points of the festival, i.e. the opening day, the main day, and the concluding day, every household came, family by family, to worship at the various ritual sites, and a priest visited each house on the last day to purify the family altar. In addition, each and every person was named in the ritual memorials which were read aloud and sent by fire to heaven, with a copy posted in the ritual area for all to read and check. Many other villagers in the area were also peripherally involved. They offered their congratulations by having fa-paai banners set up in the festival site, and by paying a formal visit to the site on the main day with their lion/unicorn dances. To wait to receive them the elders of Kam Tin lined up in cheung-saam, B. Ritual Area The festival site was beside the Jau and Wong Temple. A large paang temporary structure was erected. Outside the main structure were three small linked temporary structures for first-aid, the fire services, and the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 351 would send a horse to carry the document to heaven so as to ask blessings for the people whose names appeared in the list. Other women villagers to whom I talked had the same kind of understanding. +1 The Memorial listed the participants under six categories, which were, in the original order, ritual representatives, “faithful elder”, "faithful scholar”, “jiu representatives”, "faithful farmers”, and "faithful outsiders”. The first three titles were used for the Dangs of Kam Tin and their families. Which one among the three was used was determined by whether the person was a ritual representative or over 60 years old. The **jiu representatives** were the Ying Lung Wai villagers. The fact and the position of the category among the others was probably more important than the literal meaning of the term. At the end were the "faithful farmers" and "faithful outsiders". The former included the indigenous non-Dangs of the heung as well as immigrant farmers. The latter referred to immigrants who operated businesses in Kam Tin. The importance and meaning of these entries was made clearer to me by a "mistake". At one point a leader of a lineage segment was copying an entry in the posted memorial for use in the distribution of ancestral ritual pork. I took the opportunity to ask him about a strange entry. The person named in the entry (and his family) was a Dang, but he was classified as “faithful farmer”. I also noticed that there had been an alteration, and the original classification, "faithful scholar", was also visible. The elder could not explain this. Later I saw him and another elder talking near the posted memorial, and went to see if they had the answer. The other elder knew the case very well. The person concerned had been taken to Naam Tau by his widowed mother when he was small. It was quite recently that he had returned and found his kinsmen. There were several houses in the village under his father's name. But in his absence someone else had assumed ownership. The elders of Kam Tin had been helping him at the District Office to recover his rights. The case was not settled yet. The elder had no doubt that it was the other party who altered **faithful scholar** to “faithful farmer”. He took this act very seriously, “What if someone did that to you!” He suggested that this was more than an insult. It was part of the other fellow's trick: to deny that his recently returned kinsman was a Kam Tin Dang. But he also thought this alteration to the name list was not useful, because the document would be burnt at the end of the festival. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 Lectures: 1993 16 April 14 May 11 June 9 July 15 October 30 October 19 November 26 November 9 December 1994 21 January 18 February 11 March 21 March Chinese Opera Di S.Y Chan Growing Up in China Mr Denis Bray New Territories Poetry and Song Di Patrick Hase The Li Family of Hong Kong Mr Frank Ching Chinese Festivals in Hong Kong. Dr Patrick Hase based on video taken by Mr. Peter Lee Mult-culturalism and Asia Asian Arts Society of Australia Dr. James Hayes Emigration from Hong Kong Dr. Elizabeth Sinn Law as a Foreign Language Professor Derek Roebuck Triad Societies in Hong Kong Mr. Ip Pau-fuk William Mesney. Mr Keith Stevens Chinese Clothing An Illustrated Guide Mis Valery Garrett Eternal Serenity Meaning of Architecture of the Chinese Buddhist Monastery Di Puay-peng Ho Ancient Chinese Gold Dr Simon Kwan Crossing the Taklamakan Desert Mr Charles Blackmore Visits: 1993 3 April 2 May 22 May 5 June/September 25 June 3 July 30 September Exhibition of paintings by Nancy Woo - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University Jewish Cemetery Mer Yung Tang Collection of Paintings by Chan Dai Chien Chinese University Art Gallery Marine Police Headquarters in Tsim Sha Tsui (two visits) Japanese Tea Ceremony - Fung Ping Shan Museum, HK University Picnic and outing to Yuen Tun Village Civil Aid Services Camp, Tar Lam Chung Wo Hang Village to see making and letting off of paper balloons (Moon Festival) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 55 years the Nga Tsin Wai villagers blamed on this act of disrespect to the Goddess: those disasters were massive and permanent. These disasters stemmed from the coming of the Japanese. When the Japanese came, the squatters living on the Nga Tsin Wai fields all fled, or were forced, back to China, and the villagers started the slow job of rehabilitating their fields. Before this work was complete, however, the Japanese decided to extend the airfield at Kai Tak. The pre-War Airfield was very tiny, and built solely on a narrow strip of reclaimed land seaward of today's Prince Edward Road, extending not much further seaward than the Airport Terminal Building as it stood before 1998. The Japanese saw that this was totally inadequate. They decided both to reclaim a further strip out to sea, and to clear a large area inland. They closed the very narrow road which the British had built along the sea-coast (approximately along the line of today's Prince Edward Road). They diverted all the streams of the area into a single huge stone-lined nullah, and built a new road along the inner side of this nullah (today's Choi Hung Road). To prevent floods, they built the banks of this nullah high, so that Nga Tsin Wai found itself at a level some four or five feet below that of the new nullah banks. Everything within the huge semicircle thus formed they confiscated and cleared. Po Kong, Sha Tei Yuen, Kak Hang, Ma Tau Chung, Kau Pui Shek and Nga Yiu Tau villages, with about half of Tai Hom, were all destroyed in a matter of weeks. The Sacred Hill, with the Sung Wong Toi Rock, was blasted for fill for the new reclamation. The Japanese paid no compensation for the land they confiscated. It was just taken, and a barbed-wire fence erected: anyone crossing this fence was executed. According to the Nga Tsin Wai villagers, the villagers of the destroyed villages were allowed to take part in a ballot for huts in the “Model Village” (). This had been built by the Japanese in the area between Lancashire Road and Renfrew Road in Kowloon Tong (this area had been cleared for development in the late 1930s, but was still empty when the Japanese came in 1941). The Japanese divided this area into a number of tiny patches. Those successful in the ballot were given one of these patches, and permitted to build on it a tiny one-room hut, and to use the rest of the patch for market gardening. Those who succeeded in getting a hut here mostly survived the War: those who failed mostly died. At best a half of the villagers whose houses were destroyed and whose fields were confiscated got ================================================================================