RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811
144

BOOK REVIEWS

Iyer," a revised transcription of a UNESCO radio broadcast in April 1959. This was the origin of both the book and its title.

PHILIP SHEN

Chung Chi College

The Chinese University of Hong Kong.

THE CHINESE IN PHILIPPINE LIFE 1850-1898, Edgar Wickberg. Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1965. 280 pages.

For students and scholars interested in Southeast Asian studies this is an illuminating book. It discusses the Chinese in the Philippines during the period from the date of the changed Spanish policy on the status of Chinese in 1850 to the end of Spanish rule in the Philippines in 1898.

The limited number of serious studies that have previously been made of the Chinese in the Philippines have concentrated on the problems of the twentieth-century community. However, since many important features of Philippine economy and society are traceable to developments in the latter half of the nineteenth century, this period comprises the formative years of modern Philippine economic and social life.

Professor Wickberg's book is the first exhaustive research on a period of significant change of the Chinese in the Philippines. It concentrates on their institutions, and on their relations both with their host society and with China. The fully documented book is supplemented by maps, showing Manila and other areas in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and includes reproductions of paintings, vividly showing the dress fashions of Chinese and Chinese mestizos in the mid-nineteenth century. There is a glossary of Chinese names and terms, and a comprehensive bibliography listing published works in English, Spanish, Chinese, and Japanese, on Chinese both in the Philippines and elsewhere in Southeast Asia, and on other topics relative to Southeast Asian studies. The sources of unpublished material used are also listed.

The book begins with a lucid narrative of the Philippine Chinese before 1850. The Chinese had early contacts with the Philippine Archipelago and were directly involved in the economic and social affairs of the Philippines long before the arrival of the

Page 150

Page 151
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m
ANOTHER LOOK AT LAND AND LINEAGE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES, CA. 1900

EDGAR WICKBERG*

Preface

The title of this paper may sound presumptuous, as if I have, after only six months' research, discovered the utter foolishness of all previous research on the subject, which I will now correct with one revisionist flourish. No such thing. What I really mean is: "Yet another look at Land and Lineage in the New Territories, ca. 1900". Why is "yet another look" worth taking? Because my methods and my experience are somewhat different from those of previous students of the subject, I think that I may be able to raise some old and some new questions in different ways than before and thereby advance discussion.

I approach this task with some diffidence, since I am well aware of the years of experience, the skills and the effort that many people — including some in this room — have lavished on the subject. I am presenting my findings and views after only six months on the job because I want and need your comments and criticisms before it is too late; in other words, before my research year ends, as it will next July, and I must return to Canada. Better to correct mistakes now while I am still in the field and can do so.

With these comments as background, let me turn to Part I of the paper.

1. The multi-tiered land tenure system of east and south China.

Our understanding of agricultural land tenure in the New Territories ca. 1900 will be enhanced by considering first the general type of Chinese system of which it was a representative. This system, usually called "one-field, two-owners” (or, sometimes, when circumstances warranted, "one-field, three-owners"), has been written about extensively by Chinese, and especially, by Japanese scholars. Widely found in south China during the Ch'ing period, this system was characterized by a separation of agricultural land ownership and occupancy into several

* Professor of History, University of British Columbia.
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RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981
https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m
216

FABER, Mrs G.A.G. FAWCETT, Mr B.C. FRASER, Mr A.P. GALVIN, Mr J.A.T.

GEORGE, Mr Timothy J.B. GIEDROYC, Mr Michael J.H. GOLDNEY, Miss C.M. HARDEN, Mrs Guy T., Jr. HAYDON, Mr E.S. HECHTEL, Mr F.O.P. HOWARTH, Mr Richard H. HUGHES, Mrs Marion HURT, Miss Evelyn J. INGLES, Miss Jean M. IRETON, Mrs Polly H. JOHNSTON, Mr James J. JORDAN, Dr David K. KIDD, Mr S.T.

7

KNOWLES, Miss Moria G. KNOWLES, Mrs W.C.G. KURATA, Mrs Lucien LANCHESTER Mrs G.W. LAUFER, Mr E.M. LAUFER, Mrs B.M. LI, DR Choh-Ming LINDSAY, Mr T.J. LOTHROP, Mr Francis B. MANSFIELD, Miss M.B. MICHAELIONES, Miss E.O. MILL, Major C.S., USMC MILLER, Mr Carl F.O. NICHOLS, The Hon. Mr E.H. O'BRIEN, Father J.R. PLAG, Rev. Albrecht POLAND, Mr Thomas D. RITCHIE, Mr Douglas J. ROBINSON, Prof. K.E. ROTHE, Mr Ulrich. SINFIELD, Mr G.HC. SPERRY, Mr Henry M. STEVENS, Mr Keith G. SWIRE, Mr A.C.

TILL, The Very Rev. Barry TURNER, Sir Michael WARD, Miss Janet E.A. WELCH, Mr Holmes H. WHITELEGGE, Mr D.S. WOLF, Mr John

ORDINARY OVERSEAS MEMBERS

ANDERSON, Dr Eugene N., Jr.

BARR, Mr J.W. BEVERIDGE, Mr R.J. BOND, Mr Michael W. CHAR, Mr Tin Yuke CHINN, Mrs Caroline Lee CLARK, Mrs A.T. COOPER, Dr Eugene

DE FAZIO, Mr & Mrs M.F. EASTON, Ms. Linda

FESSLER, Mr Loren FITZGIBBON, Mr Desmond GARD, Dr Richard A.

GILMAN, Ms Claudia

GOODRICH, Prof. L. Carrington

HARRISON, Prof, B.

HEMMING, Miss Janet M. HODGSON, Mr A.F.

HODGSON, Mrs Kirsty Hamilton HOGAN, Mr James HUYSMAN, Mr J.

KNEEBONE, Mrs Susan

KRAMERS, Dr R.P. LIU, Prof. Ts'un Yan LU, Mrs Sylvia MACLEAN, Mr Roderick MATHIAS, Dr John R.G. McCOY, Mr John

MORGAN, Mrs Carole MYERS, Mr John T. PARR, Mr M.J.

REDFERN, Mr O'Donnell S. REID, Mr A.J.H. SCHWARZER, Mr C.A. SELWYN, Mr J.B. SMITH, Dr Ralph B. STEEDS, Mr David

STOKES, Mr John

STRAUCH, Dr Judith STURM, Prof. Fred Gillette VILLIERS, Dr John WATSON, Dr James L. WICKBERG, Professor Edgar
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