RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 150 studies, they uncovered huge volumes of local historical materials - genealogies, land deeds, books, stone inscriptions, and oral history. Ethnographic material obtained through the observation of rituals, artifacts and dress, architecture, economic activities, language, symbols and everyday behaviour added further dimensions to their knowledge and highlighted vital links between the present and the past. These scholars might be more interested in using the materials to either discourse about Chinese culture, social organization, social status, power and government, gender issues, inter-lineage relations and so on, but their work nevertheless became invaluable ingredients for reconstructing the unique history of each locality. The Scholar-Officials The New Territories was the happy hunting ground of another group. These were District Officers of the Hong Kong government who were responsible for governing rural Hong Kong. Scholars of the sinologist tradition, they were particularly well placed to collect large amounts of oral and documentary materials while working among villagers in the New Territories. Prominent among them were K.M.A. Barnett, David Akers-Jones, and James Hayes, who was to become Hong Kong's leading historian. His major works, which combine scholarship, administrative experience and personal insights, are now classic studies. 6 This group, known as the "scholar-officials", was later joined, and greatly strengthened, by Patrick Hase in the 1970s. It should be noted that to these scholar-officials, the study of 'traditional' Chinese society is more than a purely intellectual exercise. To govern the New Territories, the Hong Kong government needs a working knowledge of the customs and culture of the indigenous inhabitants, especially in relation to land, family, lineage relations etc., and relies heavily on District Officers who are 'on the spot', as it were. For judicial purposes, too, when disputes over land and inheritance arose, 'sinologists' - academics and civil servants - are frequently called in, even flown in, to act as expert witnesses at court. A recent Ph.D thesis by Selina Ching Chan for the Oxford University analyses how in the New Territories, traditions are interpreted differently by the rulers and the ruled, each group in the way most expedient to them; thus she offers rare insights into the intricate relations between power and scholarship. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 166 Hai Journal, no 12 | August 1981, pp 191-201) 1 Lo Hsiang-lin, Hong Kong and Its External Communications Before 1842 The History of Hong Kong Prior to British Arrival (Hong Kong Institute of Chinese Culture, 1963) Barbara Ward, "Rediscovering our social and cultural heritage", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, (JHKBRAS) 20, pp 116-124, p 124 See Jack Potter Capitalism and the Chinese Peasant. Social and Economic Change in a Hong Kong Village (Berkeley, Calif University of California Press, 1968) He contradicts the theory that the industry and commerce of the treaty ports were the principal reasons for the bankruptcy of the Chinese countryside by showing how in Ping Shan, the effects of capitalism were beneficial to peasants. James Hayes, The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911. Institutions and Leadership in Town and Countryside (Hamden, Connecticut Archon Books, 1972), The Rural Communities of Hong Kong Studies and Themes (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1983), Tsuen Wan Growth of a New Town and Its People (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1993) 7 For the special nature of the District Officer's duties, see Austin Coates, Myself a Mandarin Memoirs of a Special Magistrate (Hong Kong Heinemann, 1975) Selina Ching Chan, "Tradition Inherited, Traditional Reinterpreted. A Chinese Lineage in the 1990s", (Unpublished Ph D thesis, Oxford University, 1995) Alan Birch and Martin Cole, Captive Years the Occupation of Hong Kong 1941-45 (Hong Kong Heinemann, 1982) and Captive Christmas (Hong Kong. Heinemann, 1979) 10 Most of the Rev Smith's work was published in articles in various, often obscure, journals, but more recently they have been collected in anthologies - Chinese Christians, Middlemen and the Church in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1985) and A Sense of History Studies in the Social and Urban History of Hong Kong (Hong Kong Educational Publishing Co, 1995) See especially, DJ Dwyer (ed) The Changing Face of Hong Kong. Proceedings of a Weekend Symposium of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch (Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 1971) 12 Editorial, JHKBRAS, vol 7(1967)pp 1-3,p 2 13 PH Hase and Elizabeth Sinn (eds) Beyond the Metropolis Villages in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Joint Publishing (HK) Ltd, 1995) 14 Marjorie Topley, (comp) "Anthropology and Sociology in Hong Kong Field Projects and Problems of Overseas Scholars" Proceedings of a Symposium, February 8-9, 1969 (Hong Kong Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1969) See Ian Diamond, "The Paper Chase - Archives and the Public Records Office of Hong Kong" ================================================================================ 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 ================================================================================