RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch ORASHKB and author 120 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 In the New Territories, there are at present no funeral parlours and few undertakers. As in the agricultural interior of China, practical responsibility still falls mainly on the kinsmen of the deceased. The customary burial of villagers is in two stages: initial coffin burial, and subsequent exhumation and re-interment of remains. Having encoffined the body, the relatives normally sustain the vigil directly outside the home under a temporary shelter. Burial then takes place in a traditional village area, but no monument is erected beyond a small unshaped stone at the head of the grave. After five years or more, the body is exhumed. The bones will be cleaned by the family and be placed either in a funerary urn (kam t'aàp) or in a formal masonry grave (shaan fan) shaped like a horseshoe. In the funerary urn, the bones will be arranged in a manner as if the deceased were sitting in the Buddhist lotus posture. The siting of funerary urns and horseshoe graves is of particular importance. Relatives will go to great lengths to ensure that the jung shui of the site is propitious. In other words, they wish to ensure that the benevolent influence of the site will protect the deceased, as a member of the family, so that he in turn will look kindly upon his relatives. The site is usually high up, commanding a view of water, and on a ridge or spur which represents, for instance, a dragon, snake, shrimp or crab in its formation. Standing with one's back to a horseshoe grave, one sees a half circle within a radius of ten yards, which is normally regarded as sacrosanct. Disturbance of the ground is regarded with strong disfavour. Traditionally, the left arm of the panorama in front should consist of a long ridge (containing a "green dragon”) and the right arm of a shorter ridge (containing a "white tiger"). In a horseshoe grave, the exhumed remains are buried in a jar in the centre, just in front of a stone plaque (pei shek) that records the name of the deceased, the date of his death, and other details. Important graves of recorded ancestors or founders of a clan are often flanked by a small shrine (haû tỏ) on either side and sometimes another behind, at a distance of ten to twenty feet from the main grave. The object of the shrines is to persuade the earth god to look after the grave. Whether the exhumed remains are to be placed in a funerary urn or in a horseshoe grave seems to be governed by the sex and general standing of the deceased in the clan, or even by the financial state of the relatives at the time of exhumation. The remains are normally fit for exhumation after a minimum of five years of burial, but, even so, exhumation should not strictly take place unless there has been no pregnancy amongst the deceased's close female relatives in the immediately preceding nine months. This requirement, which would tend to impose some hardship ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1963 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/4m90m091v CHEUNG CHAU 101 11 "The whole of the island (Cheung Chau) was adjudged to belong to the WONG family and it is let out to various tenants on leases renewable every five years. All these leases were registered in 1906". Administra-tive Report for 1909, District Officer, New Territories. But see also G. N. Orme's unfavourable opinion of the initial survey and Crown rent roll in Sessional Papers 1912, p. 46. 12 For example, before its tax-lord rights were extinguished (along with others') by the Hong Kong Government after 1898 as "not compatible with the principles of British administration" (Orme, Sessional Papers 1912, p. 46), the LI Kau Yuen Tong of Sha Wan appears to have owned a considerable proportion of all the cultivated land on Lantau island under an imperial grant made in the Sung dynasty (see LO Hsiang-lin "The Sung Wang T'ai and the location of the Travelling Courts by the sea-shore in the Last Days of the Sung", Journal of Oriental Studies III No. 2 (July 1956) p. 217, note 29). Nineteenth Century land deeds from the village of Shek Pik show that much of the village land paid tax to the LI family, a burden which was passed on to the purchaser when a "sale" took place. It is not known whether this Tong owned land elsewhere in the present New Territories but its main estates lay elsewhere. It is curious how the WONG Wai Chak Tong maintained its tax-lord position whilst the LI family's was extinguished. It is a pointer to the island's increasing prosperity, as well as to its favoured geographical situation, that when the Chinese Maritime Customs first began to operate in the Hong Kong region in 1887 they set up a post on Cheung Chau. This had previously been operated by the Canton authorities as part of the "blockade" system set up in 1868-71. See Stanley F. Wright, Hart and the Chinese Customs (Belfast, William Mullan & Son, 1950) pp. 385-6, 584-6 and 708, and his earlier Hong Kong and the Chinese Customs (Shanghai 1930) which I have not yet seen. See also note 15. Old villagers on the Lantau coast opposite Cheung Chau can remember having to pass through the customs every time they came to the island to buy daily necessaries and sell their produce in the market. It is not the place to discuss whether Cheung Chau's expansion was due to the rise of Hong Kong, or whether it was already in a flourishing condition by the time Hong Kong's expansion began in the 1840's, but available information points to a community which was already well-established and prosperous by the Hsien-feng period (1851-61), which would be rather early for Cheung Chau to owe its rise mainly to Hong Kong. The preamble to the tablet in the defence bureau mentions that "our forefathers came and lived in Cheung Chau several hundred years ago"; whilst the attention of pirates in the early years of Hsien-feng, also mentioned in the same tablet, seems more conclusive proof of the island's established prosperity than any other. A spate of repairs and expansion seems to have been going on apace in the T'ung-chih period (1862-75) when most of the island's temples were repaired, the CHU family ancestral hall enlarged, many old houses were built or reconstructed, and the public buildings erected which these tablets commemorate. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 54 K. M. A. BARNETT previously described, no longer carries water, and part of which is still used to supply irrigation water to a village. The ancient grave at Lo-A-Tsai on Lamma Island is made of similar stones; and I am inclined to associate also with these people a number of high standing stones, some of which are still cult objects, of which one stands above Bowen Road, another overlooking Sha Tin115 is known to Europeans by the unnecessarily sneering name of the "Amah Rock". A stone of this type, standing above a rock pool which looks as though it had been artificially enlarged and made circular, stands between the deserted village of Pak Koks at the south-western tip of Shek Pik Bay128 and the new village to which the ancient Fung2 clan of Fan Puisi were moved to make room for the Shek Pik Reservoir. Another overlooks Long Harbour, and about this one there is some mystery, since every year at approximately the date of the Mid-Autumn Festival a considerable number of women can be seen flocking up the hill to this stone, but all villages within walking distance flatly deny knowledge of any such celebration. This is at best negative evidence, and may not indicate the persistence of a pre-Chinese tradition; for a similar reticence regarding religious celebrations by women is observed at the great Nu-kwa102 temple on Honam Island154 opposite Canton, which men are seldom allowed to visit. I am trying to plot the positions of all these stone works and believe that when the list is finished, it will arrange itself into three circuits on Lantao Island, one on Lamma Island, two on Hong Kong Island, two on the Saikung126 Peninsula and three or four in the rest of the New Territories. This work might well be taken in hand by someone younger, but it must be someone who is fond of walking; and walkers have a peculiar blind spot when it comes to the collection of this kind of evidence, for I have often had to draw the attention of my walking companions even to the most obvious systems of stone walls which they have been walking right past, or even over, without noticing. The Lo-A-Tsai grave is situated close by a path and the first time I passed it, in the company of five villagers, I asked them what it was though most of them used that path nearly every day, none had ever before noticed the grave! A piece which is of vital importance and may indeed be what holds the rest of our jigsaw puzzle together is the correct identification of occupied sites on the seashore. There are many ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 82 J. W. HAYES was committed outside their shop. Fearing further complications, the brothers left their native village of Nam Ling Wai nearby, two of them going to Jamaica and the third to Peng Chau. The reason for his selecting Peng Chau is an interesting one. There had been difficulty in finding a bride with a suitable horoscope and a go-between in Yuen Long Market with contacts on Peng Chau had arranged his marriage with a girl of the LUI family. The family were not poor, and by the end of the century had secured a considerable area of fields on the Lantau coast opposite Peng Chau by giving mortgages to incautious or unlucky farmers. Some light on Peng Chau's development in the nineteenth century is given in the tablet commemorating the repairs made to the temple in 1878. Though the total number of subscribers is less than in the 1798 tablet — 181 instead of 218 — the number of shops is greater, and their locations specified. Fifty Peng Chau undertakings were listed, including one factory, though what manufacture it carried out is unknown. Some of the local shops listed on the tablet were quite large concerns by the end of the century. Among their number the San Tai Li business owned six or seven adjoining shops on the east side of Wing On Street, near the present ferry pier. It is said to have handled several lines of business including ship-chandlering and the production of sails and tackle, fishmongering and general dealings with fishermen, grocery and general goods and Chinese medicine. It also owned several junks for cargo and ferry purposes. A WONG of the third generation was managing its affairs in 1899, the business having been started by his grandfather, who was a Cantonese from Shun Tak district. Besides the shops, and the lime kilns, of which there were almost a dozen by 1904, there were at least two boat building and repair yards, and a business which specialised in beaching boats. The repair tablet lists numerous outside subscribers, which indicates the business and social contacts which the island had with neighbouring areas. Eighteen Hong Kong businesses, including seven fish laans, and another seven shops from Shaukiwan, contributed to the fund, and so did shops from Tai Ping, Shek Wan and Kong Moon in the Pearl River Delta. A ferry boat business from Heung Shan, had ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r FENG CHAU 95 from his own or adjoining villages worked with him. The Shek Pik people were therefore closely connected with the sea despite the fact that their fields were extensive and well-watered. Elsewhere on Lantau, an old account book of the Hakka CHEUNG Kung Tak Tong at Pui O, which is dated 1897-99 (Kuang Hsu 23rd-24th years), shows that the Tong had a regular income from a fishing sampan. 41 It has been shown that the Peng Chau shopkeepers always contributed to the temple repairs. A more illuminating instance of merchants' concern for the safety of local waters is to be found in the Tin Hau temple at Fan Lau on the south-west tip of Lantau, facing Macau and the mouth of the Delta, a remote area two hours' walk from Tai O Market. Here tablets survive from the Chia Ching and Hsien Feng periods (1796-1820 and 1851-61) and contain the names of many Tai O shops. One imagines that few of the donors would ever visit the temple, but they were obviously intent to ensure Tin Hau's benevolent care. 42 Information received from CHEUNG Kai Chun of Ham Tin, Pui O, Lantau (born 1886). But this was not true everywhere. At Shek Pik several families of Tanka used the anchorage for at least fifty years. There was no remembered animosity during this time and these fishermen were allowed to cut grass and firewood without charge. However, they rarely strayed far from the beach and the two groups did not intermarry or have much to do with each other, except in casual contact at the main festivals and when villagers bought fish from them at the jetty, which was over a mile from the village. The fishermen would not go to the village to sell their catch. 43 Information received from the present leaders of the WONG Wai Chak Tong ✯ of Cheung Chau. 44 This statement is based on close knowledge of the Southern District of the New Territories and of the District land registers. 45 Barbara E. Ward "A Hong Kong Fishing Village”, Journal of Oriental Studies (University of Hong Kong) volume 1, no. 1 (January 1954) pp. 195-214, especially p. 211. See also note 42. 46 See my Cheung Chau article for the Cheung Chau district associations before the British lease. At Tai O in the same period there appear to have been associations of Tung Kwun and San On origin, each with a club-house. 47 The number is wrongly given as 28 in note 14 to the Cheung Chau article. 48 A tablet in the Pak Tai temple at Cheung Chau dated January, February 1906 (a lucky day of the first month of spring of the thirty-second year of Kuang Hsü) shows that Peng Chau people also contributed to its repair. 49 See the Cheung Chau article for this institution. 50 The Kaifong of the Hong Kong region, and their like, are local institutions with a fairly long history. The Peng Chau Kaifong is quite likely to have an early date in relation to the age of the present settlement. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r 118 CRANMER-BYNG AND SHEPHERD 14 They had every reason to be alarmed on account of the continual attacks from pirates on coastal villages in Kwangtung and other places during the period from about 1787 until 1810. See A. W. Hummel: Eminent Chinese of the Ching Period, 446-8. Also C. F. Neuman, History of the Pirates who infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810. 15 Macartney took with him on the embassy a "gardener and botanist”, David Stronach. For the botanical side of the embassy see J. L. Cranmer-Byng, op. cit., 317-19. 16 These nets are known locally as "stake nets" or tsang pang are lowered and raised by means of a tackle. They are frequently used along the coasts of Kwangtung today. The fishing season is from February to mid-September, 17 The island is now reasonably well covered with pine trees and there are a few small feng-shui woods of deciduous trees. A large number of kites have been observed using pine trees on a ridge in the centre of the island as a roost during the winter months. 18 Parish knew the island, which he had been sent to reconnoitre, under the name of Cowhee. Now he learned that the inhabitants called it Toong Shing-ow-a. However, this name does not appear to have survived and the island is now always known as Ma Wan4 and was so called as far back as 1859. See Rev. Krone, op. cit. (note 8) p. 73. The word Cowhee was probably a phonetic rendering of the name of an island between Ping Chau island and Hong Kong island known as Kau I Chau 交椅洲. 19 By the small island to the south-east Parish presumably meant Tang Lung Chau## which now has a small light-house on it. There is now a small harbour with a jetty at Ma Wan village, and this is the normal place for landing on the island today. 20 This is a doubtful statement. 21 The word as written in the manuscript report is clearly "profil". I can only suggest that Parish meant "profile", and was using it in a technical, military engineering sense, meaning "outline". A reading of Tristram Shandy and other eighteenth century books about sieges and defence works might give a clue to its technical meaning at that time, 22 From the anchorage position marked on the chart this must refer to the bay of Tsing Lung Tau. Today Ma Wan is connected to the mainland by a regular ferry service running from the bay of Sham Tseng, where the Hong Kong Brewery is situated. 23 By the word "bay" in this context Parish appears to refer to the wide bay formed by the northern coast of Lantao from its headland opposite Tsing Lung Tau to Chek Lap Kok opposite Tung Chung bay, but the wording is somewhat ambiguous at this point. 24 Probably the western arm of Luk Kang - · + + on Lantao. 25 Tung Ku #island opposite Tap Siak Kok on the Castle Peak peninsula. It forms part of the Urmston Road. 26 See Charles Tulse, Local Master's Handbook. Seamanship Illustrated (Hong Kong University Press, 1960). 27 See photograph of the "race" between Ma Wan and Lantao on page It is interesting to know that Professor Deryck Chesterman of the Department of Physics in the University of Hong Kong is carrying out research into the currents off Ma Wan and their effects on the sea bed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 S. G. DAVIS the work he very quickly graduated to a well-informed archaeologist capable of making shrewd observations and comparisons. Altogether, Father Maglioni mapped and recorded twenty-one principal sites and nine others where odd fragments of pottery were picked up. And here it is important to note that all the remains were collected from the surface and that no excavations were ever carried out. It would therefore seem reasonable to assume (on the basis of our experience in Hong Kong, especially at Lamma, Shek Pik, Man Kok Tsui and Fanling) that re-examination of the Hoifung sites with spot digs could be most revealing and fruitful. Perhaps this may be possible one day, Father Maglioni in his report (16) on the Hoifung District underlined and confirmed many of the conclusions reached by Dr. Heanley and Father Finn: principally that all the sites were either on raised beaches or low granite hills and that the absence of building remains pointed to their having been built of clay and wood (probably as at Tai O today on piles) and therefore easily and quickly disintegrated by weathering and typhoon attrition. He also concluded that all sites are neolithic with a strong reservation that the use of the term "neolithic" might be misleading. This was because he recognized distinctly different cultures present. In order to identify them he used the capital letters of the largest villages near the sites; SOW, SOS, PAT, KEB and SAK. Dr. Heanley in a letter (11) to Father Maglioni also was emphatic that the term "neolithic" should not be used for Asia. He felt that polished stones were almost certainly in common use in Hong Kong until iron became cheap and abundant. On the basis of European usage of the terms "palaeolithic" and "neolithic" it seems that there is no solid evidence of a pure palaeolithic culture being present. But many palaeolithic artifacts have been found both in Hong Kong and Hoifung and presumably were used by the later neolithic peoples. Father Maglioni noted that villages were usually located on the western hill slopes below the summit. This village siting is paralleled in Hong Kong and was done to provide shelter from the strong northeast monsoon winds. He also reported that "Double-F" pottery was not much in evidence in Hoifung. He concluded that this type of pottery had been imported from Hong Kong by sea. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 NOTES AND QUERIES VILLAGE CREDIT AT SHEK PIK, 1879 - 1895 119 Shek Pik was a large Cantonese village on Lantau Island. It appears to have been established in the Ming Dynasty (1368 - 1644) and in the late nineteenth century was inhabited by about a dozen different clans. At the 1911 Hong Kong Census its recorded population was 363, although for various reasons, it seems likely there were more people living there fifty years before. The village was removed for a reservoir scheme in 1960. One of the villagers has kindly allowed me to see a few papers which survived the removal. Some of these relate to credit arrangements made by local people in the late nineteenth century. Although their context and meaning is not always clear, some documents appear to have been only aides memoire for the writers; they provide information on this interesting subject. They concern the activities of: a) several money-loan associations (†); b) loans made by a business organization belonging to one of the clans, the Chi Wing Shing Tong (祺永盛堂) (AI). Money Loan Associations These are described by Dyer Ball in the various editions of his Things Chinese and, with more local application, by G. N. Orme in Appendix E to his "Report on the New Territories, 1899-1912” (see the Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers for 1912). A few of the Shek Pik papers directly concern these associations and in others they figure indirectly. For the three money associations for which some details are available, the following facts may be noted: 1. The number of participants was small (16, 13 and 9), although the village was comparatively large. 2. Membership was not restricted to one clan or even to the members of the village. In the thirteen-member association, eleven villagers came from five different clans, and the remaining two members were outsiders. This suggests that the groups were formed on the basis of acquaintance and a mutual and contemporaneous need for funds — ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1965 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s752cj653 NOTES AND QUERIES 123 happened recently at Tong Fuk on Lantau Island, a multi-clan Cantonese village with a population of 198 at the Hong Kong Census of 1911. Its present population is about the same number. In 1958 the scheme to build a new reservoir at Shek Pik was confirmed and work went ahead on the dam and associated works. Behind Tong Fuk there were to be catchwaters for which an access road had to be constructed to the west of the village. This led to difficulties with the villagers, because in feng shui ideology the place was held to be the seat of the White Tiger. They therefore requested a ceremony known locally as a tun fu (符) — to propitiate the gods and spirits who would, as they thought, be aroused by digging earth and blasting stones in this particular place. Precedents were cited by the village elders. They said they had carried out such a ceremony thirty-five years before, following several unexpected deaths in the village. The inhabitants had worshipped at the Hung Shing (廟) temple on the beach nearby, praying for the removal of the malignant influence. It transpired that a villager had cut stone from this particular spot to build a house. The elders then invited a Taoist priest — a Hakka — to come from one of the neighbouring villages to carry out the propitiatory observances usually made under such circumstances. They also said that a similar ceremony had also been conducted twenty years before in the adjoining Cantonese village of Shui Hau, this time by a priest engaged from the urban area. Deaths had also occurred there and had been traced to one of the villagers having constructed a cowshed in front of his house on ground with feng shui properties. Returning to the 1958 case, the elders proposed to call in the services of the nephew of the priest who had supervised the ceremony thirty-five years before. He was a man of forty years of age who had followed in his uncle's footsteps. Such persons are known locally as feng shui hsien sheng (風水先生). This ceremony was supposed to cause considerable inconvenience for the villagers, in theory if not in practice. One week of vegetable diet was obligatory for all and there was also a three-day prohibition on entering and leaving the village: that is, if the ceremony was to realize its full value. This meant that no cows could be grazed or grass or firewood cut on the hills; nor, presumably, could men go out to work in the fields. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 32 HUGH D. R. BAKER able foodstuffs. On a more speculative level, however, it is worthy of note that relics of an old market called Kak Chun Hui7% are still turned up by the plough near Hang Tau Tsuen." Apparently this market disappeared some 300 years ago, possibly with the original rise of Shek Wu Hui. It is close to the Hau villages of Ho Sheung Heung and Yin Kong, and may have been controlled by them, in which case its demise may have been the result of rivalry between the Haus and the Lius. Obviously, with high rents coming in from markets, the two clans would have had reason to try to monopolise local buying and selling. In general, land-holdings may be equated with wealth. The possession of wealth meant changes in the life of a lineage. The leadership based on the age-hierarchy tended to lose its importance when there were wealthy men in the village, and this seems to have been the case in the five clans. With unequal wealth in a lineage, one or two men must be thrown up who are clearly richer than the rest, and it was these men who assumed unofficial leadership in the group. This situation has been dealt with at some length before and need not be gone into here:78 but it is worth stating that at the present time the leadership in lineage villages is of exactly the same kind. The age-hierarchy leadership still exists formally, but the actual leadership rests with men who are educated, and wealthy and powerful in their own right—though now they are dignified with an official title, 'Village Representative',79 by the British Government. A wealthy lineage could afford to educate its sons, and in nearly all of the villages of the five clans tutorial schools were run. Frequently these would be held in the ancestral halls, but some villages had special school-rooms-cum-libraries built, and these survive to the present day in Fan Ling, Kam Tin, Tai Po Tau, Lung Kwat Tau and several other places. Education was a means to consolidate wealth, for it was through education that men could enter official life up the steep path of the examination system. A scholar-official was in a position not only to make money, but also to advance the interests of his kin through his contacts with other officials. All the five clans have produced scholars, some of whom became officials, the Tangs being particularly noteworthy in this respect—a fact which accords well with their having superior wealth. During recent years the clans have ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 36 HUGH D. R. BAKER one's own lineage or clan, nor indeed from any of the other four clans, I think. Descendants of these people still live amongst the master clans, though their servitude ended in most places shortly before the Second World War.89 Thus, single-lineage settlements often contained more than one surname due to this system, the Sai Man sometimes now constituting quite a high proportion of the total as is the case in the Hau village of Ping Kong, for instance, but politically the Sai Man were not to be reckoned with, and I was told, “As with women, we don't count them." Nowadays, however, they tend to be treated as near-equals by members of the master-lineages, certainly as superior to other outsiders. For instance, Sai Man descendants surnamed Lam still live in Sheung Shui, and their children attend a private kindergarten run by the Lius at the same reduced fees which Liu children pay; in fact, they do not count as 'outsiders', who have to pay the full fee. In the Mung Yeung School at Kam Tin, the list of subscribers to the fund raised to found the school includes one man of the surname Sham,92 a descendant of a Sai Man family of Kam Tin, who has become wealthy.93 In Ping Kong, as noted above, many Sai Man descendants are still living; but yet other descendants of these people in the various villages have removed out of the villages of their ancestors' degradation now that they are free to do so. Near the town of Shek Wu Hui there is a small village started some years ago by such Sai Man descendants of the surname Chiu.94 Finally, in our discussion of the effects of landed wealth, we may point out that it has made a difference to the adaptability of the five clans to recently developed ways of acquiring money. For several generations now, smaller lineages and mixed-lineage villages have been sending men overseas on a large scale, and amassing a great deal of money, which is invested in better housing and sometimes in urban business ventures. Already wealthy, the five clans did not feel the need to indulge in this kind of enterprise on a large scale, and only since the 1950's have they succumbed to the lure of the easy money to be earned in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other overseas territories. Particularly since the Communist victory on the Mainland, agriculture has been hard hit in the New Territories. Pigs and chickens cannot be raised to sell at a competitive price with ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 THE FIVE GREAT CLANS 45 63 Ibid., In fact there was a second geomancer (of the eighth generation) cooperating in this plan, 64 松柏朗 65 Grant, op. cit., figs. VI(e) and (f). These figures also point to one of the mysteries of the New Territories—the settlement of the very rich upper half of the Lam Tsuen Valley by Hakka lineages, a phenomenon which denies the usual pattern of Punti monopoly of first-class land. 66 Ibid., fig. IV(a). 67 Ibid., fig. I(c), and p. 2. For a map see K.M.A. Barnett, "Hong Kong before the Chinese” in JHKBRAS, Vol. 4, 1964. 68. This moribund market was revived in 1925, and has thriven since 1949. 69 元朗儅爐. 70 大埔舊墟 71 See Robert G. Groves, “The Origins of Two Market Towns in the New Territories" in Aspects of Social Organisation in the New Territories, HKBRAS, Hong Kong, 1965, p. 17. 72 Ibid., p. 18. 73 For a brilliantly worked out study of marketing systems of this sort see G. William Skinner, “Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China” in The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. XXIV, Nos. 1-3, 1964-5. 74 For some other ways in which they made the markets pay, see Groves, op. cit., page 18. 75 See J. W. Hayes, "The Pattern of Life in the New Territories in 1898", JHKBRAS, Vol. 2, 1962, for an incomplete list of markets operative at the time. Sha Tau Kok and Shek Wu Hui are notable omissions. 76. 77 坑頭村- 78 See, for example, Freedman, op. cit., pp. 66ff, 79***. But they are often more in the nature of 'leaders' than 'representatives', a fact which is recognised in the title by which the villagers more commonly address them HE. 80 The festival of Chung Yeung. 81 Called ch'i l'ong. 82 荃灣. 83 See J. M. Potter, Ping Shan: the Changing Economy of a Chinese Village in Hong Kong, micro-filmed thesis for the degree of Ph.D. at the University of California at Berkeley, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1964. 84 or T. 85 As witness an incident a few years ago in San Tin, where, in an adultery case, a man was condemned by the villagers to drowning in a pig-basket in the pond. Timely intervention by the police was all that saved him, 86 Rightly or wrongly the view persists in the rural areas that no contact with authority is good contact. 87 A. 88 FA. They are mentioned under the name of Sia-wu in Chen Han-seng, Agrarian Problems in Southernmost China, 1936. 89 Quite what brought about the disappearance of this institution is not clear to me. Certainly it was not interference from the Government of Hong Kong, as witness the report by J. Russell dated 18th July 1886 and appended ================================================================================ 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 125 to raising pigs and poultry. His daughter used to go to the vegetable fields at Tai Shek Kwu nearby where, in return for helping others to water their fields, she was given the outer leaves and spoiled vegetables to take home for pig food. Pig rearing, it appears, was as chancy a business in the 19th century as now,21 As a rule, however, the villagers produced crops and produce for the Hong Kong urban populace and for the growing townships in Kowloon itself, such as Yau Ma Ti and Hung Hom. It was fortunate for the village people that the Colony's rapidly increasing urban population required the three basic staples of rice, firewood, and vegetables.22 As Wells Williams wrote in 1883:23 "The supplies of the island are chiefly brought from the mainland where an increasing population of Chinese... find ample demand for all the provisions they can furnish.” The arrival of vegetable boats from Kowloon has for long been a feature of the Hong Kong waterfront. These three staples, then, provided local people with the means to a livelihood; but they also had a wider effect. If they could summon the effort, villagers from further afield could and did share in meeting the urban demand, whilst local charitable and community organisations in Kowloon got part of their income from public weighing scales used for measuring vegetables and firewood destined for Hong Kong. Above all, the staples provided an opportunity for social advancement to those villagers with the necessary talent to exploit the business opportunities offered to them.24 The Colonial Government administered Kowloon with a loose rein. So far as I am aware, there was no seconding of administrators or magistrates there in the 19th century, and the police and other government departments with personnel available in Kowloon seem to have been on call when necessary in emergencies such as a fire, armed robbery, and serious crimes against the person, but were not otherwise obtrusive.25 The government did not see fit to appoint district officers to look after the people, as it was to do later in the New Territories. The advantages of doing so were suggested by a Land Commission in 1886, but never acted upon.26 In consequence, the internal management of these villages appears to have been much the same in Old Kowloon as it was ================================================================================ 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 131 example of a local boy making good, whilst his public activities demonstrate the sustained zeal to perform charitable works that continues to typify leading members of the Chinese community of Hong Kong to this day. Farming was not for him. When in his twenties he set up a general store in Yau Ma Ti where his elder brother was already running a wholesale vegetable business. Very soon he turned his energies in other directions and established two cross-harbour ferry services with steam launches running from Yau Ma Ti and Mong Kok. At the same time he also went into the confectionery and soft-drink business in Hong Kong. These activities prospered to such an extent that whilst still in his thirties they enabled him to undertake public affairs. He served on the Yau Ma Ti Kaifong for many years and, up to the time of its removal, he was also the leading manager of the Tai Shek Kwu Temple which, as you will recall, was a particular concern of his own village of Mong Kok and the adjoining rural settlements. In 1917 he became founder President of the Kowloon branch of the Hong Kong Confucian Society and two years later he was appointed a director of one of Hong Kong's oldest charitable institutions, the Po Leung Kuk. These appointments mark the summit of his career. He responded to the traditional Chinese concern for his family ties and background by founding the Wong Clansmen's Association of Hong Kong in 1925, and when the universal flood disasters of 1924 affected his family's home district of Wai Yeung he had become founder President of the Wai Yeung Relief Association and was responsible for raising the then considerable sum of $9,000 to help flood victims there. He was also president of the Chinese Steamboat Association for some time.45 With its varied activities his career is a useful reminder that a person can be involved in various public capacities at one and the same time. The various community and welfare groups which characterised Hong Kong society at this time and later were operated on a complementary basis and not one of exclusion. As in his case the strands of village, town, business, family and district are all interwoven to form the traditional pattern of Chinese charitable activities. Finally, I wish to touch on another aspect of village and town life in Old Kowloon. Because of its proximity to Hong Kong, where a variety of religious bodies from the West established ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 62 L. G. AIJMER Illegal immigration in the countries of Southeast Asia and elsewhere seems to have been rather difficult in the post-war period. With regard to legal immigration, people from the New Territories have one advantage in their competition with the crowds of recent immigrants from China. A Hong Kong Chinese who can prove that he was born in the Colony is able to claim British nationality. In the 1950s, an increasing number of New Territories residents left Hong Kong to seek employment in Great Britain. This movement reached a peak during 1961-62 when at least 2,270 people are known to have left for work in Britain. Most of these emigrants take up jobs in the restaurant trade. The Chinese-style restaurants in Britain have boomed since 1957, at which period some 50 establishments are said to have existed in the whole country, whereas the corresponding figure today is differently estimated between 1,000 and 2,000. It is said that pre-war London had only about eight or nine Chinese restaurants, but at the present time the number in the capital city may be some 300. The Hong Kong Chinese in Great Britain are now supposed to exceed 30,000 and the whole Chinese community there is estimated at about 45,000. The main part of the Hong Kong Chinese are from villages in the New Territories.33 Nearly all young and middle-aged men in the area of study have left their home communities and are now working in Britain. This absence of grown men is one of the most striking features of all Hakka villages in this particular mountain area. The village scene is completely dominated by women of all ages and small children not yet in their teens. Old men are found there, but generally they seem to prefer an indoor life. Sometimes one may meet a young man on an occasional visit to his home village. Agricultural work is entirely carried out by the women. At harvest, the children assist. A few of the old men, however, also work in their fields; one is a non-emigrant in Plum Grove Village who has devoted all his life to farming, the two others are masons in Grass Field Village, who work their fields when the masonry trade is not so good. It is difficult to estimate the efficiency of the women in their work in the fields, as compared with that of men. Some elderly men do not think too much of woman-labour, but on the other hand, Hakka women have traditionally taken part in all kinds of agricultural activities, and their toil in the fields is no innovation.34 What is certain is that during this last ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g LAND AND LEADERSHIP IN THE H.K. REGION OF KWANGTUNG 99 finality, that he managed all the important affairs of the group of villages over which he exercised a personal influence; and I have already mentioned the impressive bearing of Kung Fong-chai's nephew. Yet there is a paradox. Despite the drive and ability which removed them from ordinary villagers by many degrees, these three persons were otherwise very close to them. They came from the same farming stock, had many kinsfolk among them, and had been brought up and educated together with them in the same place. They all had village wives who had been chosen for them by their parents in their early manhood in accordance with custom: and though, like most rich men in old China, they may have taken concubines later on they do not seem to have gone outside the island for them. Moreover they lived in ordinary village houses which were scarcely different in size or outward appearance from those of other villagers. Perhaps because of these ties they appear to have made good landlords, whether through fear of family and local opinion or because they were so close to a farming life and stemmed directly from farming stock. My fourth point concerns land as a decisive factor in local leadership. Land played a major part in the emergence of these three men. One factor common to all three is that it appears to have been essential to build up an estate in order, through receipt of rents, to obtain the funds needed to become a substantial money-lender*. Once the capital sufficient to embark on this course was acquired it seems to have been comparatively easy to profit by the desires, needs or misfortunes of others. Many mortgages led to eventual ownership by the money lender, who could also purchase land with the proceeds received from his interest loans. Yet these men were not large landowners and their holdings were very small by comparison with the total areas of cultivated land in the various localities. At Shek Pik, for instance, the Kung family owned only eight acres out of a total of 180.17 What was important, then, was not so much the size of the estate as the fact that the average villager's holding was much less. Once possessed of land and capital one was in a position to act as a man of affairs when setting out, or being called upon, to become one. * Rents were usually paid in kind locally but could thereafter be converted into cash. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 102 JAMES HAYES 2 This figure is given in the table at p. 145 in Sessional Papers, i.e. Papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, for 1906 (Hong Kong, Noronha & Co., Government Printers) included in "New Territories: Land Court, Report on Work from 1900 to 1905". The figure is for all private lots demarcated, and includes house lots as well as agricultural land. 3 Colony Census of 1911 in Sessional Papers 1911, pp. 103 (22, 26 and 37-38). 4 See Extracts from a Report by Mr. Stewart Lockhart on the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong in The Hong Kong Government Gazette, 8 April 1899 at p. 541. Also Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (JHKBRAS), Vol. 3 (1963), pp. 144-145 and Vol. 4 (1964), pp. 146-150. 5 This information is based on my own extensive enquiries in the Hong Kong region. They corroborate the usual accounts given in many books, among them E. T. Williams, China Yesterday and Today (London etc., Harrap & Co., 1923) pp. 118-136, Chapter VI, "The Village Republic" and E. T. C. Werner, China of the Chinese (London, Sir Isaac Pitman & Sons, 1920), pp. 161-165, "Local Government”. 6 See p. 12 and notes 15-17 of my "The Settlement and Development of a Multiple-Clan Village" (Shek Pik on Lantau Island) in Aspects of Social Organisation in the New Territories (Hong Kong, Hong Kong Branch of Royal Asiatic Society, n.d. but 1965), 7 See also my note "Village Credit at Shek Pik, 1879-1895" in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch, Royal Asiatic Society, No. 5 (1965), pp. 119-122, for interest rates of 50% of principal per annum, simple interest, from a money loaning Tong in the same area. This Tong's varied means of doing business are paralleled in the surviving papers showing Cheung Kwong-chuen's agreements with local farmers, * See Ping-ti Ho, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China, Aspects of Social Mobility, 1368-1911 (New York, Columbia University Press, 1962), pp. 33-38, "It would not be an exaggeration to say that in Ch'ing times practically anybody who could afford a little over 100 taels could obtain the chien-sheng title and the right to wear the scholar's gown and cap", p. 34. * For more details of the area see my article "A Mixed Community of Cantonese and Hakka on Lantau Island" in Aspects of Social Organisation in the New Territories, cited at note 6 above. 10 His name heads the list of twenty-six persons who presented a commemorative red and gilt board on the occasion of the last major repair to the Tin Hau temple at Ham Tin, Pui O dated the equivalent of 15 January 13 February 1915. 11 For a brief account of this village see the article referred to in note 6 above. 12 The Census of 1911 lists 5,694 Cantonese and only 944 Hakka out of an estimated land population of 6,710. See Sessional Papers 1911, p. 103 (22). I have my suspicions about the Hakka figure but have not yet counter-checked by other means. For alleged Cantonese domination see inter alia K. M. A. Barnett, "The Peoples of the New Territories" in J. M. Braga (ed) The Hong Kong Business Symposium (Hong Kong, South China Morning Post, 1957), pp. 261-265, and G. N. Orme's "Report on the New Territories 1899-1912" in Sessional Papers 1912, p. 44 where he says that the imposition of British rule led to the freeing of the neighbours of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g 宋官富行官遺址全圖 THE TRAVELLING PALACE OF SOUTHERN SUNG IN KOWLOON KUAN FU WITH L COMELLAN LIMETESTY (10) REFERENCES PERWER SEA PREDO SIA DECLAMER LÁNG FORMER VILLAGE $ CALE KECI PROPET NA JHOM PLAY GROUND LUNC TO KWA WAN VILLAGE LANDING MACE SACRED HILL SUNG WONG TOI ROCK XIAO Fur SHEK TAM KUNG VEH MA HILL KAM FOU VAN GRAVE TAU EHEME VILLAGE MA TAU KOM VILLAGE YI WONG TIEN VILLAGE YE WONG TIEN HILL KUAN MOUNTAIN MA TAU WEL VILLAGE SHANG-TI ANCIENT DEMONS WONG TEMPLE KOWLOON TSAL WALL CHT PAK HER SHANIYU SIN NGANJ HAU TI TARDEN IN COURTEST AN A NEW KING GOVERNMENT 啟德機懾 PLENARI JAD JA TAR AIKKA LOW.ALINAN FLARE FICU Plate 12. Map to illustrate Mr Jen Yu-wen's article "The Travelling Palace of Southern Sung in Kowloon" between pp. 21 & 38 "Romand Road" to the immediate right of the number 12 above is taken from a Chinese-English map, and should read "Lomond Road" ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 82 FAN LAU AND ITS FORT: AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ARMANDO M. DA SILVA* Site and Situation Fan Lau is located at the extreme southwestern tip of Tai Yu Shan or Lantau Island. It is almost equal in distance from Hong-kong and Macau and it is situated about twenty-five miles due east of the latter. Fan Lau can be reached by sampan or fishing boat either from the market towns of Cheung Chau or Tai O, or by walking along the water catchment from Shek Pik reservoir to a point above and beyond Kau Ling Chung, and then by descending a steep stony path towards the settlement. Another route is to strike out from Tai O, taking the coastal footpath through Yi O, and thence to Fan Lau. There is no motor road to Fan Lau. The area of Fan Lau includes a headland known as Kai Yik Kok (†) meaning "chicken wing point" where an old fort is located (see map 1).† The high point of the Kai Yik Kok promontory rises to about 380 feet above sea level. In the north of this headland lies the cultivated waist of Fan Lau where a small settlement is located. Looming above the settlement is Kai Yik Shan1 from which two streams supply irrigation water to the padi fields. Two fine beaches, Tung Wan and Sai Wan, flank the waist of the peninsula. Tung Wan, though exposed to prevailing easterly winds and a long fetch from the village, can accommodate deep-draught junks. The actual territory associated with the village extends beyond the physical boundaries of the settlement. Fan Lau villagers, for example, cultivate fields located in Tsin Yue Wan (see map 1) and records show that, at least in 1904, padi fields in Kau Ling Chung (since abandoned) were also cultivated. Situated at the entrance of the Chu Kong or Pearl River estuary, Fan Lau enjoyed a strategic location in the past. This position was reflected in the construction of numerous forts and guard stations * Mr. da Silva has a Master's degree from the University of California at Berkeley and is at present with the Department of Geography, University of Hawaii. † Maps 1-4 are located at pp. 92-95. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d 88 ARMANDO M. DA SILVA A legend has grown up around this man, and most coastal Tin Hau temples today claim association with him. According to local tradition, Cheung was a lavish patron of the seafarer's temples which, in turn, probably supplied him with shipping intelligence. This pirate was reputed also to have constructed a number of forts, in reality armed camps, and village tradition has it that the Kai Yik Kok fort was once occupied by Cheung's men. There are reasons to believe this may be so. In 1809 a strong Chinese government fleet, assisted by six Portuguese lorchas11 from Macau on loan to the government, ambushed Cheung's pirate fleet at Tung Chung bay12. Cheung fought his way out of this trap only to surrender to the government after he had received peace overtures from the Provincial Governor. In the grand Chinese tradition of rewarding enemy defectors, Cheung was promptly made a paid government official and installed as chief customs collector in Macau. If Cheung's fleet was able to assemble at Tung Chung bay, which was dominated by a much larger fort, it follows that Cheung may have also controlled the second, but smaller, Tai Yu Shan fort at Fan Lau. In 1815 the Chinese government, alarmed at the presence of foreign opium boats in the Chu Kong estuary, again began fortifying the coast. Existing forts were strengthened and new coastal strong points were constructed as part of a design to establish full and total control over the estuary. The fort at Fan Lau appears on a contemporary coastal defence map of the Chu Kong estuary. This map, in the 1864 edition of the Kwong Tung Tung Chi, was drawn in 1821 or 1822. The Fan Lau fort was conspicuous enough to warrant a brief mention in the sailing directions of a foreign commercial guide on China published after Hong Kong was founded. The relevant passage reads, "Lantau, the largest island in the estuary below the Bogue is about 15 miles long and 5 in its greatest breadth; its peak is about 3000 feet high, and is the loftiest summit in this region, but foreigners have never been to the top. It has several villages on its shore, and a fort, called Shek Sun pau toi ☎✯✯✯ on its S.E. side. The village Tyho on its eastern shore* has given name to the whole island on our charts, but it is usually called Tai Yu Shan. * The compiler was evidently confused between E. and W., as Shek Sun and Tai O (Tyho) are at the west end of Lantau. Ed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d FAN LAU AND ITS FORT 91 11 A lorcha is a specialized fighting craft from Macau that combined a Western-style hull (for speed and maneuverability) with Chinese batten sails and rigging (for easier sail-handling and disguise). 12 Charles F. Neumann, History of the Pirates (š), who infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810, (London, John Murray, 1831) P. 58. 13 J. R. Morrison, A Chinese Commercial Guide (Canton, Office of the Chinese Repository, 1848) pp. 70-71. 14 The Last Year in China to the Peace of Nanking as sketched in Letters to his Friends by a Field Officer actively employed in that Country (2nd edition, revised, London, Longman, Brown, Green and Longmans 1843) pp. 51-52. 15 There is, in addition, the possibility that the fort had a temporary garrison in 1834 see the imperial directive given respecting defence and patrolling at Lantau and Macao quoted by J. L. Cranmer-Byng in his brief note "An old fort at Tung Chung on Lantao Island” in J.H.K.B.R.A.S. Vol 3 (1963) pp. 144-145. 16 Hong Kong Government. New Territories Administration. Block Crown Lease Demarcation Districts 322 and 327, Shek Sun village, Lantau Island. BIBLIOGRAPHY CITED J. J. L. Duyvendak, "Sailing directions of Chinese voyages", T'oung Pao vol. 34 (1938), pp. 230-237, "The true dates of the Chinese maritime expeditions in the early fifteenth century", T'oung Pao vol. 34 (1938), pp. 341-412. Luis B. Gomes, Monografia de Macau, Macau, 1951. Hongkong Government. A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hongkong, Kowloon, and the New Territories, Hongkong, 1960. Lo Hsing-lin, Hongkong and its External Communications before 1842. Hongkong, 1963. J. R. Morrison, A Chinese Commercial Guide, Canton, 1848. Charles F. Neumann, The History of the Pirates who infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810, translated from the Chinese original, London, 1831. Ch'ing dynasty work: Chinese Sources Mo Pei Chi (AA) A.D. 1621 The provincial Gazetteer of Kwangtung: Kwong Tung Tung Chi (♬✯ ih sk) 1864 edition The District Gazetteers for the following: San On Yuen Chi (%) 1819 edition Tung Kwun Yuen Chi ✯✯✯) 1797 edition Heung Shan Yuen Chi (3) 1827 edition O Mun Kei Leuk (39 1932) 1800 edition ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d # CONTENTS ## PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1968 ## HON. TREASURER'S REPORT FOR 1968 ## TRANSACTIONS OF THE BRANCH 1968 ## Chinese Unofficial Members of the Legislative and Executive Councils in Hong Kong up to 1941 ### T. C. CHENG ## ARTICLES CONTRIBUTED: ### Y ### Militia, Market and Lineage: Chinese Resistance to the Occupation of Hong Kong's New Territories in 1899 #### R. G. GROVES ### Tung Kwu Island; the Type Site of Hong Kong's Older Prehistoric Culture #### W. SCHOFIELD Page 1 Page 5 Page 7 Page 31 Page 65 ### King Mongkut and the Kingdom of Siam #### R. BRUCE ### The Linguistic and Literary Value of Ming Dynasty 'Mountain Songs' #### JOHN MCCOY ### The Chinese Descent System and the Occupancy Level of Village Houses #### H. G. H. NELSON ### Some Notes on Ethno-botany in the New Territories of Hong Kong #### ARMANDO DA SILVA ### The Mapping of Hong Kong #### J. T. COOPER Page 82 Page 101 Page 113 Page 124 Page 131 ## ARTICLE REPRINTED: ### The San On Map of Mgr. Volontieri #### RONALD C. Y. NG Page 141 ## NOTES AND QUERIES: ### Bethesda and the Berliner Frauenverein Für China #### ALBRECHT PLAG ### The Comet of 1532 — #### L. Carrington GOODRICH ### What Inspired Sir John Bowring's Hymn? #### L. CARRINGTON GOODRICH ### Books from the Victoria Library — #### H. A. RYDINGS ### Early Hong Kong Libraries #### J. R. JONES Page 149 Page 150 Page 151 Page 152 Page 154 Page 154 ### Defence Wall at Pass between Kowloon City and Kowloon Tsai — #### W. SCHOFIELD ### Removal of Villages for Fung Shui Reasons. Another Example from Lantau Island, Hong Kong #### JAMES HAYES ### The Occupancy Level of Village Houses in the Hong Kong Region #### JAMES HAYES ### A Pair of Pottery Covered Jars found at Shek Pik, Lantau Island #### JAMES C. Y. WATT ## BOOK REVIEWS ### Kelly and Walsh ## THE LIBRARY, 1968-69 ## LIST OF MEMBERS ### HON. EDITOR Page 156 Page 158 Page 161 Page 163 Page 165 Page 179 Page 183 ================================================================================ 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 57 as leaders during the fighting. Ten of the 63 leaders are identi-fiable as members of the gentry, in the sense that they are men-tioned in the documents as having degrees obtained either by purchase or by examination. examination. Most of the remainder could be termed 'local notables'. Some were substantial owners of agricul-tural land and village houses. Other owned shops in their local markets. It is probable that they were often --as was Man Cham-tsun managers of corporately-owned lineage property. The available information about these men is summarized below. — Table II LEADERS IN THE RESISTANCE MOVEMENT (By Marketing area, District & Village, Surname)* Marketing area District, or other Association of sharing gradu-ates Village, or Surnames No. No. of leaders Yuen Long 5+ Ha Tsuen Tang 12 2 Ping Shan Tang 11 1 Kam Tin Tang 10 2 Pat Heung Tang 2 Li 1 Lai 1 Tse 1 1. +3 15 Shap Pat Heung Chu 1 Ng 2 2 15 Tai Po Tun Mun Ts'at Yeuk Tang 1 Lo 1 Tai Hang Man 3 1 71 Pan Chung Chan 1 Mak 1 - * +3 + ++ 7 ** Fan Leng Pang 1 Sha Lo Tung Li 2 " ** * * 2 Cheung Shue Tan Chan 1 7: * H 3. Hang Ha Po Lam 1 Tai Po Tau Tang * Shek Wu Hui Lung Yeuk Tau Tang I ++ +1 Sheung Shui Liu 1 Ping Kong Hau 2 1 ** Sha Tau Kok Sham Chun Wo Hang San Tin Li 4 Man 1 * All romanisations are in Cantonese. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 156 NOTES AND QUERIES or gingall. That on the right is badly placed; its view is obstructed by a great rock, which possibly was not there when the wall was built. Other loopholes are set at intervals of 12 feet in the wall all along, and are very roughly and crudely made and badly placed. Only one or two command the path in fact. Immediately beside the stair leading to the gate platform once stood a small guard house, fragments of the red tiles of which can still be seen. The lines of its east and north walls (of ‘chunam') can still be traced. A fragment of an earthenware bowl embedded in decomposed granite was seen, and other fragments of pottery were seen on the ground. The East wall is about 12 feet long; the other say 6 feet. The South wall foundation of the guard house, of stone, is in place. WALTER SCHOFIELD REMOVAL OF VILLAGES FOR FUNG SHUI REASONS: ANOTHER EXAMPLE FROM LANTAU ISLAND, HONG KONG The 1963 Journal included notices of village removals for which Fung Shui reasons were given by those concerned.* These instances were all taken from South Lantau Island in the Hong Kong region of South Kwangtung. Yet another example from this area has recently come to my notice. It was unsuspected by me until a planned walk over the old coastal track led me to make enquiries locally about some ruined houses that lay beside it. After centuries of use this footpath was replaced in 1956 by a motor road on a different route. The removal of the village took place about sixteen years before the new road made the old track redundant. The two events were therefore not connected in any way. The village was the Hakka settlement of Shan Shek Wan (*) which had 19 houses at the time the Hong Kong Government surveyed the settlement shortly after the lease of the New *JHKBRAS, Vol.3(1963) pp.143-144. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d NOTES AND QUERIES 161 A PAIR OF POTTERY COVERED JARS FOUND AT SHEK PIK, LANTAU ISLAND The Shek Pik area in the south-western corner of Lantau Island has yielded archaeological finds of more varied interest than any other area in Hong Kong. Before the construction of the reservoir in the valley (1958-62), it was mainly known by the neolithic sites on the raised beach which W. Schofield excavated in the thirties. During and since the building of the reservoir various archaeological finds of comparatively recent periods have been made. The latest of these finds is a pair of earthenware jars with identical blue and white porcelain bowls as covers. They were discovered in February 1968 and February 1969 by James Hayes who had reported all post-war archaeological finds at Shek Pik†. Both pairs of jar and bowl were broken when discovered and the first pair has now been restored by the City Museum and Art Gallery (see Plates 19 and 20). These jars and bowls were located on a sloping hillside west of the former village of Shek Pik Wai (abandoned before the War for sites a few hundred yards lower down the valley). The area had been scoured by bulldozers for 'fill' for the dam and the jars were found in an exposed bank. This was, in fact, the site of the earlier discoveries reported by Hayes. Though located less than a foot away from each other and each about two feet from the surface, the pots were discovered singly as progressive eroding of the bank by rain brought them to light. Mr. WAN On (溫安) of Pui O, South Lantau was with Mr. Hayes on both occasions. The porcelain bowls are the first known pieces of Ming blue and white porcelain reported in Hong Kong, at any rate since the War, although they are a type of trade porcelain which is commonly found in the Philippines and in Indonesia. The bowls have fairly straight slanting sides and high foot-rims. They are decorated on the outside with vertical fern leaves (sometimes identified as plantain leaves) with wavy edges and with a band of floral design round the mouth rim. On the inside they are decorated with a double ring near the mouth and with a lotus flower within a circle in the centre. The lotus flower (Sanskrit padma) is one of the "eight glorious emblems" in Buddhist art † See reference to this article at p. 73 of this issue. Ed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 210 BOOK REVIEWS by prolonged contact with the urban environment. Excellent material for comparison with the Plover Cove situation exists in the Tai Lam Chung (1956) and Shek Pik (1960) removals. Like the Plover Cove villages, they were agricultural villages which were removed to urban Tsuen Wan to allow the construction of reservoirs. They have been resettled for a number of years, however, and a brief survey of their religious practices would provide the Christian Study Centre with a most interesting supplement to its information on the Plover Cove villages. Hong Kong, 1970. ELIZABETH L. JOHNSON NOTES 1 p. vii of the book under review. 2 More information on this village removal can be found in M. I. Berkowitz, "Plover Cove to Tai Po Market: A Study in Forced Migration." Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Volume 8, 1968, pp. 96-108. 3 p. 142. * V. R. Burkhardt, Chinese Creeds and Customs. 3 vols. Hong Kong: South China Morning Post, 1955, and Wolfram Eberhard, Chinese Festivals. New York: Henry Shuman, 1952. 3 p. 100. 6 Ibid. 7 Ibid. 8 Ibid. 9 See, for example, pp. 14-15, 116-117. TRADITIONAL CHINESE PLAYS, translated, described and annotated by A.C. Scott, Ssu Lang visits his mother, Ssu Lang T’an Mu, The Butterfly Dream, Hu Tieh Meng, The University of Wisconsin Press, 1967, Madison, Milwaukee, and London, pp. ix, 165, 13 photos hors-texte. A. C. Scott, the best Western specialist of Chinese and Japanese theatre, here gives us a translation of two Peking operas. The first, Ssu Lang visits his mother, is a tragedy which takes place in the second half of the tenth century, under the reign of the Sung. The son of a famous general has been taken prisoner by the barbarians, but, because of his fine looks, he is married ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1970 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ww72j0241 222 GUILLAUME, Baron P. de HADDOW, Dr. I. F. G.. HAFFNER, C. HALL, Miss J. Flat 5, Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. Unknown. Spence Robinson Architects, The Atelier, Broadwood Road, H.K. c/o Colonial Secretariat, Room 514, H.K. HALLWARD, Miss C. L. J. c/o St. Stephens Girls' College, Lyttelton HAMILTON, Bill G.--. HARDEN, Mrs, G. T., Jr.* - HARRISON, Prof. B. HARTWELL, Sir Charles HARTWELL, Lady HAYDON, E. S. HAYES, J. W. HAYIM, E. J.* HAYWARD, G, W. HECHTEL, F. O. P. - HENSMAN, Prof. Bertha HERRIES, M. A. R. - - - Road, H.K. 13768 Hower Drive, Saratoga, Calif. 95070, US.A. 15 Shek O, H.K. c/o Dept. of History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, Canada, c/o Public Service Commission, Central Government Offices, H.K. As above. c/o The Supreme Court, H.K. c/o The Colonial Secretariat, H.K. 41, Island Road, Deep Water Bay, H.K. c/o British Embassy, Kastelsvej 38-40, Copenhagen. 10 Branksome Towers, May Road, H.K. c/o St. Anne's College, Oxford, England. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., H.K. d'HESTROY, Baron P. de G. The Belgian Embassy, 1653 Galle Viamonte, HILL, D. A. HILSDALE, Mrs. E. P. · HỌ, Mrs. Hung-chiu HO, Teh-kuei. HO, Tickon* - HOCHSTADTER, Dr. W. HODGE, Peter HOGAN, Sir Michael - T - Buenos Aires, Argentina. 1633 Compton Road, Cleveland, Ohio 44118, U.S.A. 2762 Woodshire Drive, Los Angeles, Calif. 90028, U.S.A. 11, Briar Avenue, First Floor, H.K. Lakeside Building, 13th Floor, B, 259 Gloucester Road, H.K, 50, Village Road, Ground Floor, Happy Valley, H.K. 9, Cambridge Road, 1st Floor, Kowloon. c/o Dept. of Social Work, University of Hong Kong, H.K. Unknown, * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g CHINESE ELITE IN HONG KONG 87 Only a few were able to survive the perils of the business. They were not accustomed to building in the Western style and therefore often underestimated on contracts, resulting in their bankruptcy. In 1844 the Land Officer comments that "almost all contracts hitherto entered into with Chinamen have been obliged to be finished by Government, for the works were taken at far too low an estimate, and the consequence was, when the parties found they would become losers, both contractor and security decamped, and in some instances they were imprisoned."16 One of the few contractors who did survive in this early period of Hong Kong's history was Tam Achoy †, alias Tam Sam Tshoy, alias Tam Shek Tsun, although he too almost went into prison for debt, escaping only through the generosity of his creditor. Achoy was generally recognized as the most prominent leader of the Chinese community when an élite was first beginning to emerge out of the hodgepodge of shopkeepers, craftsmen and traders. We have noted that he and Loo Aqui built the Man-Mo Temple where they performed in part the traditional role of village elder. He was also Trustee for the I Ts'z Temple in Taipingshan (1851) and the Temple in Queen's Road East at Wanchai (1869). In 1847 the Colonial Treasury had on deposit £185.16.8 from Tam Achoy for erecting a Chinese School in the Sheung Wan (Lower Bazaar). Achoy had come to Hong Kong at its foundation in 1841, having been formerly a foreman in the Government Dockyard at Singapore. He was granted a certificate for the easternmost of the lots in the Lower Bazaar, and soon began to buy up the interests of the adjacent property owners until he had acquired an extensive sea frontage. He built some of Hong Kong's most prestigious early buildings such as the P. and O. Building and the Exchange Building, which was bought by Government and used for many years as the Supreme Court Building. With the accumulation of increasing capital he began to broaden his interests and secured permission from Government to build and operate a market. This was a most profitable venture and when the Lower Bazaar was destroyed in the Christmas fire of 1852, he soon rebuilt it, operating it under his firm's name, Kwong Yuen. During the period after 1848, when Hong Kong became a port of embarkation for thousands of emigrants, Achoy was ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g NOTES AND QUERIES + + + 201 Sha Wan villages about also remembers them. When I asked these ladies whether the charcoal burners were village people or outsiders, their reply was typical, and to the effect 'they weren't from our villages and probably not from adjacent ones either, but we didn't go near them to ask.' I have seen the Lantau and Lamma pits only, all linked with charcoal burning by the local people. The kilns, or rather the pits that remain, vary in size. Most are circular and fairly small, about 7 to 8 feet in diameter and a few feet deep at the present time. One of the Lamma pits, near Mau Tat, styled as ‘a big kiln' by the old village person mentioned above, is larger, being 15 feet across. Its earth walls are smooth and impregnated with tell-tale carbon. All these pits are cut into low banks or into the ground. Perhaps the last kilns to be operated in the Hong Kong area are some near the Shek O Road. According to Hok Tsui and Lan Nai Wan villagers living nearby, these were opened and operated by the Japanese during the war-time occupation of the Colony between 1941-45. They recall passing them and seeing them in operation when on their way to market in Shau Kei Wan, though giving them a wide berth for fear of trouble. Shau Kei Wan people say that the kilns were used to provide fuel for the electric plant at North Point, to which the charcoal was transported on little wooden trucks hauled by local men and women workers engaged by the Japanese. These pits differ from the others in that they are domed, being cut into a high bank. They are apparently very similar, though newer, to those north of the Kowloon hills described over twenty years ago by G. A. C. Herklots in The Hong Kong Countryside (Hong Kong, S.C.M.P. Ltd. 1947). His description is worth quoting in full, though he was not clear whether or not the pits were used for charcoal burning and he had not sought to ask in the villages of the area. "There are some curious dome-shaped holes by the path, one is actually immediately under the path. They are roughly six feet high in the centre and nine feet across. The sides are vertical, the roof domed and the floor space circular. The holes are holes in the ground and their roofs are level with the surface of the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1971 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/z029vt43g 232 GREGORY, Prof. W. G. GUILLAUME, Baron P. de HADDOW, Dr. I. F. G. - HAFFNER, C. HALL, Miss J. - Dept. of Architecture, University of Hong Kong, H.K. Flat 5, Abermor Court, May Road, H.K. Unknown. Spence Robinson Architects, The Atelier, Broadwood Road, H.K. Secretariat for Home Affairs, International Building, H.K. HALLWARD, Miss C. L. J. - c/o St. Stephens Girls' College, Lyttelton Road, H.K. HAMILTON, Bill G. 13768 Hower Drive, Saratoga, Calif. 95070, U.S.A. c/o Dept. of History, University of British Columbia, Vancouver 8, Canada. HARDEN, Mrs. G. T., Jr.* - 15 Shek O, H.K. HARRISON, Prof. B. HARTWELL, Sir Charles HARTWELL, Lady HAYDON, E. S. HAYES, J. W. - HAYIM, E. J.* HAYWARD, G. W. HECHTEL, F. O. P. HENSMAN, Prof. Bertha HERRIES, M. A. R. HICKS, Miss Catherine M. HILSDALE, Mrs. E. P. HO, Mrs. Hungchiu HO, Teh-kuei HO, Tickon* HOCHSTADTER, Dr. W. HODGE, Peter HOLMES, Hon. D. R. - - c/o Public Service Commission, Central Government Offices, H.K. As above. c/o The Supreme Court, H.K. Room 129, Lee Gardens, Hysan Avenue, H.K. 41, Island Road Deep Water Bay, H.K. White Mill End, 5 Granville Road, Sevenoaks TN13 7, England. 10 Branksome Towers, May Road, H.K. c/o St. Anne's College, Oxford, England. c/o Jardine, Matheson & Co., H.K. 2, Ava Mansions, May Road, H.K. 2762 Woodshire Drive, Los Angeles, Calif. 90068, U.S.A. 11, Briar Avenue, First Floor, H.K. Lakeside Building, 13th Floor, B, 259 Gloucester Road, H.K. 50, Village Road Ground Floor, Happy Valley, H.K. 9, Cambridge Road, 1st Floor, Kowloon. c/o Dept. of Social Work, University of Hong Kong, H.K. Secretariat For Home Affairs, International Building, H.K. * Life Member Please notify the Hon. Secretary of any inaccuracy ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1972 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gm80qf99h SIR JAMES HALDANE STEWART LOCKHART 63 On 16 April Lockhart returned to Taipo and in the presence of the General Officer Commanding, Major-General W. J. Gascoigne, and about 500 men, he hoisted the British flag and then read the Order-in-Council and Convention. The territory was now formally occupied. There had been some resistance from the people and from those living in the Sham Chun area. Lockhart had been asked to return to Hong Kong to attend a meeting of the Legislative Council but in a minute to the Governor he stated: 'I have consulted the General Officer Commanding, who thinks it very desirable for many reasons that I should remain here. I am of the same opinion, so propose to remain.'22 Since the situation was still unsettled, the Governor concurred with Lockhart's proposal and Lockhart stayed behind with the troops, accompanying them on a long sweep through the New Territories to make the British presence known. Lockhart and the troops led by Lieutenant-Colonel The O'Gorman pushed on from Taipo on 18 April to Shek Kong; from that village they passed through Kam Tin, Yuen Long, Ping Shan, Sheung Shui, Fanling, and arrived back in Taipo on 27 April. The O'Gorman reported: "To the Honourable J.H. Stewart Lockhart, C.M.G., Colonial Secretary, is due the admirable results that have been attained in the Civil Administration of this Territory during this brief state of turmoil; his measures have been taken with great energy and ability and in a manner that, long experience has shown him, were suitable to the occasion. The result has been a most complete success. Only those on the spot can realise the amount of labour and care he has devoted from early morning to late at night to the discharge of these trying duties. A most hearty co-operation has existed throughout between us and no difference of opinion on any one point has arisen.'23 The Secretary of State, Joseph Chamberlain, in a despatch to the Governor, commented: 'without wishing to undervalue in any way the services rendered by others, it is evident to me that much has been due to the energy of Mr. Lockhart, and to his local knowledge."24 Lockhart remained in the New Territories until July 1899 in order to start the civil administration. The headquarters of the new administration were fixed at Taipo. He was assisted in his task by C.M. Messer, a cadet officer, Ts'oi Yeuk-shan, First Chinese Clerk, and two Chinese assistants. The problems he had to face were at first formidable. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r The Kam Tin Gates Peter Wesley-Smith* Behind the parked tourist buses at Kam Tin, behind the blue-rinsed American ladies and the orderly rows of Japanese camera-clickers and the outstretched palms of Hakka crones, the adventurous visitor will find a plaque on the Kat Hing Wai wall telling the story of the famous pair of gates which adorn the entrance. It is the purpose of this brief article to amplify the few facts engraved on the plaque.1 Kam Tin is the principal settlement of the New Territories Tangs and consists of several separate villages. Kat Hing Wai is the oldest: built in the 15th century it has been reasonably well preserved and is now a major tourist attraction.2 The road from Shek Wu Hui to Yuen Long separates it from Tai Hong Wai, a sister village whose walls have been partly demolished and which boasts no gates. The Hong Kong Government knew little about neighbouring San On in June 1898, when a large slice of the Chinese county was transferred on lease to Great Britain. J. H. Stewart Lockhart was therefore temporarily relieved of his duties as Colonial Secretary and Registrar General and sent on a fact-finding tour as Special Commissioner. During August 1898 he visited various parts of the area and in general was given an "excellent reception" by the inhabitants; but the villagers at Kam Tin were less polite. Unimpressed by the sight of the first steamer ever to navigate their river, they drove away the Commission's chairs and carriers and refused to provide replacements. The elders did not deign to present themselves. A journalist of the time reported that 1,000 villagers, "preceded by vigorously beaten gongs", gave a rousing welcome, "but in place of chin-chins and flowers they came with cries of 'ta' and 'foreign devils.'" Nothing is said here of the rotten eggs that emphasized these cries, but the gates of the village were closed and the Commission could not enter. According to a journal kept of the trip the gates were opened after "a clear explanation" by Stewart Mr. Wesley-Smith is LL.B., B.A., (Adelaide) and Lecturer in Law at the University of Hong Kong. He is currently Editor of the Hong Kong Law Journal. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES: KAM TIN 121 is called Lo Foo Ts'z T'ong (老虎祠堂), Tiger Hall. The floor of the cave is quite smooth with a lot of small stones almost like a mosaic. Though the actual site of the school is not known, old tiles have been found from time to time on the hillside, and one of these can be seen in a house called Cheung Ch'un Yuen (祥泉園) of Shui Tau (水頭) village. In the same house is a flower vase of interest that was dug up on Hong Kong island about 30 years before the British settled there. As mentioned before, four of the "five Yuens" eventually left Kam Tin and founded branches of the Tang family elsewhere, and it has even been said that Yuen Leung, the ancestor of the Kam Tin branch, moved to Mok Ka Tung (莫家洞) near Shek Lung, but this removal is generally attributed to Yuen Leung's daughter-in-law, a princess of Sung dynasty whose story reads almost like a romance. She was a daughter of the Emperor Ko Tsung (高宗) of Sung Dynasty, who before becoming emperor of China was Prince Hong Wong (康王). The Tartars at that time were attacking the North of China, and in the 2nd year of Tsing Hong (靖康) A.D. 1127 they entered the Sung capital, captured the two emperors Fai Tsung (徽宗) and Yam Tsung (欽宗) together with both the mother and wife of Hong Wong, who was himself away in another part of the kingdom fighting the Tartars as he held the appointment of Tin Ha Ping Ma Tai Yuen Sui (天下兵馬大元帥), the commander-in-chief of all the emperor's forces. Hong Wong's little daughter was only ten years old and she was protected by her women servants who fled with her to the South. In the 3rd year of Kin Yim (建炎) A.D. 1129 they arrived in the Kiangsi province where Yuen Leung was district officer of Kung Yuen (贛縣) district. He was very zealous to help the Emperor and had collected together an army of soldiers, with the intention of marching North. Kiangsi was full of the Tartar forces, and the princess found herself surrounded by enemies. One day she saw the Sung flag over the encampment of Yuen Leung's army and she went to him for protection. She stayed with Yuen Leung, moving about with his soldiers, and eventually when he returned to Kam Tin he brought her back with him. He did not know who she was, as the servants had told him only that she was the daughter of a high official in the North. The princess found happiness and security in Kam Tin. She was like a daughter in Yuen Leung's house, helped with the household duties and was quite content. Eventually she revealed ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1973 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8910rj06r 122 SUNG HOK-P'ANG who her father really was, and Yuen Leung was very troubled as to what to do with her. However when she became of marriageable age the elders of the village advised him to marry her to his son Tsz Ming (A) which, as she was quite willing, he did. Meanwhile the fighting between the Tartars and the Sungs had ceased. Peace was made, and Hong Wong had now become the Emperor Ko Tsung, who ordered that enquiries should be made concerning his daughter. All the district officers throughout the Empire were instructed to help and when the official notice was posted up in the vicinity of Kam T’in, Tsz Ming was much frightened at having married the princess without the emperor's permission. But the princess said, “Do not fear. My life was saved by the Tang family and I have willingly become your wife. Go and tell the District officer who I am." When the official heard the news he came at once and did obeisance to the Princess, and then sent a petition to the Emperor. Ko Tsung ordered Tsz Ming and his wife to come to the capital, where they stayed for about a year, but the princess pined for Kam T'in and begged to be allowed to return to the place of her adoption. So the Emperor let her go, but first he bestowed on her many wharves in the district as "powder expenses"; and a large area of hill and forest land as "toilet expenses". On the thirteenth day of the seventh month of the 8th year of Siu Hing (2) A.D. 1138 they started back for Kam T’in. When they got there, the princess gave orders that the hills and woodlands should be thrown open to the public, so that anyone could make graves on her land without paying tax. In the 51st year of Hong Hei (‡) of Tsing dynasty, A.D. 1712, when the princess' grave was repaired, her dowry was still being used by the country people for a free burial ground. In the 5th year of K'in Lung (†) A.D. 1169, the princess gave thirty-six wharves to the Tsz Fok Monastery (*) the oldest monastery in Tung Kwun. Among these wharves was that of Shek Kit (5) near Shek Lung. When the history of Tung Kwoon was revised in the 12th year of Sung Ching (†††) of Ming dynasty, A.D. 1639, only three out of ten of the wharves were mentioned as still being in use, but Shek Kit is still in existence now. In some books the princess is referred to as Sung Tsung Kei (***). Sung being the name of the dynasty, Tsung meaning royal, and Kei high lady. She is known, however, in the Tang family as Wong Kwu (2), the Emperor's Aunt, as her nephew became ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 The Hong Kong Region 117 overlooked in 1898 when only the inshore islands were included in the territory that Britain requested be leased to her at that time. What were the islands like? I have spoken with several old men who now live on Lantau but were born on two of the eight or more islands in the Lo Man Shan group in 1891 and 1893, and with several younger men. Their accounts show that there were long-settled villages there, with padi and sweet potato fields. There were also flourishing inshore fisheries using the largest types of stake net.1 These were owned by village families, and the catches were salted and taken to Macau by a public ferry operated by local people. Salt, which was needed in large quantities for the stake net fisheries, was bought mostly in Cheung Chau, where it was said to be cheaper than in Macau. This was the position in my informants' youth, early in this century. Some of the islands belonged to Hsin-an Hsien, others to Hsiang-shan, but this allocation for administrative purposes was less important than the economic and other ties which dictated the connections favoured by its inhabitants. Wind and sea also affected links in the different seasons of the year. Hsin-an and the outlying islands were thus part of the historical, strategical, social and economic life of the Canton Delta in the late Ch'ing period. The safety of their seaways was likely always to have been an important consideration with the provincial government. This contrasts with the relative unimportance of Hsin-an's history and record of scholarship when compared with the older hsien of the Kuang-chou prefecture. 2. The principal events in the local history of the Hong Kong region since the establishment of Hsin-an hsien in 1573 As already mentioned in the Introduction, the Hsin-an district, to which the Hong Kong region belongs, was established as a separate administrative division of the Kuang-chou prefecture in 1573. The area was then separated from the old Tung-kuan district in response to problems of defence. It followed upon a petition from local persons which complained that because it was 100 li from Tung-kuan City, ‘barbarians and dwarves’2, had been able 1 The village representative of Shek Pik on Lantau island (b. 1899) and friends of the same age had found regular work there in their youth. 2 HNHC 14/2. I have followed Peter Y. L. Ng's rendering of the character, pp. 143-144. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 The Hong Kong Region 125 the inhabitants were less fortunate and had either to flee into the hills or stay to oppose or meet the pirates' demands. Walls were built or repaired, and a defence by desperate men of even these not very imposing defences might help to stave off an attack. Village refuges, into which cattle and livestock, valuables, women and children and old people were put, were also utilised. One of these places existed at Shek Pik, but was already in ruins by about 1900.1 Most villages kept arms and even cannon available for use up to 1899 and some of these remain to this day.2 Nonetheless, the villagers' position was pitiful in the event of attack, and their attitude towards pirates was probably too often similar to that recorded by Commander Vansittart of H.M.S. Bittern from the River Min in March, 1855: + miserably poor boats followed the Brig begging assistance; one Village sent me a well drawn up petition; another a present of waste paper and Joss-stick; fishermen, and passage boats, small Traders, all telling the same pitiable story; landing on Hootow, I was quickly surrounded by Peasantry; desiring the Interpreter to ask them why so many fine looking fellows permitted strangers to molest them; they declared it was useless to resist Pirates, and so whenever Pirates came the villagers hid themselves and cried. This extract, quoted from Miss Fox's book,3 shows how Chinese on land and sea suffered at the hands of their less scrupulous fellow countrymen. Things were no better on the sea at the end of the century. L. C. Arlington of the Chinese Maritime Customs, who spent six years 1893-1899 in charge of the Customs station at Cheung Chau, says; 'as well as other numerous islands forming the Ladrones, [it] was the rendezvous of pirates, who kept all of us on the qui vive, foreigners and natives alike. Gangs of pirates would get together and attack the villages, even in broad daylight, and after looting and killing, escape either to Macau or Hong Kong, where they disposed of their booty. The Customs Officers had many tussles and narrow escapes from these pests of the sea. 1 The elders told me about it after I had come across a reference to it as a place name in an old deed of sale of fields in the valley. 2 R. L. Ozorio, personal communication on the village armoury of Kak Tin, Shatin Valley, 1973. These arms were, of course, sometimes used against other villages. 3 Fox, p. 130. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 128 JAMES HAYES be feared, but internecine wars are almost always raging between some or other of the villages: and these wars, although often arising from trivial causes, are not mere temporary quarrels, but are often long-continued and sanguinary'.1 He gives a description of these feuds, and relates one example in which the District Magistrate, even with a force of 1,000 men, was unable to restore peace, and could not even save his face without the mediation of a neighbouring village. The device that secured this, Krone comments, had no influence at all upon the dispute, fighting being carried on afterwards just as before".2 There are several documented examples of intervillage and clan wars from the mainland New Territories at this time which indicate that Krone was not exaggerating the situation in mid century. Halls to 'martyrs' killed in these struggles were provided in at least four local temples, each containing memorials to slain heroes. These are to be found in the temples at Shek Kong (Pat Heung), Miu Kong (Tsuen Wan), Lam Tsuen, and Yuen Long (Shap-pat Heung). The Tsuen Wan memorial tells of a three year feud between the Tsuen Wan villagers and Shing Mun Pat Heung, beginning in the first year of the Tung Chih reign (1862-1863) and ended only after eventually successful mediation by elders of neighbouring villages. During this time, the Tsuen Wan villages—their men being outnumbered according to the tablet—were invaded and left in ruins, and 17 local men were killed in the prolonged struggle.3 Baker gives other local and contemporary examples of these clan wars taken from genealogies and village tradition in the northern New Territories. He also draws attention to the feuds that occurred within local lineages, including frequent fights between the Ping Shan and Ha Tsuen branches of the Tang lineage. These persisted into the British period. In 1921, in his administrative report for that year, the District Officer North mentions trouble that 'assumed very serious proportions' over water rights between 1 Krone, p. 114. 2 Krone, pp. 125-126. 3 The hall at Miu Kong is entitled the I-yung Tz'u (義勇祠) and that at Yuen Long the Ying-yung Tz'u (英勇祠). In the Pat Heung temple the tablet is in the Ching-chung Tz'u (清忠祠). At Lam Tsuen there is no named hall, but a side room contains a tablet bearing the characters jang hsiang ch'ang sheng lu wei (...). 4 Baker, 1968, pp. 167, 183 and 187. 5 Baker, 1968, p. 188 and Baker 1965, pp. 39-41. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 The Hong Kong Region 129 the Kam Tin and Ping Shan branches of the Tang lineage, mediated by the Tai Po and Yuen Long branches of the same clan.1 The chronic warfare inside Hsin-an and other districts of Kwangtung was perhaps not too well known to the Hong Kong authorities, but was all too plain to the mandarins. The Viceroy of Liang-kuang, commenting on representations from the British about the alleged help given by the provincial military forces to the village bands that were opposing the occupation of the New Territories, wrote: 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.2 The less populated parts of the district do not seem to have experienced trouble on this scale, probably because pressure on the land was less great and there were no large lineages competing for power and struggling to retain or improve their position. However, disputes did occur and are remembered by older villagers. On Lantau, fighting between Shek Pik people and villagers from Sha Lo Wan over a grave has been mentioned to me; relations between Tong Fuk and its neighbour Shui Hau were never very good; and a fight between Pui O villagers from San Tsuen and adjoining Lo Wai took place pre-war over the mining of kaolin in a spot behind the two villages that the Lo Wai people held was disturbing the local feng shui3 It appears that in days when communications were poor and the officials at a distance, such disputes would not always come to the attention of the authorities, even if deaths occurred. This must often have been the case in the 19th century. It was thus not without good reason that the Hsin-an magistrate of 1847, quoted at the beginning of this article, considered that his difficulties were many and real, and that they were not always appreciated as such by his colleagues and superiors. 1 ARDONT, 1921, J2; with some background at J2 of his 1920 Report. 2 Quoted by Groves, p. 63, note 65. Balfour shows 23 Punti villages with outer walls at Plate 16 in JHKBRAS, 10, 1970. Many other villages, including Hakka ones, had lesser defences, as at Pui O (Lo Wai), Lantau, pp. 14-15 above. * Information secured from local elders. Page 130 is missing, directly followed by Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 HONG KONG PLACE NAMES 157 word. The word Ngau (54) in local place names is often interchanged with Yau (122) and once with Lau (30). It is possible that this is the word from which the Chinese Yao79 was derived. The word Pak (63) in some local names interchanges with Pui (76). There was a people called the Pak158 in South China, and Pak (63), Pui (76) and perhaps Pa (60) and Pai (61) may be a version of this name. If these people cultivated salt paddy that would explain the term pak-tin (65). Many of the village names that make little sense contain two of these elements, e.g. Ma (42) Niu (58); Ma (42) Liu (35) Shui166; Ma (42) Yau181 Tong (98); Pak (63) Ngau (54) Shek (81); Yau180 Ma145 Tei; Pak (63) Tam172 Au (2). These would mean places where, by agreement, the two peoples could meet peaceably to exchange goods, to draw water, etc., or where cultivated land was shared. The name Shan-lao165, preserved in Chang Wei-yen's134 petition may be that which we have in Sha Lo Tung163 and Sha Lo Wan164. And the name Lung Kwu143 (also Tung Kwu178) and Lung Kwu Tan144 may come from another name for the boat-people mentioned by Mr. Ch'en Hsü-ching135, víz, Lung-hu142 which he says is also pronounced with initial D. NOTES AND CHARACTER INDEX 130 See South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, 9 November 1955. 131 The Reverend W. Stott kindly lent me a copy of his unpublished M.A. thesis on the Nanchao Kingdom with extracts from a fuller text of the Man-shu, I believe from the Library of Congress, U.S.A. No text I could obtain in Hong Kong had half as much material. 132 Cham zram (129 Rem.), 133 Chan crann p. 156. 134 Chang Wei-yen Zheonq Wrayjrann ✯✯✯ pp. 138, 157. 135 Ch'en Hsü-ching Crann Zreoighenq pp. 139, 157. 136 Ching crenq p. 156. 137 Hakka xaakghaahx #, possibly a corruption of a Yao79 word for mountain-dwellers. P. 136 and passim. 138 Hoklo xrokloo ## or ##, a name used by Punti160 and Hakka137 speakers to describe users of MinM dialects from Eastern Kwangtung and from Fukien, who pronounce # something like the Hakka pronunciation of. P. 136 and passim. 139 Hsin-an-chih Shannghonn-zi pp. 138, 150. 140 Lam Tsuen Lrammchynn p. 137. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 182 SUNG HOK-PANG Tak (£), A.D. 1513, of Ming dynasty, because there is evidence that after that year the direction of the grave was altered. The grave was repaired in the 12th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1744, of Ts'ing dynasty, and the inscription on the tablet was composed by Tang Yue Cheung (§§#), a noted Kam T'in scholar. Tang Wan Kuk is supposed to have owned the whole of Hong Kong island, and his great, great grandsons Tang Shing Ngok (# *) and Tang Yuen Fan (1) both very rich men during the Maan Lik period (A.D. 1573-1620) of Ming dynasty, appeared to have shared the island between them, three-quarters belonging to the former, and the rest to the latter. There seems to have been some rivalry between these two gentlemen, and a story often repeated by Kam T'in villagers to-day, tells how when Tang Shing Ngok built a big hall in Shui T'au village, Tang Yuen Fan's youngsters were filled with admiration. Tang Yuen Fan exclaimed, "Don't waste your time admiring it, but let us do the same thing." So he started building a hall equally big and grand, and at the present time Tang Shing Ngok's hall is no longer to be seen, but the old ruins of Tang Yuen Fan's still remain. Tang Shing Ngok's grave was in Sheung To (E✯), now Hung Heung Lo temple (#), Wong Nai Ch'ung (✯✯✯). It was repaired in the 16th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1751 and the name of the grave was Maau Yee Sai Min (#✯6) "the cat washes its face." The people of early times called it Tsau Ma Hoi Kung (ŁSH) "to draw the bow to shoot at a galloping horse." T'o Shi (A), the wife of Tang Shing Ngok, was buried in Kai Lung Wan (#), her grave being repaired in the 14th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1749. Both the inscriptions of these graves are still visible. During the Ming dynasty Hong Kong island was known as Ch'ek Ch'ue Shaan (1) "red pillar hill,” (Stanley is still called Chek Ch'ue), and it was under that name that the island was referred to in the records of the lands owned by the Tangs. Even in the map contained in the San On Record book, published as late as the 24th year of Ka Hing A.D. 1819, of Ts'ing dynasty, the island is called Chek Chue Shaan. The land owned by the Tangs amounted to several tens of “King” (4) (one "king" equalled one hundred Chinese acres) and was mentioned under different localities, the names of which are familiar to us now, such as Taai T'aam (✯✯), Wong Nai Ch'ung (✯✯), K'wan Taai Lo (***) “skirt string ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1975 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j0995146d Plate 26. The village of Shek Pik (4) on Lantau Island (∗), Hong Kong. For fung-shui reasons, it removed to this site on and near its threshing floors (Aš4) in the mid-1930s from a much older one higher up the valley. See JHKBRAS 3, 1963: 143-144. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q SOCIAL RESEARCH IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG, 1963 229 her grave was on the head her descendants would be very great men: but if on the tail they would be more humble people, perhaps officers of low degree, and, although prosperous, none would succeed to high rank.' The princess chose the tail because she preferred her descendants to stay humble, she herself having suffered so much. See Sung Hok-p’ang, ‘Legends and Stories of the New Territories”, IV. Kam T'in (continued)', The Hong Kong Naturalist, vol. VII, no. 1, April 1936, pp. 34f.) 62. The term fung shui is often used to mean simply a grave, and there is no need to stress the point that burial lies at the heart of geomancy. But in fact fung shui covers all aspects of men's dwellings on earth. Every territorially defined unit of society has its fung shui, from the household up to the state. The residence of the head of the state affects the prosperity of the country. (For this reason great emphasis is often placed on the geomantic excellence of Government House). The fortunes of cities, towns, and villages depend on their physical arrangement and dominating buildings. Political units take their fate from government offices. (The fung shui of the new Fanling District Court has impressed many locals). The fung shui of an ancestral hall determines the fortunes of members of the clan. (For this reason it is hardly ever to be found inside a wai, a walled enclosure; it must have free access to its site). A house shapes the destiny of its master and those for whom he is responsible. Consequently, geomancers are often employed to advise on the siting, orientation, certain architectural features (especially height), and work—and opening-dates of domestic and other buildings. Indeed, there appears to be some specialisation among fung shui sin shaang in the New Territories, some of them putting themselves out to be experts on graves and others on buildings. 63. Burial and the fung shui associated with it differ markedly in city and countryside. Only the rich among the people in the urban area can afford to escape the regimentation of their dead in cemeteries and seek geomantically favourable sites in private plots. (Some in fact acquire the right to bury their dead in land forming the traditional preserves of village communities. They may have to pay dearly for the privilege. Along one of the main roads in the New Territories there stands a pavilion, now many years old, which was put up as part of the compensation to the local people for the geomantic disturbance caused them by the burial in their area of a ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 236 MAURICE FREEDMAN working). As long, then, as village life remains the kind of community life it has been, fung shui is likely to continue undiminished. But in fact, life in the New Territories cannot remain unchanged; industrialisation and the blurring of community limits by the penetration of newcomers have already gone too far. So that there is a prospect that, just as in the city today, so in the New Territories tomorrow, geomantic ideas will survive (affecting the behaviour of people striving for status and providing a retrospective explanation of fortune and misfortune) without involving everybody in a sharp geomantic response to a challenge to his rights. 71. My analysis, as I have stressed, is provisional, and I should certainly hope that it will be checked by later research and against the experience of administrators. Once again, I should like to suggest the possibility of District Officers systematising the data they have in their files, so that, by comparing the situation in different areas and at different points in time, we may get a clearer picture of what is afoot and the likely direction of change. Of course, any field study by an anthropologist which sets out to analyse the life of a community will almost certainly produce case material on fung shui, but there would be no point in suggesting that the subject be made the centre of an extended anthropological enquiry unless a specialist in Chinese religion were available and willing to undertake the task. There is certainly a need for a broad enquiry into religious life in the New Territories—ancestor worship, cults, spirit-mediumship, temples, and so on—but it would take a mature and experienced research worker to do it. 72. There is a third and final problem I propose to discuss at some length: emigration and its effects. It is generally assumed that there are some 20,000 Hong Kong men in the United Kingdom at the present time, most of them in the restaurant trade. (The figure may be larger; the head of the biggest travel agency in the New Territories puts it at 25,000). Most of these men are from the New Territories. In addition, men have gone to other parts of the world to seek a living. It is known that the money remitted home is a sizeable portion of the annual income of the New Territories. I write without a copy of the 1961 census before me, and I am unable to calculate very accurately how large a proportion the emigrants must form of the relevant sector of the population; but if we remember (a) that very few of the emigrants are men from the city, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q NOTES AND QUERIES Vol. No. Village (and Gazetteer reference) 299 Surname 41. Tong To (p. 217) Yau 余 42. Shek Pik (p. 73) Tsui 徐 43. Tap Mun Sheung Wai (p. 244) Lai 黎 44. Ha Yau Tin (p. 167) Tsui 徐 45. Sham Chung (p. 192) Lei 李 46. Sham Chung (p. 192) Lei 李 47. Chung Mei (p. 193) Lei 李 48. 49. Kei Ling Ha San Wai (p.183) 企嶺下新村 Ho 何 50. Kei Ling Ha San Wai (p.183) 企嶺下新 Ho 何 51. Pak Sha O Ha Yeung (p.189) 白沙澳下洋 52. Lo Uk Tsuen (p. 171) 羅屋村 Chuk Hang (p. 170) Yung 翁 Lo 羅 Tang 鄧 53. Shek Po Tsuen (p. 163) 石壆村 (2 vols.) Lam 林 54. 55. 56. 57. Kan Tay Tsuen (p. 212) 簡堤村 So Lo Pun (p. 219) 莽魯半 Mong Tseng Wai (p. 165) 輞井圍 Lo Shue Ling (p. 215) 羅樹嶺 Wong 黃 Tang 鄧 To 陶 Lau 劉 58. (Tai Po Tau (p. 174)) ✯ Tang 鄧 (Tai Po Shui Wai (p. 174)) ***@ [Not a genealogy: listing of ritual forms etc.] 59. Kau Tam Tso (p. 194) Lei 李 60. Heung Sai (not in New Territories) Cheung 張 61. Lung Kwu Tan (p. 160) Ho 何 Lau 劉 62. San Tin (p. 203) Man 文 63. Lau Clan Association Handbook Lau 劉 (Hong Kong Branch) 香港劉氏宗親會特刊 64. Sam A (p. 221) Tsang 曾 (4 vols.) 65. Che Ha (p. 183) Lei 李 66. She Shan (p. 200) Chan 陳 67. Kat O (p. 221) Lau 劉 68. Yung Shue Au (p. 219) Wan 溫 69. Hang Ha Po (p. 200) Lam 林 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 178 DAVID FAURE Table 3. (Translation) Front: Annual festival 19th First Month, 15th Second Month, 23rd Third Month, 5th Fifth Month, 14th Seventh Month, 24th Twelfth Month, Tung Chi in Eleventh Month, Night of 30th Twelfth Month; she t'au (leaders of the she); ALL THOSE WHO LIVE IN PAK KONG VILLAGE HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY TO SERVE THE AFFAIRS AND PUBLIC INTEREST OF THIS VILLAGE; work collectively for the achievements of this village, do not follow the Monroe [Doctrine]. Back: GOLD Cheng Tso On, Cheng Chung, Lok Tso Po, Cheng Woh, Cheng Chan Ip, Lau T'in T'ing; WOOD Lok Shek Kam, Lok T'aai Ts'eung, Lok Shue Kam, Lok Foh Kau, Lok Yau T'aai, Lok Shai Ngau, Lok Tak Kwong; WATER Lok Ting Ngau, Lei Lam, Lei Kau, Lok Kam, Cheng Tso Ning, Lok T'aai Hei; FIRE Lok Tak Lam, Lok Shiu Ch'oh, Lok Lam Kwai, Lok Kam Uen, Lok Chi K'eung, Lok Shang, Lok Uet T'aai; EARTH Lok Fuk Shing, Lei Iu, Lei Kw'ai Cheung, Lok Kau Kei, Lok Tso On, Lei Shek, In a slight variation, in Tai Po Tsai (near Tai Mong Tsai) and Wo Mei, instead of collecting money to buy the pig at the time it had to be slaughtered, villagers bought a piglet at the beginning of the year and participating families took turns to feed it during the year. By the end of the year, it would be slaughtered, and the meat divided. In Wo Mei, the five lineages of the village also gathered into the Ng Woh T'ong for matters that affected the entire village.42 Less formal but not less important were the "marriage clubs" (lo p'oh wooi) found in many villages, such as Mang Kung Uk and Hang Hau, consisting of the unmarried young men of the village. The young men of the club were obliged to help the bridegroom during wedding ceremonies, and they themselves would be helped when their turn came. In general, village ceremonies, not only weddings but also funerals, required the participation of members of the village, including those outside the immediately affected lineage. It was commonly understood that on these occasions members of the village had the right and duty to participate and to help. 43 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 179 Among smaller villages, arrangements for co-operation often extended beyond the village itself. Hang Hau and nearby Seung Sz Wan, for instance, were closely involved in each other's celebrations. When there were celebrations in one village, members of the other village could come without invitation.44 Inter-village co-operative arrangements of one sort or another were sufficiently strong for most of the smaller villages to identify themselves as being parts of permanent village alliances. Tai Mong Tsai, Tai Po Tsai, Shek Hang, Tit Kim Hang, Tam Wat, Wong Mo Ying, Ping Tun, and She Tau formed the Paat Heung (Eight Villages); Nam Shan included also Fu Yung Pit, Kak Hang Tun, Keng Pang Ha, and Lung Mei; Pak Tam Chung included Pak Tam, Tsak Yue Wu, Wong Keng Tei, Sheung Yiu, Wong Yi Chau, and Tsam Chuk Wan; and Ngong Wo, Wo Liu, Shan Liu, Tai Wan, Tso Wo Hang, Sha Ha, Nam A, Wong Chuk Yeung, Long Keng, and O Tau formed the Shap Heung (Ten Villages). The Paat Heung had a joint school in Tai Mong Tsai; the Pak Tam Chung villages jointly worshipped the Great King earthgod near Sheung Yiu; the Shap Heung had its joint school in Tai Wan, and used to maintain collectively the T'in Hau Temple at Wong Chuk Yeung (now ruined). The larger villages, e.g. Ho Chung, Mang Kung Uk, Sha Kok Mei, Nam Wai, Tseng Lan Shue, and Pak Kong, were apparently not parties to such alliances, but regarded themselves as forming complete units in themselves.45 Inter-village disputes were not common, but there were some long-standing ones. Sha Kok Mei disputed with Nam Shan over tree-cutting rights. Nam Wai and Ho Chung fought over a quarrel that had started when the cows of one village damaged the crops of the other.46 Festivals and customs The major festivals in the village were the New Year, and the T'in Kei (birthday of Nui Woh, the Earth Goddess), Ts'ing Ming (spring worship at the ancestral graves), Dragon Boat, Tsat Tse (Seven Sisters), Mid-Autumn, Double-Ninth (autumn worship at the ancestral graves), and Tung Chi (winter solstice) festivals, the temple festivals of the local temples (in this area Ch'e Kung, T'in Hau, Koon Yam, and Hung Shing), the festivals of the local ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n MEMORIES OF THE DISTRICT OFFICE SOUTH 147 kept the raiders under fire from the slope behind, but they got away with their plunder, including some arms and ammunition. The Captain Superintendent of Police at the time, F. J. Badeley, a cadet officer, retired soon after, and the story went that the Governor, Sir Henry May, who came in July 1912 after about eight years as Colonial Secretary and two years in Fiji, took this opportunity to get rid of him because he was 'persona non grata' to him. (There were said to be several such in the Service). The Government took the hint given by the pirates and built a new police station on a much more commanding site well inland, surrounded by barbed wire. Talking of New Territory police station siting, the Tai O station was originally to have been built close to the village, but the local elders put up representations against it, and the presence of mosquitoes in the village may have provided an argument for its present siting beyond Shek Tsai Po. Silting of the harbour may also have influenced the Government. But I have heard that what influenced the villagers was the existence of gambling houses which yielded them a good profit, and they knew that with the police among them the hope of their gains would be gone. In 1925 they had their reward. A boatload of 60 pirates from the Delta landed at Po Chu Tam, marched along the creek-side road and plundered the village, murdering a woman and kidnapping two men. They got away without interference. Government promptly 'locked the stable door' by stationing an armed Indian police guard - later replaced by village scouts in a matshed close to the mouth of Po Chu Tam creek for several months, about 50 yards from the site of an old Chinese stone-built guard station dating from the era of Japanese piracy in South China. Apparently the Police knew nothing of the raid till all was over. I think all that happened was that the sergeant in charge was transferred to another station. When I first took charge of the District Office, the 'black gold' rush had been over for three years, the bottom having dropped out of the tungsten market with the coming of peace; but the lime-burning and sand-digging boom was in full swing because of the roadmaking and building then going on in Hong Kong and Kowloon. (These were times of anarchy in China). Thus I had to deal with one or two applications for land for limekilns. These kilns were thickest on Ping Chau; but Nei Kwu Chau and Tsing Yi also had kilns, and another was put up at Hang Hau. This distribution is due partly ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 156 W. SCHOFIELD on the ridge.* Further afield, on the Hang Hau peninsula, is the paved road referred to above, which runs as far as Ha Yeung: and on Nam Tong, commanding the strait, is the robbers' stronghold with its gun platform. Porcelain near its gate looked fairly modern, from what I remember. Remains of a similar kind can be found on the other islands of the Southern District. Just above the village of Shek Sun at the west end of Lantau stands a Dutch fort built about 1610, rectangular in plan. A few cannon balls and other relics have been found in it, but it is very overgrown and needs clearing if any research is to be done there, or sightseers enabled to visit it. The old fort and cannon protecting the small yamen were repaired when E. W. Hamilton was D.O., I think between 1927 and 1929: I remember that one room in the yamen was inscribed shu shat (library). Another relic of old coast defences, close to Tai O, is the old Chinese guard station already referred to, outside Po Chu Tam creek, and quite ruined. On the south coast, near Shek Pik, a very ancient rock carving on a cliff was found quite recently. In the outlying islands are three interesting structures: one is on the North Soko island, where in a small valley on its south coast are two converging lines of megaliths. The other two are on Sha Chau, one a stone burial chamber on the south isthmus in the form of a 'kistvaen,' the other a ruined guard station on the flat area northwards of the chamber, with an earthwork protecting the landing place to eastward. No doubt there are many other places of interest, especially temples and their contents: one of the finest is the Pak Tai temple in Cheung Chau, with its coloured relief showing the local ferry boat nearing the pier in Hong Kong harbour. Lastly, there is one place of much interest with which I had to deal in 1917 or 1918. The Tang grave at Hau Tei, beside Tsun Wan, made in the Sung dynasty, was naturally affected by the new Castle Peak motor road and a projected reclamation of the shallow sea area beyond it. The Tang elders come to the Secretariat for Chinese Affairs, where I was 2nd A.S.C.A.,† and partly I think on my suggestion the hill of the grave was made into a public park, so as to preserve its surroundings and outlook. The grateful elders presented me with a 'fung shui' map of the grave site for my efforts on their behalf; and the good influence of their virtuous ancestor continues to augment the prosperity of their descendants, and of Hong Kong generally, if there is anything in 'fung shui'! * See Mr. Schofield's note in JHKBRAS 9 (1969): 154-156. † Assistant Secretary for Chinese Affairs. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES 169 the Law Fau Mountains northeast of Hong Kong. In the event that there is not, it must be accepted that this little essay is no more than a start, since the preparation of a satisfactory record would require a lot more time than I possess. However, given perseverance it would be possible to create such a gazetteer for our mountain. 6. A typical Chinese gazetteer usually begins by dealing with boundaries and administration, then proceeding to geography, including streams and hills, local customs, natural products, and so on to settlements, buildings, temples, markets, fords and bridges, etc. There is usually a section on past events and historical relics, including stone inscriptions, another on poems and literature i.e. writings by local persons or on local matters, and so finally to a large section dealing with the lives of famous persons connected with the area. For present purposes, I shall not tie myself rigidly to a gazetteer framework though I shall mention items that form the subject of any such work. Settlements 7. For hundreds of years the mountain had its upland villages. Before the war, there were a considerable number of old settlements situated above the 500 feet contour line, and thus located on the mountain-side and on its upper slopes. On the south, east and west - I know little of the north—the largest group of these were the 8 villages of Shing Mun (17) mostly occupied by the ramified offspring of a single clan (Cheng ) settled in the main village, Tai Wai (PIA). A recorded 855 persons from these places were removed in 1928-29 to prepare for the construction of the Shing Mun Reservoir, going to a number of places elsewhere in the New Territories and some beyond into Kwangtung. Besides the Shing Mun group there were in 1899 another six upland villages located on the south, east and west sides of the mountain.* 8. These all gained their main living from agriculture, on padi fields and dry cultivation on small patches of flat land in the hills. The highest rice fields were cultivated at some 1500 feet above sea level. At the present day, save at Chuen Lung, the villagers have mostly left and cultivation has been largely abandoned. Chuen Lung, Pak Shek Kiu, Sheung Fa Shan, Ha Fa Shan, Sheung Tong and Ha Tong Lek. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES 173 famous mountains from Tung Koon, Sun On and to the east of Kwangtung' (JHKBRAS13(1973): 115.) Indeed, one of Po's poems appears on the tomb inscription of one of the first ancestors of the Tang clan who is buried on a little hill opposite my office in Tsuen Wan. 14. In the case of our Tai Mo Shan, it is, I believe, far from being the case that its history, legend and mythology are fully known, either as recorded or oral history. An enquiry into this subject among the older residents of the hill villages and the larger settlements beneath its slopes would be a worthy subject, before what is still remembered in a long unbroken verbal tradition is lost amidst the disruptions of removal and the distractions of modernisation. 15. I have come across several examples of its legends, one old and one new in the making. The older is a story of locomotive rocks, of the kind mentioned by Krone. It comes from Chuen Lung village on the west of the mountain, and is as follows: Heung Shek had already been in existence over three hundred years ago, before Chuen Lung Village came into being. The story goes that Heung Shek was a group of rocks lying on top of Tai Mo Shan. They gradually moved towards the fung shui "mouth" of Tsuen Wan (near the present Tsing Yi Bridge) intending to improve the Tsuen Wan fung shui as a whole. But then, seen by an expectant mother, they could move no more and stayed at their present location. Now Heung Shek is divided into two parts: the first being the 'gong' rock weighing approximately 20 tons and lying next to the 'drum' rock, the second being the drum rock weighing approximately 30 tons. Also, lying aslant the top of the second is a long flat boulder. If one picks up a stone and knocks against it, a hollow echo sound is produced. Amongst the rocks, there is a fissure wide enough to allow a man to go through. Inside there exists something like a stone chamber. Such things are really fantastic and too mystic to understand. 16. The second, which I found in a 1951 Guide Book to Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, published by the well-known newspaper, the Wah Kiu Yat Pao, is about a rock called 'Hero's Rock'. I was, as you might expect, all set to expect a stirring tale of battles long ago, but when I came to track down the history, local worthies said that the name was given by the pre-war ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES 177 26. Water was, of course, Tai Mo Shan's greatest natural resource. Before the construction of the Shing Mun catchwaters pre-war, and those for the Tai Lam Chung reservoir post-war, a tremendous flow of water ran down the mountain. It assisted in the gradual formation of land for houses and cultivation at its two main stream mouths in Tsuen Wan,* and was also used for industrial purposes. Water power drove the 24 incense mills located on the various streams of Tsuen Wan between 1900-1910 and before. (JHKBRAS 16 (1976):282-283). Stream water was also essential to the manufacture of bean curd and bean stick, another very old Tsuen Wan local industry, in which the quality of the product was directly related to the availability of a continually available pure water supply (see pp. 216-218 of this Journal). Public Works 27. In any hill area in which streams abound and become fast-flowing torrents in wet weather, there is a need for bridges across which travellers and villagers carrying heavy loads can proceed in safety. Tai Mo Shan has its share of such streams, and there are surviving bridges here and there in the hills and on its lower slopes. Among those known to me the largest is the Po Chai Bridge at Chung Hang, a few minutes' walk from my office in Tsuen Wan. Beside it is a battered slate-like tablet commemorating its repair in the 4609th year of the Yellow Emperor, a curious titling which owes its inspiration to the overthrow of the Ch'ing dynasty in the same year as its reconstruction (see Dingle: 89 for a similar dating that gave me the clue to this one and illustrates the wave of Chinese feeling that linked places as far apart in these two cases as Hankow and Tsuen Wan). The subscribers were the leading villagers and shopkeepers of Tsuen Wan and places linked to it by social and business ties. 28. Another bridge, further up the same valley at a place called Ngo Tei (#) or Goose Land—probably its geomantic name—has no tablet. However it is also an old bridge, and an elderly villager of Pak Shek Kiu, an abandoned hill village higher up, credits its repair fifty years ago by a city merchant from Hong Kong as the 'price' paid to the villages to allow burial of one of his relatives there. * The old name for Tsuen Wan was Chin Wan (**) or Shallow Bay which directly reflects the effect of the mountain on the bay. It was in use until the late 19th century, being replaced first by Tsuen Wan and then... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 178 NOTES AND QUERIES 29. Yet another bridge, in Central Tsuen Wan, still has its protecting shrine in place, with a stone tablet inscribed to the Fuk Tak Kung (福德公) of the Wing Fuk Bridge (#). The cyclical date would make it 1945 (which is obviously too late) 1885, 1825 or earlier. There is no means of telling which it is, but its style and appearance indicate an early date. Incidentally, all three bridges noted above have lost their original appearance, having been repaired post-war with concrete and reinforcing steel bars. Conclusion 30. A recent visit to the mountain took me from Lead Mine Pass, above the head of the Shing Mun Reservoir, to a point east of Chuen Lung, along paths formerly opened by villagers but in most cases now widened by the Agriculture & Forestry Department of the Hong Kong Government to assist their fire prevention and fire fighting activities. 31. The route ran through the Sei Fong Shan area, where there are many graves: so named (四方山) because there is access to it from four sides i.e. Tai Po, Pat Heung, Kwai Chung-Tsuen Wan and Chuen Lung (on Route TWSK). Then through the abandoned fields and village site of Nam Fong To, a single lineage village of the Law family (羅氏), evacuated in 1928 to Wo Hop Shek near Fan Ling (NT) for the construction of the reservoir. The site was enclosed by a thick low rubble wall and stands amid large boulders and (now) many trees. From the Tsuen Wan side the last stage of access was across a large stream and up a steep flight of stone (boulder) steps. West of the village the hills on both sides, but especially the opposite side of the valley, were marked by steep slides of water that became water-falls in places. Further on, the path overlooked the valley of Wu Yeung Shan (烏羊山) with many abandoned fields. The village of that name, on the main lower path to Wo Yee Hop village (*) and Kwai Chung, was inhabited by a branch of the Chengs (鄭氏) from Shing Mun Tai Wai. Moving SW and passing along the slopes of the mountain above Wo Yee Hop and Lo Wai well above catchwater level we encountered a few more graves placed in good locations. Also patches of abandoned cultivation built up here and there on stone-walled terraces above the path. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 192 NOTES AND QUERIES Continuously to the present, since elders in both communities were boys and reportedly before, worship of these heroes has been carried out twice a year, at the times of the first and second padi harvests (described as 春分*). It even continued throughout the Japanese Occupation, a hard time when traditional practices were sometimes dispensed with and not taken up again. Such practices, whilst tending to keep each community together, also had the effect of perpetuating a rift; and the existence of such shrines did nothing to reduce the endemic bickering that characterized much of local society at that time. NOTES 1 Sessional Papers 1928 (see the District Officer North's report which follows at Part C to the Notes for this Visit). 2 See Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (Hong Kong Government Printer, n.d. but circa 1960): 148-152. 3 Copies of genealogies of the Cheng (#) Tang (*) and some other local lineages have been recently deposited in the Chinese Library, University of Hong Kong. 4 They also went to Tai Po Market and to North West Kowloon. 5 YEUNG Kwok-shui (#) of Yeung Uk, a small single lineage settled since the Ch'ien Lung period. 6 Local place name of the district city of Hsin-an. 7 Gazetteer: 154. * Gazetteer: 150. Lo Wai is claimed to be the oldest of the Tsuen Wan villages. 9 See e.g. G. N. Orme's Report on the New Territory 1899-1912 in the Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers 1912: paras 58-60; and the file CSD1903 Ext/17, minutes of 6 April and 5 May 1905 in Public Records Office of Hong Kong. 10 Gazetteer: 150-151. 11 GR. 12 Shek Lei Pui (†) was the name of a village moved to Sha Tin in the 1920s to make way for an extension to the Kowloon Reservoir. See H.K. Government's Administrative Reports 1924, page Q146, para. 4. 13 Gazetteer: 151. 14 The Tin Hau Temple inscription says a wooden tablet, worshipped for 70 years. 15 of Sam Tung Uk, Chairman of the Tsuen Wan Rural Committee and Chairman of the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk, died 15th October, 1956: para. 119 of District Commissioner, New Territories' Annual Departmental Report 1956-57. 16 From the names listed it seems likely that, as stated by informants, friends and relatives of the Shing Mun people from the Pat Heung (Gazetteer: 170) aided them in the war against Tsuen Wan. 17 According to the Tsuen Wan tablet, the fighting took place with sharp weapons. (i). 18 This name was a purely Shing Mun description and does not appear in Gazetteer which only refers to the other Pat Heung to the north. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 194 NOTES AND QUERIES FROM PERSONNEL. TO Shing Mun Lo Wai 251 Pak Shek Wo Pei Tau To Shek Tau Kin Fu Yung Shan S | Kann Tie 3H Wo Hop Shek Nam Shui Po Tsat Sing Kong Ping Kong Fung Yuen (Yue Kok) Shek Ku Lung 5 | Pan Chung 25 276 31 13 44 126 126 82 7 27 116 46 51 27 124 Nam Fong To 28 28 Tai Pei Lek Ho Pui 4 11 15 11 23 46 46 126 540 79 11 23 46 46 7 103 855 persons The greater part of the new village sites is on Crown land. It has been necessary to purchase a small area of private land included in the sites, at a total cost of $1,055.51. A further sum of $2,783.80 compensation for fruit trees unavoidably involved brings this figure to $3,839.31. Site Preparation: The cost of preparing the sites for the new villages is shown in the following table: --- Kam Tin $ 5,000.00 Tsat Sing Kong 1,300.00 Pan Chung 10,000.00 Shek Ku Lung 500.00 Ping Kong 1,000.00 Wo Hop Shek 1,700.00 Nam Shui Po 5,000.00 Fung Yuen 7,000.00 $31,500.00 This work will be done exclusively by Government, and provision has been made in the 1928 Estimates to cover the expenditure. Page 210 Page 211 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES The total cost is therefore: Resumptions for sites $ 3,839.31 Site-preparation 31,500.00 Wells 2,400.00 170,148.00 Houses 8,346.00 Agricultural Resumptions 54,122.47 Forestry resumptions 15,250.00 Pineapple resumptions 8,428.00 Fung Shui or fruit trees 2,165.00 Incidental expenses 700.00 $296,898.78 197 J. A. FRASER, District Officer, North 9th January, 1928. D. AU-YEUNG OF LAN NAI TONG'S ACCOUNT OF THE ORIGIN OF THE WAR Round about a century ago, there were a number of small villages in Tsuen Wan. They were the CHENGs and CHEUNGS of Shing Mun Village, the AU-YEUNGs of Lan Nai Tong, the LAWs of Shek Lei Pui Village, the HUIs, TSANGs, WONGS, LAUS of Lo Wai, the YAUs of Kwan Mun Hau and others. The villagers, totalling over one thousand people, made their livelihood out of farming. Although life was hard, they were sufficiently fed and clad. As the villages were connected by intermarriages, feasts and gatherings in which every member participated were held during festive occasions. One day, two brothers of the AU-YEUNG clan returned from abroad,* bringing with them a lot of luggage and gifts. On their way to the village, they met some Shing Mun villagers who happened to be carrying brushwood to Shamshuipo (Kowloon) for sale. *'abroad' could mean anything, including Hong Kong! See District Commissioner New Territories Annual Departmental Report 1956-57, para. 3. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 206 NOTES AND QUERIES a temple outside Tung Kwun city whose upkeep and ritual observances were financed by large joint landed estates. 14. Yeung-leung's son, Tsz-ming (8) was married off, albeit unwittingly, to a princess of the Sung Dynasty. I have little to add here that Sung and O'Dwyer do not mention, but I believe it is important to stress that this tale (popularly known as the Wong Ku (*) story) served the important function, at least prior to the 1930's, of defining Tangs relative to outsiders (the powers-that-be) and locals (especially surrounding great and small lineages). 14. a. The San On gazetteer (a rare copy of which exists in the Fung Ping Shan Library of Hong Kong University), compiled in 1819, gives the tale in complete detail. 14. b. The Rev. Krone's "A Notice of the Sanon District," published in the Transactions of the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 1859, contains the following passage: "The inhabitants of a pretty little village on Deep Bay called “Kam-Tin”... also trace their origin up to the Sung dynasty. A high mandarin, they say, of the name of Tung, came to San On from the interior of China, and was so much pleased with the county around Deep Bay, that he settled down and made himself very popular, by giving gratuitous instruction. The grandson of this man having done some meritorious service to the State, the emperor Ko-tsung of the Sung dynasty, gave him his daughter in marriage.' 14. c. It will also be noted that the plaque commemorating the return of the iron gates to Kat Hing Wai makes especial reference to the tale. Several elders of neighboring villages, when asked why the Tangs were so powerful as to be able to concentrate five wais (walled villages) in the district, cited this imperial kinship link. 15. The second major migratory movement of the Tangs occurred during the generation of Wong Ku's sons. Lam (*) settled at Lung Kwat Tau (##), Kei (*) settled in Tung Kwun at Shek Tseng &✯✯, Wai (*) established the Tang branch-settlement at Tai Po Tau (†). Chi (#) remained in Sham Tin. [Chi's grandson Chu-on (₫) established the Ha Tsuen lineage-village.] * Reprinted in JHKBRAS 7(1967). See p.134. † See P. Wesley-Smith's article in JHKBRAS 13, 1973: 41-44. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES Natrix aequifasciata Barbour 233 The first specimen of this species known from Hong Kong was sent to me by the Police on 8 May 1978 for identification. It is a juvenile, having bitten the boy who caught it in a stream near Shing Mun Reservoir in the New Territories on 7 May 1978. A second specimen, also immature, was kindly given to me by Dr. Frank F. Reitinger. He had found it inside a tunnel in a catchment channel near Shek Kong Village in the New Territories while collecting at night on 17 June 1978. According to Pope (1935, p.95), Natrix aequifasciata is an inhabitant of mountain brooks and is known from various localities in Kwangsi, Kwangtung, Hainan, and Fukien in China. In a recent publication (Anon., 1977), it is listed also for Yunnan, Kweichow, Kiangsi, and Chekiang provinces in China. Opisthotropis balteatus (Cope) On 25 May 1977 I received a live immature female of this snake from Mr. R. J. Clibborn-Dyer, who had found it early that day on the Ting Kok Road close to Shuen Wan in the New Territories. The place where this specimen was found was beside an abandoned waterlogged paddy-field, through which a stream flowed into the sea. Opisthotropis balteatus is known to occur in Southern China (including Hainan), Vietnam, and Cambodia. It frequents mountain streams, and Pope (1935, p.168) concludes it to be an inhabitant of low to moderate altitudes. Opisthotropis kuatunensis Pope Two immature specimens of this little-known snake were given to me by Mr. Jerry K. S. Lee, who collected them in the central area of the New Territories mainland. The first was found at about midnight on 16/17 November 1974 in a catchment channel near Shek Kong Village. The second he found on the night of 13/14 July 1978 in a stream at an altitude estimated to be about 823 metres on Tai Mo Shan. The type and fifteen paratypes of this species were collected by Pope in Chungan Hsien in north-western Fukien, China. In describing the habits of Opisthotropis kuatunensis, Pope (1935, p.170) remarks that: ‘... it inhabits the highest forest cascades of the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n LIFE MEMBERS: FABER, Mrs. A. FAULKNER, R. J. FAWCETT, B. C. - FRAZER, A. P. + FREMANTLE, A. - FRY, R. A. FUNG, Mrs. L. · FUNG, Sir Kenneth Ping Fan, O.B.E., J.P. - GAFF, Mrs. J. LIST OF MEMBERS - GOLDNEY, Miss C. M. ■ - GORDON, K. H. A. 241 10, Cooper Road, Jardine's Lookout, Hong Kong. University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. H.K. & S. Banking Corp., P.O. Box 64, Hong Kong. Binnie & Partners, 1717 Star House, Kowloon. Condert Bros., Alexandra House 31/Fl., Hong Kong. Office of the Commissioner of Rating & Valuation, 1 Garden Road, Hong Kong. 17, Magazine Gap Road, Flat 5A, Hong Kong. 2705-2718, Connaught Centre, Hong Kong. Wilfred, Flat 6, 110 Repulse Bay Road, Hong Kong. c/o Hongkong & Shanghai Banking Corp., Queen's Road, C., Hong Kong. 3910 Connaught Centre, Hong Kong. GORDON, The Hon. Sir S. - c/o Sir Elly Kadoorie & Sons, St. George's Building, 24/F., Hong Kong. HARDEN, Mrs. Guy T.- HAYES, Dr. J. W., J.P. HAYIM, E. J., C.B.E. HECHTEL, F. O. P.. HO, Tickon HONEY, Dr. N. R. · - HOPKINSON, Mrs. J. E. HOWARD, W. J. HOWNAM-MEEK, R. S. HOYNINGEN-HUENE, Baron Ture Von HU, Dr. Shih-Chang HUNG, Chiu-Sing HUI, Miss Wai Haan IU, Miss S.- - · 15, Shek-O, Hong Kong. G + + 7, The Albany, Albany Road, Hong Kong. 41, Island Road, Deep Water Bay, Hong Kong. 10, Aigburth Hall, May Road, Hong Kong. 50, Village Road, G/Fl., Happy Valley, Hong Kong. Flat F20, Fairmount Gardens, 39A Conduit Road, Hong Kong. 12, Mount Nicholson Gap, Hong Kong. P. O. Box 20704, Causeway Bay Post Office, Hong Kong. Commercial Management Ltd., P. & O. Building 17/F, Des Voeux Road, C., Hong Kong. 9A, Stanley Beach Road, Hong Kong. 210 Tin Hau Temple Road, C1 15/F, Hong Kong. Yuet Ming Building, 17/F, Flat B, King's Road, Hong Kong. Dept. of Chemistry, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong. Matron, Grantham Hospital, Aberdeen, Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 185 they were knocking on every door in the village to force villagers to act as their porters. Mr. Chung had little choice but to obey. For the next week, he and quite a few of his fellow villagers were taken away from the village. He remembered having to march up Fei Ngo Shan, down to Ma Yau Tong, and then to Lei Yu Mun, until he successfully escaped.66 It was probably on December 11 that Mr. Chau T'in Shang in Sai Kung Market saw the Japanese cavalry pass. The Japanese did not enter the market. There was no disturbance or fighting. The police had been withdrawn before the Japanese arrived, and people just stayed indoors.67 Quite a few villagers from Sai Kung and nearby villages were in the city when the War broke out. Mr. Wan Ts'eung of Tai Po Tsai was living in Kowloon City at the time. He must have learnt of the beginning of the War when he saw Kai Tak Airport bombed. But he recalled that one morning, he was in the street, and was shocked by machine-gun fire behind him. He hid behind some stone pillars, and then saw Fifth Columnists, known as the "victory fellows" (shing lei yau) who proclaimed that they were members of the Asia Prosperity Institution (Hing A Kei Kwan). Mr. Cheung Wing of Wo Mei was in Shaukiwan when he heard of the outbreak of war. He immediately went with several people back to the village, and feared all the way that they might be spotted and shot at by the Japanese. He arrived in the village before the Japanese came down from Keng Hing Shek. Mr. Tse Koon K'au of Tan Ka Wan spent the night of December 7 in the Nathan Hotel in Kowloon. This hotel was frequented by New Territories villagers when they went into the city. The next morning, he heard the aeroplanes and the bombs, and went out to ask what the matter was. When he saw that people in Shamshuipo were wounded, he realized that it was not a practice exercise, and started immediately to return to Sai Kung. A Mr. Chan Shing of Tai Po had a petrol station on Waterloo Road, and Mr. Chan drove Mr. Tse and five other people towards Sha Tin. They were stopped at a roadblock and were not allowed to drive into the New Territories. He left the car, with some difficulty bypassed the roadblock, spent some time with a friend in Chap Wai Kon (Sha Tin), and spent the night at Wu Kai Sha. He arrived in Sai Kung the next day, before the Japanese appeared ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 188 DAVID FAURE There is little doubt that at least for several months, Leung Shuen Wan was a central bandit hideout. Mr. Lau Shang of Pak Lap Village on the island said that there were bandits who came there from the mainland, but they did not rob the villagers for they were themselves stationed in Tung Ah Village nearby. Villagers from Tung Ah and Pak Ah confirmed that there were bandits on the island and that the island villagers were not disturbed. Mr. Chung T'in Fuk of Pak Ah added that this might be because the bandits were from P'ing Shan (in China) nearby, and were afraid that the villagers might take reprisals against their own villages.73 Mr. Kong Ts'eung of Tung Ah knew that the bandits used the T'in Hau Temple of Leung Shuen Wan as their headquarters. The first group that arrived was Hoklo. Then came Hoh Shing Nin, from Aau T'au in China. Hoh was well-known among Sai Kung villagers as a bandit chief. But other bandits also came, and they began to fight among themselves. Hoh quarrelled with a certain Chan Nai Shau. According to Mr. Tse Koon K'au, for a short while Hoh had to leave Leung Shuen Wan for Tap Mun, and later Chek Keng. Chan took his guns with him in pursuit.74 Villagers from Leung Sheun Wan and nearby Kau Sai were apparently quite favourably disposed to Hoh Shing Nin. Mr. Chung T'in Fuk of Pak Ah thought that Hoh was a guerrilla, who was maintaining order in the area. Mr. Loh Kai Faat, a boatman from Kau Sai, made a distinction between Hoh and Chan. Hoh maintained order here, according to Mr. Loh, but Chan was a genuine bandit.75 The Wai Ch'i Wooi and the K’ui Ching Shoh The only government in Sai Kung in the very turbulent months immediately after the coming of the Japanese was the Sai Kung Market Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Lei Shiu Yam was its chairman. It was recognized by the Japanese Government as the Wai Ch'i Wooi, the local governing body that was set up in all local areas of Hong Kong and the New Territories in the early months of the occupation. The Sai Kung Wai Ch'i Wooi was located on the first floor of No. 34 Main Street, Sai Kung Market. It had little formal authority and no military power, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 4 Hong Kong Museum of History invited members to the screening of three Korean films at the City Hall. The films concerned the art and archeology of important sites in Korea. In September we were again concerned with Hong Kong History when Dr. Alan Birch, Reader in History at Hong Kong University, spoke on Hong Kong 1937-45: Conquest and Liberation. Also in September Dr. Marilyn Grayburn, lecturer in Indian Archeology, University of Cleveland Museum, spoke on 5,000 years of the Indus Valley Civilization, and in October Mr. Lawrence Tam, Curator of the Hong Kong Museum of Art, and himself also an artist of repute and teacher of Chinese Art History, spoke on the Shek Wan Pottery of Kwangtung Province in connection with an exhibition current at the City Hall Museum. In December Mr. Henri Vetch, a long standing member of the Society, spoke of his experiences in Peking where he worked as publisher between 1920-1951, when he was imprisoned for three years by the Communists. In January an interesting talk was given by Dr. Wen Hsiang-lai, a neurologist and neurosurgeon as well as authority on acupuncture. He spoke of his recent experiments at the Tung Wah Hospital in the use of electrical stimulation using acupuncture points and needles in connection with drug addiction. And finally Dr. William Parish gave a talk in February on "Status and Power in Kwangtung Villages under the People's Republic." Dr. Parish is associate professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago. Both local excursions and overseas trips are a regular feature of our activities and in December Dr. James Hayes arranged a visit to Tsuen Wan where he talked about local temples, rural organization and traditional inter-village feuding. The Society is continuing its programme of cultural tours abroad with a ten-day visit to Kashmir and Kathmandu starting later this week. The trip has been arranged by Dr. Brian Shaw. Where possible we deal directly with hoteliers and pass on group discounts and commissions directly to members travelling. Your Council has been investigating the feasibility of mounting future tours to Afghanistan; the Mohenjo-daro, Harappa, Taxila sites; Ladakh Darjeeling, Sikkim and Bhutan; Dr. Shaw will again be looking into this possibility. Dr. Leigh Wright is also looking at the possibility of a tour to the old Straits Settlements. Now that the Chinese authorities are encouraging travel with. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1978 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8g84t8593 POLITICIZATION OF CHINESE CRAFT ORGANIZATION 95 going into a small red numbered membership book, which the worker keeps in his possession at all times, and which has a space for stamping receipt of dues, as well as a list of union regulations. A numbered badge is also given out to new members, on which is embossed a yellow star on a red background, with the carpenter's hammer, the carver's carving tool, and the painter's brush crossed beneath and tied with a ribbon, and the union's name around the lower perimeter of the badge. The union keeps scrupulous records of every action and transaction that occurs within its purview. Every member who has given money, bought a ticket, received a magazine, or whatever, is given a chit to receipt his every transaction, all of which are dutifully recorded in the account books. In August-September, 1973 a membership drive began and a chart posted on the bulletin board showed in bar graphs the increases in membership for the various districts in which art carved furniture factories are located: Cheung Sha Wan, San Po Kong, Kwun Tong, Chun Shek Shan (Diamond Hill), Tsim Sha Tsui and New Territories/Tsuen Wan, with Kwun Tong well in the lead. Kwun Tong is the site of the largest carving factories in Hong Kong where it could be argued the concentration of capital, and the alienation of the worker from his tools and from his product have progressed furthest. According to the union vice-chairman, about 200 additional members were recruited in the recent drive bringing current membership up to somewhere around 800 workers. I had occasion to witness the actual recruitment of a new member in progress at Heng Lung Co. where I worked. There was quite an enthusiastic union member working there, one who had been back to visit his native village in Kwangtung province in the San Wei district several times and came back with glowing reports about the progress of his home village under socialism. He even had several arguments with other workers in the factory concerning how accurate his observations and glowing reports were. This fellow began working on a younger worker in the factory proselytising. The younger worker had previously explained to me that he had no use for the union or anything political at all. In the course of their work the older worker talked to the younger one about the benefits of union membership and ultimately invited the younger worker to a weekly meeting. While I have no idea what the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 NOTES AND QUERIES 197 Six old muzzle-loading cannons, each fixed to a cemented base, can be seen on the main wall; two on the west and four on the east. They were selected from elsewhere, and mounted there as a memorial.26 Outside the Walled City, there are several brick houses which had been used as a hospital for the garrison and as dwellings of the garrison families. There had been a cemetery. However, its site cannot be found, and the old brick houses are now used as stores and pig-sties. Several old brick houses can be found at the mouth of the Tung Chung stream. They are supposed to be the guard-houses and the ammunition store of the Shek She Fort.2 The position of the Fort has long been forgotten. Recently, rubble walls are found on a knoll near the Tung Chung Ferry Pier. The walls are now in ruins.28 This is likely to be one of the fortresses of the Shek She Fort.29 Hong Kong. March 1980. ANTHONY SIU Kwok-kin NOTES 1 It is called Fan Lau (separate the flow) because the promontory lies on a place which separates the waters of the Pearl River and the Pacific Ocean. * The promontory has the shape of a chicken-wing, thus gaining the name Kai Yik Kok. Kai Yik in Chinese means 'chicken-wing'. * The promontory is also called Yuen To Shan, because ships which came from the west to the Pearl River used it as a landmark. 'Yuen To' in Chinese means 'sailing from afar'. * There is a village called the Fan Lau Village situated by the Fan Lau Sai Wan, or West Bay. * The Fan Lau Tung Wan is also called the Miu Wan or Temple Bay because there is a Tin Hau Temple, rebuilt in the Hsien Fung reign (1851-1861). • It was called the Kai Yik Fort, as recorded in the San On Yuen Chi 1819 edition and the Kwong Tung Tung Chi 1822 edition. 1968. see Armando M. De Silva's "Fan Lau and its Fort", JHKBRAS 8; ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 204 DAVID FAURE hsü 12 (1886). In the Kau Sai Hung Shing Temple, the lintel is dated Kuang-hsü 15 (1889), and the altar Kuang-hsü 20 (1894); and in the Hang Hau T'in Hau Temple (besides the 1840 bell), the lintel is dated Kuang-hsü 1 (1875), a tablet Kuang-hsü 2 (1876), an altar is of the same year, a wooden board of Kuang-hsü 4 (1878), a shrine of Kuang-hsü 10 (1884), a pair of stone lions of Kuang-hsü 13 (1887), and a pair of incense burners of Kuang-hsü 20 (1894). The bell and the incense burner at the Tin Ha Wan T'in Hau Temple are both undated, but Mr. Ip Ch'un, who lived nearby, told us that the temple was already in disrepair over fifty years ago. Historical inscriptions found in Sai Kung and elsewhere in Hong Kong and the New Territories have been transcribed as a special project and may be found in David Faure, Alice Ng, and Bernard Luk, "A collection of historical inscriptions in Hong Kong". The report is available in the Institute of Chinese Studies, Chinese University of Hong Kong, and will, it is hoped, be published shortly. 7 Mr. Hoh Taai of Ko Tong, aged over 60, knew of the whereabouts of a charcoal burner, but never saw it in operation (Int. 10.6.81). Lime kilns were reported in Wong Yi Chau, Wong Keng Tei, Tai Mong Tsai Tso Wo Hang, Tai Wan, Kiu Tsui, Sha Ha, Pak Sha Wan, Che Keng Tuk, Ta Ho Tun, Tai Tan, and Yau Yu Wan (Ints. Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 15.5.81, 22.5.81, Mr. Wong Yung Ts'ing 20.5.81, Mr. Tang Kei Faat 25.6.81, Mr. Lei Yau 28.6.81, Mr. Wong Ping Lin 29.6.81, Madam Liu 20.5.81, Mr. Lau Lui Faat 23.6.81, Mr. Tse Wing 9.6.81, Mr. Tse Shui Kam 24.6.81, Madam Lo Koon Mooi 21.6.81, Mrs. Hoh née Lei 28.6.81, Mr. Chung 23.7.81, and Madam Lam Yau Ch'un 19.8.81.) The Liu family at Kiu Tsui built the ancestral hall that can be seen today on the main road into Sai Kung Market. For an impression of the long history of lime making in Sai Kung, it should be noted that Madam Lo Koon Mooi was 85 and Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 87 in 1981, and it was their fathers who were engaged in the lime business. Mr. Yau continued working the kilns until his early 40's. Brick kilns were reported in Chek Keng and Pak Tam Chung (Ints. Mr. Chiu Sz 7.5.81 and Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 15.5.81, 22.5.81). The lime industry, of course, also provided income for fishermen who collected coral for the kilns. See "Return of the approximate number of fishermen employed in taking coral and shell from the sea adjoining the New Territory", in Hong Kong Legislative Council, Sessional Papers, 1901, p. 685. "The best indication of the growing importance of the trade in pigs is a set of account books that belonged to Mr. Yung Sz Ch'iu of Pak Sha O, a photocopy of which is held by the Oral History Project. See also ints. Mr. Chan Tsz K'eung 28.5.81 and Mr. Hoh King 5.6.81. • There are many instances of seamen recruited by recruitment firms (haang shuen koon); see, eg. Mr. Chiu Sz (Int. 7.5.81). Remittance from abroad was sent back to the village through import-export houses (kam shan tsong), see Mr. Yau T'aai Hong (Int. 11.8.81). 10 Mr. Cheung T'o's grandfather was a cook on Hong Kong Island, and his father was employed on the Kowloon-Canton Railway. Mr. Cheung, of Ho Chung, was c. 70 in 1981 (Int. 15.6.81). Mr. Tsang Yau of Tai Mong Tsai (age unknown, but who married before World War II) worked in a shop started by his father in Shaukiwan on Hong Kong Island (Int. 23.6.81). 11 Ints. Mr. Cheng Chung Ting 21.5.81, Mr. Chan P'aang Hing 29.5.81, Mr. Chan T'aai 22.7.81; Bernard Williams, "Visit to Ho Chung and Sheung Yeung villages in the Sai Kung area”, in Marjorie Topley, ed. Aspects of Social Organization in the New Territories, Hong Kong, 1965, pp. 46-47, and "The Chan family of Tseung Kwan O", JHKBRAS 7 (1967), pp. 158-160. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 207 36 1911 Census. 37 For a brief discussion of these ideas, see David Faure, "Hongkong and China in the village world", JHKBRAS 21 (1981). A noteworthy variation is the shrine for the Taai Shing Yan Kung Ma at Luk Mei Village, which is both an ancestral figure and a territorial god. See research notes on Ue Lan Festival at Luk Mei, 5-7.8.81. * Ints. Mr. Cheung T'o 29.5.81, 15.6.81, Mr. Cheung Ts'oi 20.6.81, Mr. Tse Ming 8.81, and notes on the ta tsiu at Ho Chung, 27.12.81 - 31.12.81. For the donations of the Uens towards the repair of the temple, see Ch'e Kung Temple tablet and ints. Mr. Uen Chi Ming 16.1.81, 13.2.81, 7.3.81. Our interviews did not discover if only villagers of Ho Chung contributed towards the annual Ch'e Kung Festival, or if other villagers in the villages that took part in the ta tsiu also did. 3 Int. Mr. Chan P'aang Hing 29.5.81. 40 Ints. Mr. Cheng Ip 14.5.81, Mr. Lei Yiu T'ing 23.6.81, Mr. Lei Kau 23.6.81, Mr. Lok Kau Kei 26.6.81, 21.7.81. 41 Ints. Mr. Tse Wing 9.6.81, Mr. Tsang 25.6.81, Mr. Tsang Yung 25.6.81, Mrs. Wai 27.6.81 42 Ints. Mr. Cheung Ts'oi 20.6.81, Mr. Cheung Wing 1981; see also Mr. Sung Kw'an 23.6.81 for similar arrangements for raising pigs in Tit Kim Hang, and Mr. Shing Uen Wan 10.7.81 in Pik Uk. 43 Ints. Mr. Shing Ip On 14.6.81, Mr. Leung Yung Hei 16.6.81. Every year, on the 28th of the First Month, all the five surnames of Mang Kung Uk joined in the worship of the earth god. A matshed was built in the village, on which lanterns were hung. See int. Mr. Ue Shun Hing 10.7.81. See also Patrick Hase, “Observations at a Village Funeral", presented at the Conference on Hong Kong Society and History at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, December 1981, (papers to be published shortly). 44 ** Mr. Leung Yung Hei 16.8.81. * Ints. Mr. Sung 22.6.81, Mr. Tang Kei Faat 25.6.81, Mr. Hoh King 24.6.81, Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 8.5.81, Mrs. Lau Lei Loi T'aai 28.6.81, store keeper at Wong Chuk Wan 28.6.81, Mrs. Hoh née Lau 29.6.81, Mr. Kuet Po Shing 2.7.81, and notes on the ruined temple at Wong Chuk Wan 28.6.81. The composition of the Shap Heung given by Mrs. Hoh née Lau and Mr. Kuet differs slightly from that in the text here. Other village groups in the Sai Kung area include one that consists of Tse Keng Tuk, Chiu Hang, Ta Ho Tun, and Ma Nam Wat (int. Mr. Chan Uet Shing 24.6.81), another that consists of the three villages at Man Yee Wan (int. Mr. Lei Shiu Yam 8.5.81), yet another the seven villages that made use of the sugar press at Ko Tong (int. Mr. To 19.6.81). Apparently, Tai Long, Pak Tam Au, and Chek Keng, and then Sham Chung, Lai Chi Chong, and Pak Sha O were two groups of villages that had close social ties (int. Madam Chiu I Mooi 7.5.81). 48 Ints. Mr. Tse Wing 20.6.81, Mr. Yau 28.7.81. Fung shui was involved in the dispute in Sha Kok Mei. The villagers considered that part of a hill nearby, known to them as the "tiger's land" (foo tei) was essential to the fung shui of the village. Sha Kok Mei would not permit burial, grass or tree cutting on the foo tei. "Mr. Chau T'in Shang 9.7.81, Mr. Lok Kau Kei 26.6.81, Mr. Yau Taai Hin 8.81, Mr. Tse Ming 8.81. Major temple celebrations before World War II were held in at least the following places: Leung Shuen Wan, Sai Kung, Tai Miu, Hang Hau, Pan Long Wan, Tseung Kwan O, Kau Sai. Pak Kong and Ho Chung had a ta tsiu every ten years, and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m 212 DAVID FAURE Dates Name (and village) Mr. Chung P'oon (Wong Chuk Shan) interviewed INTERVIEW RECORD Name (and village) Dates interviewed 13.11.80 Madam Chiu I Mooi (Chek Keng) 7.5.81, 18.7.81 Mr. Chau T'in Shang 13.11.80, Mr. Lau Shaang 8.5.81 (Sai Kung Market) 18.5.81, (Sai Kung Market) 3.6.81, Mr. Yau T'aam Shang 8.5.81, 9.7.81 (Wong Keng Tei) 15.5.81, Mr. Lei Yau 13.11.80, 22.5.81, (Tso Woh Hang) 28.6.81 26.5.81, 31.7.81 Mr. Lee Yun Shau, J.P. 14.11.80 (Man Yee Wan) Mr. Wong Yung Ts'ing 8.5.81, Mr. Tse Kw'an 16.11.80 (Wong Yi Chau) 20.5.81 (Tan Ka Wan) Madam Laai Hung Tai 8.5.81 Mr. Shek Kwong Lin 16.11.80 (Sai Kung Market) (Kau Lau Wan) Mr. Lei Shiu Yam 8.5.81 Mr. Shek Fuk Fung 16.11.80 (Man Yee Wan) (Kau Lau Wan) Mr. Lai Foh 8.5.81 Mr. Chan Shing (Sai Kung Market) 21.11.80 (Tai Long) Mr. Chiu Lin Shing (Chek Keng) 11.5.81 Mr. Cheung Hing 28.11.80 (Tai Long) Mrs. Chiu née Cheung 11.5.81 (presently of Tai Po) Mr. Wan Ts'eung 31.11.80 (Tai Po Tsai) Mr. Lei P'aang Kei 12.5.81, (Shuen Wan) 19.5.81 Mr. Paul Tsui 1.12.80 Mr. Chan T'in Po 12.5.81 Mr. Wan Yat Ngo 15.1.81 (Ho Chung) Mr. T'ong (headmaster, 12.5.81 Yim Tin Tsai) Mr. Tse Ming 15.1.81 (Ho Chung) Mr. Cheng Yip 14.5.81 (Pak Kong) Mr. Uen Chiu Ming 16.1.81, (Mok Tse Che) 13.2.81, Fr. Lau Wing Yiu 18.5.81 7.3.81 Mr. Cheung 19.5.81 Mrs. Uen 17.1.81 (Sai Kung Market) (Mok Tse Che) Miss Fung Ping I 19.5.81 Mrs. Uen 18.1.81, Mrs. Ts'ui, née Lei 20.5.81 (Mr. Uen Tak 24.1.81, (Pak Kong) Ming's mother, 7.3.81 Mrs. Liu 20.5.81 Mok Tse Che) (Sai Kung Market) Madam Yung 18.1.81 Mr. Cheng Chung T'ing 21.5.81 (Mok Tse Che) (Pak Kong) Madam Chan 22.1.81 Mr. Lok Shaang 21.5.81 (Ho Chung) (Pak Kong) Madam Lok 22.1.81 Mr. Hoh King 27.5.81 (Ho Chung) (Nam Shan) 5.6.81 Mr. Chiu Sz 7.5.81 Mr. Chan Tsz K'eung 28.5.81 (Chek Keng) Madam Yung A Lin 7.5.81 (Chek Keng) (Sai Kung Market) Mr. Chan Kei Shang (Yim Tin Tsai) 28.5.81 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m 213 Name (and village) Dates interviewed Mr. Chan P'aang Hing (Ho Chung) 29.5.81 Name (and village) Mr. Lok Foh Kau (Pak Kong) Dates interviewed 20.6.81 Mr. Cheung T'o (Ho Chung) 29.5.81, 15.6.81 Mrs. Lei, née So (Nam Shan) 20.6.81 Mr. Chung (Kau Sai) 3.6.81 Mr. Hoh Shang (Nam Shan) 20.6.81, 24.6.81 Mr. So T'in Loi (Kau Sai) 3.6.81 Mr. Lok Kau Kei (Pak Kong) 20.6.81, 26.6.81 Mr. Lei Chi Hei (Sha Tsui) 5.6.81 21.7.81 Mr. Cheung Ts'oi 20.6.81 Mr. Lam Kaap Shau (Tai Po Tsai) (Tai Long) 8.6.81 Mr. Wong (Shan Liu) 20.6.81 Mr. Cheung Ming Shing 8.6.81 Mrs. Lau, (Leung Shuen Wan) 21.6.81 Mr. Lok Tsau On Mr. Tse Koon K'au (Pak Kong) (Tan Ka Wan) 9.6.81 Mrs. Tse (Pak Kong) 21.6.81 Mr. Tse Wing (Sha Kok Mei) 9.6.81, 20.6.81 Mrs. Kong Lei San Kiu (Lung Mei) 21.6.81 Mr. Hoh Taai (Ko Tong) 10.6.81, 21.6.81, 22.6.81 Mr. Lo Koon Mooi (Long Mei) 23.6.81 Mr. Cheung Kin Wa 10.6.81 Mrs. Wan, née Lau (Sai Kung Market) (Nam Shan) 21.6.81 Mr. Ue (Mang Kung Uk) 14.6.81 Mr. Kong Hei (Lung Mei) 21.6.81 Mrs. Ue (Mang Kung Uk) 14.6.81 Mr. Wong (Tam Wat) 22.6.81 Mr. Shing Ip On (Mang Kung Uk) 14.6.81 Mr. Sung Kw'an (Tit Kim Hang) 22.6.81 Mrs. Lau (Ha Yeung, near Seung Sz Wan) 14.6.81 Mr. Sung (Tit Kim Hang) 22.6.81 Mr. Lau Hing Lung (Pan Long Wan) 16.6.81 Mr. Uen Chan Wan (Ta Ho Tun) 22.6.81 Mr. Lau (Pan Long Wan) 16.6.81 Mr. Sham Kin K'eung (Hung Fa Tsun) 23.6.81, 1.7.81 Mr. Leung Yung Hei (Hang Hau) 16.6.81 Mr. Lei Yiu T'ing (Pak Kong) 23.6.81 Mr. Lei Kau (Pak Kong) 23.6.81 Mr. Lei Kan (Wo Liu) 19.6.81 Mr. Wong Ts'ing (Nam Shan) 23.6.81 Mr. Hui Lam (Cheung Sheung) 19.6.81 Mr. Lei Faat (Kak Hang Tun) 23.6.81 Mr. Wong (Ko Tong) 19.6.81 Mr. Chan Shau (Pak Tam Au) 19.6.81 Mr. Cheng Yung (Uk Tau) 23.6.81 Mr. To (Ko Tong) 19.6.81 Mr. Lau Lui Faat (Pak Kong Au) 23.6.81 Mr. Wong Shek (Ha Yeung, near Ko Tong) 19.6.81 Mr. Tang (Wong Mo Ying) 23.6.81 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1981 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ff36bt18m Dates 215 Name (and village) Dates interviewed Name (and village) interviewed Mr. K'uet Po Shing (Nam A) 2.7.81 Mr. Lok (Seung Sz Wan) 17.7.81 Mr. Yung (Hoi Ha) 2.7.81 Mr. Lau (Sheung Yeung) 17.7.81 Mr. Ip Wan (Pak Sha O) 2.7.81 Mr. Lok Tak K'ei (Seung Sz Wan) 17.7.81 Visit to church in Pak Sha O 3.7.81 Mr. Lam (Seung Sz Wan) (2) 17.7.81 Mr. Yau Kei (Tseng Lan Shue) 8.7.81 Mr. Lau Kwong (Ha Yeung near Seung Sz Wan) 20.7.81 Mr. Cheung Loi Yau (Sha Kok Mei) 9.7.81 Mrs. Wan (Mang Kung Uk) 20.7.81 Mr. Shing (Ha Yeung near Seung Sz Wan) 10.7.81 Mr. Shing Uen Wan (Pik Uk) 10.7.81 Mr. Wong Kam Tai (Hang Hau) 20.7.81 Mrs. Yau (Mang Kung Uk) 10.7.81 Mr. Shing (Pik Uk) 20.7.81 Mrs. Yau, née Tse (Tseng Lan Shue) 22.7.81 Mr. Ue Shun Hing (Mang Kung Uk) 10.7.81 Mr. Chan T'aai (Tseung Kwan O) 22.7.81 Mr. Cheng Yung (Uk Tau) 10.7.81 Mr. Yau Yan (Tseng Lan Shue) 22.7.81 Mr. Uen Kwai Naam (Mau Wu Tsai) 14.7.81 Mr. Chung (Yau Yue Wan) 22.7.81 Mr. Tsang Shui On (Ma Yau Tong) 14.7.81 Mr. Chung Wai I (Yau Yue Wan) 22.7.81 Mr. Wan Yau (Wong Chuk Long) 14.7.81 Mr. Yau Taai Hin (Tseng Lan Shue) 23.7.81 Mr. Tsang Wan (Ma Yau Tong) 14.7.81 8.81 Mr. Lau (Po Toi O) 24.7.81 Mrs. Tsang, née Shing (Ma Yau Tong) 14.7.81 Mrs. Chung (Po Toi O) 24.7.81 Mr. Ng (Tseung Kwan O) 15.7.81 Mrs. Sit (Tin Ha Wan) 24.7.81 Madam Chan (Tseung Kwan O) 15.7.81 Mr. Ip (Tin Ha Wan) 24.7.81 Mr. Leung Chiu Man (Hang Hau) 25.7.81 Madam Wan (Tai Wan Tau) 16.7.81 Mr. Yau Koon K'au (Tseng Lan Shue) 27.7.81 Mr. Lau (Tai Wan Tau) (1) 16.7.81 Mr. Yau Tai On (Pak Shek Wo) 27.7.81 Mr. Lau (Tai Wan Tau) (2) 16.7.81 Mr. Yau (Nam Wai) 28.7.81 Mr. Lam (Seung Sz Wan) (1) 17.7.81 Mr. Yau T'aai Hong (Nam Wai) 28.7.81 Madam Chan (Mang Kung Uk) 17.7.81 Mr. Lau (Tai Au Mun) 29.7.81 Mr. Lau K'in Tsun (Ha Yeung) 17.7.81 Mr. Lau (Siu Hang Hau) 30.7.81 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p H. J. LETHBRIDGE she opened a shop in Hong Kong, selling curios and objets-d'art. In 1927 she took a consignment of Chinese antiques, many from her late father's collection, to New York to sell. On October 10, 1927, she met her future husband in that city. Sir Travers Humphreys avers she was not, to English eyes, good-looking; others claimed she was attractive.20 But all agree she was charming and good-natured, much involved in charitable work. Less is known about Dr. Miao. Wai-sheung's relatives and friends never met him. He was a year younger than his wife. He was born in Chekiang (Chiang Kai-shek's native province) and, at the time of his trial, had a mother and sister living in Shanghai in the Chinese city. He claimed his father was a member of the Chinese Legislative Council (sic) and a Justice of the Peace. Miao studied law in China and later at Loyola University, Chicago. He was described as being extremely tall and slim, fluent in inaccurate English. His wife, a Cantonese, was petite, under five feet tall; so they were a noticeable couple together. They were married according to the rites of the American Episcopal Church. Siu was a devout Christian. Miao was probably a Christian, for Christianity was a sign of modernism in the early 1920s among the westernised, educated elite in Shanghai (later Marxism or Nationalism was to largely supplant all forms of religion and YMCA fraternalism among Chinese students and intellectuals). A newspaper report stated, in any case, that Miao 'professed Christianity before he died' (i.e., was hanged).91 After marrying in New York, they honeymooned in Buffalo, then Albany where the bride had a minor operation to facilitate sexual relations (probably dilation of the hymen). About four or five weeks after their wedding, they left for a two-months' vacation in Europe before returning to China. They landed at Glasgow, stayed in Edinburgh a day or two, and on June 17, 1928, stopped at Grange-in-Borrowdale, a Cumberland village, close to Derwentwater. On the next day, January 18, they went for a walk in the morning, returned for lunch, and left for another walk, hand-in-hand, at two o'clock. Miao returned home at about 4 p.m. and said his wife had gone to Keswick, about four miles away, to buy some warmer underwear. She did not return Page 150 Page 151 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 255 the examination successes and the honours won must also have been very impressive. Although there is no evidence that the villagers in general had acquired a higher level of literacy, yet school attendance in the village, with the school-going children amounting to 7.5% of the population, was higher than the average of 5% for the New Territories as a whole estimated by Lockhart in 1898. There was, furthermore, a relatively large number of teachers in the village, which was described as a "haven for the unsuccessful candidates of the yuan-kao", who usually worked as teachers.12 We have come across in the village some old hand-written manuscript collections of poems, couplets and essays written by village scholars, probably in the late Ch'ing. These were in many cases original collections of material either written or gathered by individuals and kept by their own families. There is no evidence that any of these collections had been copied out or printed for circulation. Literary appreciation of this order was, however, confined to the relatively small group of village scholars. The traditional pattern of village life remained very much the same after the arrival of the British in 1898. Yet there was some evidence of change. The coming of British rule had brought the lineage into direct contact with the West and into easy communication with the world outside. Construction of the Tai Po Road began in 1900 and of the railway in 1905. A number of other public works such as the erection of police stations, government offices and paths linking the villages with the main road were also undertaken. This, together with the setting up of a new administration, must have brought opportunities for new jobs. The more adventurous villagers might find their way to urban Hong Kong and Kowloon, while a number would seek jobs in the new construction works. We have oral records of a few who worked in the construction of the railway and the building of the paths. There was a teacher who gave up teaching to work in the Land Office. The total number of such new openings might be very small and had not yet brought any important changes to the traditional economic conditions of the village, yet they did open new avenues for work and wealth. This, together with the abolition of the civil ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 262 and often served as village leaders or became appointed officially as village representatives, enjoying perhaps as high a social prestige as had once been accorded to the civil examination degree-holders in imperial China. We have seen that, from about 1912 or 1913, some girls in the village began to be educated, and some boys began to seek a fully modern education outside the village. Adjustments were also made in the education available to the majority of the villagers who stayed and received their education in the village. But the changes were slow to come and were not without difficulties. Between 1913 and 1932, of the fifty to a hundred government subsidized schools in the New Territories, three at the most were from Sheung Shui and they had more than once been struck off from the subsidized school list because of unsatisfactory progress. When the Education Ordinance of 1913 was applied to the New Territories in 1921, at different times only between one and a maximum of three schools in Sheung Shui were accepted for registration. With an average attendance of about 20 students each, this small number of subsidized and registered schools accounted for only between 20 and, at most, 100 students, and probably averaged about 40. This meant that a great part of the village education at this time was operated outside approved channels, and was not subject to the supervision of the Hong Kong government, and since even the supervised schools were occasionally struck off for poor standards, it may be assumed that the average school had not received much advantage from the modern education ideas, modern textbooks and new teaching methods. School education remained basically still in the impoverished traditional form described above as typifying village education in the first decade of the century. Meanwhile, it seems unlikely that school attendance had dropped drastically, and it is therefore unlikely that more than a third of the school-going children in the village were being educated in these subsidized schools. According to accounts given by elders who had taught or studied in the village during these years, traditional small tutorial classes were carried out as before. But only the one, two or three larger and better such classes were able to secure any subsidy from the government. In these tutorial classes the curriculum remained basically as narrow as before, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 264 Sham Chun and Canton. But they were those, according to the New Territories Inspectors of Schools, who had lost their jobs because of educational reforms in China and whose training and attitude were too antiquated to be tolerated.”29. 80 The following table, which summarises the types of schooling and careers of twenty-two people of the village, born between 1895-1915, who attended schools in the 1910's and 1920's, helps to show that changed situations had brought new aspirations and demands. The cases are enough to tell that 1) experienced teachers were giving up their jobs for better paid work as shopowners, clerks and even grocers; 2) even 5-8 years of schooling at the traditional village schools turned out people capable of becoming shop-assistants, farmers, labourers or herbalists only and 3) an Anglo-Chinese education could equip people to take up much better-paid jobs such as clerks, registered teachers in the city and eventually headmasters. Year of birth Years in school Type of School Subject Occupations 1895 10 2, over 10 3, 6, 3.1, 1.3 Subsidized village school teacher, shopowner at Shek Wu Hui! 1900 10 1901 5, 8 L, 4, 3, 3 Subsidized village school teacher, clerk at a private firm in Hong Kong 1905 7, 6 Clerk at private firm, businessman, Landowner, farmer, hawker, Interpreter/clerk in Police Department and Medical Department, Subsidized school teacher at Kowloon, headmaster, Businessman at Kowloon, government clerk 1. 12 i ; + TABLE II :: выпитьной سیما ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 265 Year of birth Years in Type of School Subject school 1906 8 9 り over 10 10 4 3 J ! | 5 I 12 8 13 10 DAC вит L L... L. 1910 14 3 K 3 1911 15 7 ✓ 16 S 1915 B C 17 5 18 3 L 1 برد 19 3 2 20 N GA પ ватим L... ... Атить 2 8 21 ... 12 вонить 222 22 6 L .... ватни Occupations Caddie at Fanling Golf Club, brick-maker at Lo Wu Subsidized village school teacher, teacher at Fung Kai Clerk in various government departments Grocer, bus-driver Shop-assistant, seaman Private village school teacher, registered village school teacher, grocer Registered teacher at Shek Wu Hui Herbalist Farmer, labourer (Urban Council) Caddie, farmer, seaman Teacher at a modern school in Canton Shopowner at Kowloon Grant school teacher at Kowloon, headmaster Registered school teacher, businessman at Saikung Son of a village school teacher, herbalist Traditional village schools in Sheung Shui Anglo-Chinese Schools at Taipo Anglo-Chinese Schools at Kowloon/Hong Kong ================================================================================ 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-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p BOOK REVIEWS 329 Augustus K. K. Siu and Anthony K. K. Siu, Studies on Chinese Genealogies and the History of the Hong Kong Region, Fung Chin Institute, Hong Kong, 1982. This book consists of eleven essays on the Hong Kong region (Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, the New Territories, and neighbouring areas). Four of them deal with genealogies, six principally with the history of the New Territories, and the last with boat people's songs. The central theme is that genealogies are valuable source materials for writing the history of this area, and this theme is illustrated with numerous examples. There should be no dispute on the central theme: the question is how to put it into practice. The essay on migration into the Hong Kong region (chapter 5), despite the misleading reference in the title to all immigrant lineages as "guest lineages", is a useful example. In this essay, the authors list the time periods during which fifty-three surname groups first settled here from evidence recorded in their genealogies. The Tangs of Kam Tin, Lung Yeuk Tau, etc., and the P'aangs of Fan Ling came at the end of the Sung dynasty, the Lams of Shek Po Tsuen, and the Lius of Wu Kai Sha came in the Ming, and so on. The list is a useful first approximation, but obviously much more needs to be done. Another interesting essay (chapter 4) describes ten historical “events” recorded in the genealogies. They include the marriage of the Sung princess to the ancestor of the Tangs, several famines and piratical attacks, the coastal evacuation from 1662 to 1668, the establishment of Tai Po New Market, the burial of a Chinese Christian at a Protestant cemetery on Hong Kong Island in 1854, the establishment of charity schools by philanthropist Fung Ping Shan, and flooding in Tsuen Wan in 1954. Similar "events" are discussed in greater detail in four other chapters (6, 8, 9 and 10), i.e., the establishment of the "five great clans" of the New Territories, the legend often referred to as "letting go of the wooden goose", the experience of the Southern Sung court in Kowloon, and the Tsuen Wan village feud of 1862 to 1864. Quite a few of these events have been discussed by other authors, notably Lo Hsiang-lin and James Hayes. These later chapters make use of stone tablets and oral ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 105 with rocks and reefs in addition; the name may mean "Dragnet Isles". The northernmost island is a dumb-bell with quite a good harbour, and a fishing village of huts very different from ordinary Chinese dwellings. This island was another settlement of early man. The southern larger isle has two or three villages on its dumb-bell isthmus. There is a shrimp paste factory here which exports to Europe and America. The names Tai and Sai A Chau mean "Big and Little Forked Island". A small island to the west of the group is also a dumb-bell; the isthmus here is covered at high tide. Patung or Shek Kwu Chau (“Stone Drum Island") is rocky and barren, but with one small valley where cultivation is possible. It was once proposed to lease the island as a rabbit farm, but the proposers never went on with it.20 its English name To the south-east of Lantau are a number of more important islands. Of these the most prosperous is Cheung Chau (“Long Island"). Cheung Chau is the best example of a dumb-bell island in these waters. The northern end contains a small hamlet and cultivation, the southern end contains the "Peak", or European reservation. It started there through missionaries building holiday bungalows on the hills: they began doing so in 1906, attracted by the beaches, the easy marketing and the village ferry to Hong Kong. This was run in the interest of the fish trade, but was taken over some 10 years ago by the Western Ferries Co., a Hong Kong concern, Between the fish trade and the market gardens, Cheung Chau breeds more flies per square yard than any other place in the Colony. It has a street cleaning squad, but of course this cannot touch the masses of filth on private property. There is a fire engine, a Government school, a hospital, and a big temple to Pak Tai, god of the Pole Star, the finances of which were inextricably mixed with those of the market, the ferry, and the electric light station. There are plays annually performed in May for the pleasure of Pak Tai, and incidentally for his worshippers, in a huge decorated matshed put up in front of the temple. It draws big crowds, and stimulates business quite a lot. There are other temples too, and little shrines to local spirits. There is also ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 209 CHUE MO PENG (#Ł), A FEVER REPORTED FROM VILLAGES IN THE HONG KONG REGION, AND ITS CURE, TOGETHER WITH OTHER VILLAGE REMEDIES FOR EXCESS HEAT JAMES HAYES This note deals with chue mō pêng (Meyer-Wempe Cantonese but variously romanized below) the subject of a disease often complained of by local villagers, in my experience. Eitel's Dictionary* mentions it under mo; ‘Chu mo ping or chut chu teng, a common disease in South China. It begins with high fever and after vigourously rubbing the chest, bristles an inch long appear through the skin, after their removal the fever goes down' (vol. 1, p. 619). A similar account, under "Chu Mo Teng", appears at pp. 171-2 of S.H. Peplow's Hong Kong Around and About, published in 1930 by the Commercial Press, Hong Kong. The author was a Land Bailiff with the District Office South, New Territories of Hong Kong and would have been well acquainted with village life. "A common disease in South China. The translation is: chu—a pig. Mo—hair. Teng—nail. A disease where hairs, like pig's bristles or nails issue forth. It is purely a native fever." By chance, I came across a dramatic instance of this disease in my early years as a government officer when engaged in compensating and rehousing villagers who were to be displaced for the Shek Pik reservoir on Lantau Island, 1957-60. The village people attributed a major epidemic that caused many deaths about the year 1936 to this disease (100 persons were said to have died, though this is probably an exaggeration). * A Chinese-English Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect by Dr. Ernest John Eitel, revised and enlarged by Immanuel Gottlieb Genähr of the Rhenish Missionary Society (Hong Kong, Kelly and Walsh, 2 vols., 1911 and 1912). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 217 was great and must have left them with little time or money to spare for their ruined temple. Finally, and almost certainly the most seriously, the influx of a new population, and immense schemes of redevelopment completely altered the generally rural background of village and market town life that still characterised pre-war East Kowloon. Thus, in the Tung Shan Temple we can see a temple, founded for purely rural reasons slowly growing until it became the predominant community temple of the whole of rural East Kowloon. During this period its management changed from a purely private, clan-based system to a typical community temple structure of committee members and chairman of a type typical not only of the rural community temples in the rest of the New Territories but also of those in urban Hong Kong at this date. Founded in a rural community this temple could, and did, develop both physically and in its management structure to reflect the needs of that community. It could not, however, survive the complete destruction of that community, and its ruination directly reflects the collapse of its founding community in the face of massive urbanisation, and the establishment of the new urban communities created by that urbanisation. The new urban communities have formed their own shrines, and their flourishing condition, alongside the continued ruin of the main temple of the defunct rural community, show more clearly than anything else can the essentially community basis of the temples of this area and their management groups. NOTES In the 1904 Block Crown Lease for Survey District No. 3, New Kowloon, the ownership is recorded in the monk's name Shing Kin (Hsing Star Bridge) and the property is listed under Lot 1101 as temple 0.7 acres, house 0.2 acres, and potato ground 0.33 acres. An entry "Kwun Yam Temple, Ngau Chi Wan" had been crossed out by the Assistant Land Officer who recommended that a lease for the temple buildings and site be given to the Registrar General, 28 April 1904. From south-east Kowloon, Ngau Tau Kok and Cha Kwo Ling; from east Kowloon, Ngau Chi Wan, Ping Shek, Sha Tei Yuen, Upper and Lower Yuen Ling and Chu Shi Liu; from central Kowloon, Tai Hom, Po Kong, Nga Tsin Wai, Upper and Lower Sha Po, Nga Tsin Long and Kak Hang; from Kowloon City, the commercial areas, Sai Tau, Tung Tau and Hoklo Village. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 107 see, had a reputation for civility. The larger farming villages included Little Hong Kong and Wong Nei Chung. The smaller villages and hamlets included Hok Tsui, Chai Wan, To Tei Wan, Tai Tam (at Stanley), Tin Wan (at Aberdeen), Wan Chai, Tai Tam Tuk, Kwan Tai Lo, Wong Ma Kok, So Kon Po, Shek O and Pokfulam, whilst the port villages cum small towns included Chek Chu (Stanley), Shau Kei Wan and Shek Pai Wan (Aberdeen).” Most of these settlements exist today, albeit greatly changed, although a few have gone. What did these places look like in the 1840s when they first came under British rule? Fortunately, in those days before the camera, one of the officers stationed on the island and entrusted with the first contour survey (1843-1845) entered some useful descriptions in his letters home. This was Lieutenant Thomas Bernard Collinson of the Royal Engineers, a gifted young man who died a major-general at the age of 81 in 1902." In a letter he wrote: "There is really a great deal more to be seen in Hong Kong than its appearance promises. Besides the town of Chuck Chu [Chek Chu] there are 10 villages and at least 400 acres of well cultivated ground. Some of the villages certainly consist of only 7 or 8 houses, but they are distinct villages with ground attached. The largest is Shapwont as it is printed," or “Chuckpyewan" as it is called by the inhabitants, and “Aberdeen" as it is called by the Governor. Her Majesty's surveying vessel employed by the Board of Ordinance has been anchored for a fortnight exactly at the figure 6 at Careening island [on the Chart of the anchorage] and begins to know something of Aberdeen and if the old Aberdeen is anything like the new, it must be a straggling village scattered round a small bay, with an ill-paved sort of quay in front and about 50 fishing boats lying about a great rock in the middle, a good supply of shops where bamboo hats, mats, sails, ropes and baskets; rice, fruit, vegetables, tobacco, earthenware and fireworks are all sold together; these being the staple commodities of a Chinese country shop and cakes by the bye, with plenty of pork fat in everything and a thousand of the dirtiest men women and children that ever talked altogether in a singsong: ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 127 practices dating back to the complainants childhood and before suggests that the Tanka were using the Tai Tam Tuk anchorage from at least the very beginning of the nineteenth century. I turn now to the important question of how far back was Hong Kong occupied? This is practically an impossible question to answer for lack of sufficient information. As in many other places, like Tsuen Wan and north-west Kowloon, the present old, local, formerly tenant families appear mainly to have come into the area after the Great Evacuation of the Coast ordered by the Kanghsi emperor, 1662-69, and many of them not until the eighteenth century or even after. Yet it is an interesting fact that the maps in a later 16th century geographical work on Kwangtung, the Yueh ta-chi(A) contain names that are familiar to us today, on Hong Kong island as well as on the other islands and mainland of the Hong Kong region. Thus we find Chek Chu (Stanley), Tai Tam, Wong Nei Chung, Tit Hang, Chun Hoi and Shau Kei Wan, as well as Hong Kong itself, implying surely, that these places were settled at that time or were at least resorted to periodically. Also, the Tang correspondence from the 1840s quoted above specifically refers to recultivation of their land in various places in the late seventeenth century — though not necessarily by the former tenant farmers after revocation of the edict of 1662 referred to above. We also learn that the Tang land on Hong Kong island was entered in the Tung Kwun district land registry, suggesting that the registration might well be earlier than 1573, at which date the San On district was carved out of Tung Kwun and established as a separate county. 71 The island was certainly well-established in settled communities long before 1841. The temples alone give proof of that. To this day, two existing temples at Stanley, and two at Aberdeen (one at the former village and one on an islet now joined by reclamation to Ap Lei Chau) and the Tin Hau Temple at Tin Hau Temple Road, Causeway Bay (formerly called Hung Heung Lo or "Crimson Incense Burner") contain items that go back to the eighteenth or very early nineteenth century. There were others now demolished or resited that probably predated 1841. Details are given in the Table below. 72 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 310 VILLAGE SHOPS IN THE HONG KONG REGION JAMES HAYES Village shops are seldom written about: in the main, I suppose, because they were of such little consequence. Villagers had to go to market towns or market villages for necessities like oil and salt, and anything else that they did not produce or make themselves. The village shops were seemingly contemptible affairs, selling sweets and an assortment of joss papers, and were run as part-time ventures by village people. Some examples from different places have cropped up in my accounts of discussions with old persons born in the last few decades of the 19th century. At Ma Wan Chung (pop. 51 at the 1911 Census of Hong Kong) a coastal village at Tung Chung on Lantau Island near an anchorage, there were a few little shops which, in addition to the basic stock-in-trade described above sold peanut oil for villagers' lamps. Their status and uncertain existence were graphically described as being "run by villagers who operated them when they had a little money to buy goods and stopped when they had none". Ma Wan Chung had some business with the resident boat population, so there was more incentive than in ordinary places. From my enquiries, it seems that many of the sixteen Tung Chung villages (total pop. 1198 in 1911) had a shop of this kind, because there were always villagers who hoped to make a little money in this way from providing a convenient service for the other residents. There were also visits from itinerant hawkers who brought with them a wider variety of goods including crockery, oil, sweets, cloth etc. Elsewhere on Lantau Island, at the large village of Shek Pik on the south coast of the island, (pop. 363 in 1911), there were three or four little shops when my informants were boys, in the first decade of this century. They were kept by village men "as the women were illiterate and couldn't count or keep simple accounts". They sold groceries, kerosene, joss paper and ritual goods, cakes, sweets, fruit and the like. As at Tung Chung they stopped and started as capital was or ceased to be available, and their operators changed frequently. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 193 第五册 [帖式]書面題 楊榮發 Yeung Wing Fat, Hong Kong (顯田楊先生藏) [帖式](顯田楊先生藏) 第六册 歷代祖考妣 民國十八年正月吉旦抄 (Siu Lek Yuan, Shatin, 蔡氏) 錫鴻公歷史 民國三十六年結月立 (Siu Lek Yuan, Shatin, 蔡氏) 吳氏純宜祖家譜 (Taiwai, Shatin, Ng Family) 民國三十六年秋季吳桂桑手抄 日有堂世系記 同治拾年歲辛未六月吉日立 (沙田茂草岩村劉氏族譜) 陳姓總族譜 陳姓開基始祖族譜 中華民國或拾壹年孟冬月修牒 暢英手訂 (沙田下不輋村陳氏) 香港塔門廣東陽春藍氏族譜合編 一九七二年 禾輋約同安社值理人名部 一九七六丙辰年吉立 會家大屋滄桑史 仲德馨 Village handbook provided by Mr. Ts'oi Kam Ts'uen, Tai Wai Village, Shatin (Copied by Mr. Ts'oi from an older text) 校設將軍澳 作述彙記部 國八年歲次乙未春季吉立 (沙田大圍蔡錦泉先生藏) [醫術入門]書面題石古龍村許華保存(石古龍村許甲興先生借) 國興號必祥抄錄列列宗家譜善修行一民國六年丁已四月吉日 (顯田羅氏族譜) 第七册 [帖式](上徑口村華澤霖先生藏) 家譜(上徑口村草澤霖先生藏) 羅家族譜 民國十三年季秋(九肚羅雲喜先生藏) 迎鸞手歐恬(沙田茂草岩村) 增訂驗方新編 光緒三十一年歲次乙巳冬月鉛刻 書面題石古龍村許華保(石古龍村許甲興先生借出) 第八册 族譜(禾輋村陳耀輝先生藏) [帖式 ](沙田茂草岩村鄭元章先生藏) (鄭氏族譜 沙田茂草岩村) [丘氏]族譜(Chek Nai Ping, Shatin, 丘氏) 河南堂丘氏族譜全本重修 戊午年五月輔廷立 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 79 II. The settlements The puppet theatre and most of the Taoist rites took place at a site in Shek O village during the festival. The participating villages included Shek O as well as Tai Long Wan and Hok Tsui. Hok Tsui is more than three miles from Shek O and used to hold its own celebration. A formerly separate settlement, Seung Wai, was midway between Shek O and Tai Long Wan about 2 miles away. Its residents had moved to Shek O in the 1920s or 1930s. Taking Seung Wai into account and assuming that it had joined the festival before the removal, the festival had been celebrated by three neighbouring villages. Having one of the most scenic beaches in Hong Kong, Shek O is a popular holiday spot for the urban residents of Hong Kong. Double-deck buses run between Shaukiwan and Shek O at half-hour or shorter intervals from early in the morning to 11:30 p.m. Near where the road divides for Shek O and Tai Long Wan a golf club which caters mainly for Westerners occupies a large area of land. Near the bus stop at Shek O are several shops, food stalls, restaurants and bicycle rental shops catering for the needs of the holiday visitors. Some of the shops have tables where one can sit for a drink. When there are few visitors in the winter season there are local people playing mahjongg or chatting over glasses of beer in some of those shops. The casual tourist will notice a dense settlement of cottages and huts, and in the areas with better views, Western-styled "villas". Few of the houses are in the style of indigenous village houses found in the New Territories. Near the bus stop is an area of vegetable gardens run by Hoklo residents whose presence in the settlement was conspicuously represented during the jiu celebration by several flags set up near the bus stop. Superficially, everything suggests that Shek O is a rather recent settlement. But Shek O has existed as a village for more than 150 years, if, as the villagers claim, the last decennial jiu was the sixteenth.' Originally, the villages were inhabited by Punti and Hakka people. A 73-year-old woman who married in from Hok Tsui told me that her husband's family had been there for four generations. They ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 83 the right direction. At that time the Shek O men worked as seamen and their farm land was idle. The newcomers did vegetable gardening and fishing, renting farm land from Shek O people. To explain why the locals accepted the newcomers, Mr. Lau said that the local population was only some 300 at that time. The newcomers had built their houses on Crown land, which Mr. Lau said was ba-wong-dei, i.e. land which was claimed by the exertion of physical presence in force. Besides the predominately Western residents of the “villas”, there were newcomers from the cities too. One woman who started a brief conversation with me when preparing among others the final offerings to the ghosts told me that her husband who worked in an accounting firm moved to Shek O some 20 years ago in his forties because he liked the place. Among the newcomers was also a Tanka family. Shek O has a temple for Tin Hau, who was the main god of the jiu celebration. According to Professor Tanaka Issei, the oldest dated object found in the temple was a bin-ngaak inscription dated the eighteenth year of Gwong-seui (1893).* Immediately to the left of the Tin Hau temple is a Residents' Association which organized an annual celebration in honour of Tin Hau. Third in the row of houses is the Man San Sports Association. I remember that the primary school is also named Man San, and at one of the shops or tea-houses near the bus stop, there was a poster announcing the results of football matches organized by the Man San Sports Association. According to Mr. Wong, the Shek O Residents Association takes care of local public affairs, relaying messages from the Hong Kong Government. It liaises with the South District Office and the Chai Wan district police headquarters. I saw a poster inviting entries for a South District Festival competition, with "forms available from the Shek O Association” added in handwriting. The officers of the association also organize the annual opera performances in honour of Tin Hau. Mr. Lau saw the association as essentially a development of the village office (heung-gung-so) of pre-War times. The association has almost 2,000 members, although some of the Shek O residents do not join. Mr. Lau could ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1986 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/jq08c7063 84 CHAN WING HOI not give any figures for the ratio between indigenous residents and newcomers among the members, but he stressed that no distinction was made between the two groups (mou-san pei-chi). It seems, nonetheless, that the Hoklo, Wai Chau and Chiu Chau residents see themselves as distinctive groups in the settlement. There is probably a separate association for them, for many of the flags put on display in the entrance area were styled "to the Fuk-Wai-Chiu [a short term for Fuk Kin, Wai Chau and Chiu Chau] fellow townsmen" or their Association.' I found out less about Tai Long Wan and Hok Tsui. In these two settlements, too, the indigenous villagers had been Hakka and Punti people who practised paddy cultivation and fishing. Many of the men of more recent generations worked as seamen and their descendants were able to obtain jobs in the city. As in the case of Shek O, outside interest in their scenic surroundings has been a major factor in the changes in the last few decades. I talked with Mr. Yau Ho Sam, who moved to Tai Long Wan about 40 years ago. His native place was Zheng Cheng, but before he moved to Tai Long Wan, he had lived at Wong Chuk Hang. There were only some ten families at Tai Long Wan when he arrived. Now there are more than 100. The original inhabitants were mainly Hakka although some were Punti. According to Mr. Wong, Tai Long Wan is still a mainly Hakka village, although there are also some Punti, Chiu Chau and Hoklo people. Tourist facilities can be seen in the village, and there are some Westerners' residences. For Hok Tsui most of my information comes from the man who drove the Taoist priests to his village in his van for the daily haang-chiu procession in the festival. In the past the village had 40 indigenous households. Now there are fewer. The villagers were mainly Hakka. His family has been here for ten generations, counting to his grandsons. In the past many worked as seamen. They probably became wealthy in that occupation. There is a watch tower (diu-lau) in the main village (jing-chyn) for protection against bandits, said to be the only watch tower left on Hong Kong Island. I observed that many of the present houses were not in the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 112 A HOKLO WEDDING VALERY M. GARRETT During one of our many visits to Sha Tau Kok with Roger, my Hoklo-speaking assistant, to seek out traditional Chinese clothing for the Hong Kong Museum of History, we learned that a wedding would take place on Tuesday, 24th May 1988, for one of the families living in the squatter area of Yim Liu Ha. This is a district within Sha Tau Kok populated by approximately 3,000 Hoklo people who were due to be transferred to new blocks of rural housing during the latter part of 1988 onwards. We were advised to arrive early, and so at 9:30 am on the appointed day we made our way through the village. It was easy to spot the home of the bridegroom, a hundred yards down one of the narrow streets, for around the doorway was draped a narrow length of red cotton, while in the centre, hanging from the lintel, was a freshly cut leg of pork. This was the home of Mr. Lee Sau Choy (李壽財), aged 29, who lived with his parents, three younger brothers, and two younger sisters. His parents were former boat people who had come ashore and settled in Yim Liu Ha some thirty years ago, although his father had continued to go to sea until fairly recently. Mr. Lee worked in Fanling as a fireman, and it was near there, at Kwan Tei, that his bride lived, Miss Lai Miu Han (黎妙嫻), aged 27 and a locally born Cantonese. The marriage had already been registered in Tai Po, and the question of dowry settled. This had been in two parts: the first was a sum of money paid directly to the bride's family of several thousand dollars; the second part consisted of some gifts of gold jewellery given to the bride which, combined with the bride's family's gift of jewellery, would be brought back to the bridegroom's home that morning. Inside the house, on both the left and facing right wall, was hung a blanket known as hei-pei (喜被). Upon each blanket was stitched a cut-out double-happiness character in silver paper, with dragon and phoenix painted on it. Above the character on the blanket on the left-hand wall were stitched two rows of four $500 notes, while ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 256 I had been interested in social history in England and started to look for books about the New Territories, in particular on the Southern District, but soon found there was practically nothing. After a while, I realized that papers had been written but they were usually in journals that were not easy to get hold of in Hong Kong; and there was not very much anyway in English. I suppose that spurred me on to do more than I might have done. I was rather cross about it, I recall, because I gathered that many of the local settlements had been there for many centuries. The Shek Pik village alone was established in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, in the 15th century, and possibly before that. Faced with a challenge, I began to look around for materials that would tell me more about the district and its people. I soon noticed that the temples and some other buildings contained inscribed tablets, sometimes about the repair of the building and sometimes about law cases in the long ago when the District Magistrate, or the local people after asking the Magistrate, had stone tablets put there commemorating legal decisions. I collected copies of these inscriptions and other documentary material, like land deeds, family papers, account books and genealogies (a point to which I will return later in this talk). I interviewed persons in their homes, and they were nervous for reasons not connected with the impositions of research. Once some people were very fidgety, and I couldn't understand why. This was in a fishing village on the shores of Junk Bay. I looked down, and saw that I was sitting on what I hoped was an expended tin of explosives! They liked fishing with dynamite, and they still do. In fact, there was a letter from a lady from Tolo Harbour in the South China Morning Post only the other day asking 'how come they are still dynamiting?' This goes right back to 1904 and probably earlier, when the reports of the Alice Memorial Hospital contained reports about fishermen coming in with missing hands or legs. I persuaded other District Officers to get their staff to record these tablets, too, and built up a collection of inscriptions with other people's help of about 30 or 40 of them. However, I couldn't do anything with them. My Chinese was not good enough to handle that material. In any case, some of the tablets were defaced and some characters were hard to read or even missing. It required ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q CONTENTS PRESIDENT'S REPORT ............. HON. TREASURER'S REPORT HON. LIBRARIAN'S REPORT ARTICLES: • Dian H. Murray, Pirates in the Pearl River Delta ... Dan Waters, A Brief History of Technical Education in Hong Kong • Steven A. Leibo, Not So Calm An Administration: The Anglo-French Occupation of Canton, 1858-1861 Wei Peh T'i, Through Historical Records and Ancient Writings in search of the Giant Panada • Carl T. Smith, The First Child Labour Law in Hong Kong vii xviii xxiii • 1 10 16 • 34 44 Sung Hok-P'ang, Legends and Stories of the New Territories; Tai Po 70 Sung Hok-P'ang, Legends and Stories of the New Territories; Castle Peak 26 76 Sung Hok-P'ang, Ts'in Fuk 86 Violet Mebig Chan Lew, A Sentimental Journey into the Past of the Chan and Jong Families 94 Harold M. Otness, "The One Bright Spot in Shanghai" A History of the Library of the North China Branch of The Royal Asiatic Society NOTES AND QUERIES: • David Faure, The Man the Emperor Decapitated Carl T. Smith, The Archives of the Basel Mission 185 198 203 P. H. Hase, The Lanterns of Chuko Liang O. William Borrell FMS, A Silver Bracelet with an Ancient Greek Coin found in Wewak, East Sepik Province, Papua New Guinea · 207 212 James Hayes, The Tai Sheung Lo Kwan Temple, Chai Wan 217 • E. W. Wright, The Hongkong Milling Company's Failure 218 P. H. Hase, A Traditional New Territories Latrine James Hayes, A Note on Rice Hullers 222 226 James Hayes, A Glimpse of the Land Settlement at Shek Pik Village, Lantau Island, Hong Kong 228 BOOK REVIEWS 234 · vi Page & ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 88 panic; many of the people abandoned their homes without taking food or money, and with their wives and children were driven towards the boundary. Destitute, many of them died on the road, while a few managed to escape to Kwai Shin district and other places as far away as they could. A year later the boundary was moved a further 30 Chinese miles inland. The new boundary ended to the west at Taai Ch'ung Hau and Sha T'ong Fong and to the east at Taai Shaan Ha and Paak T'au Shaan, a flag being put up at each of these places. Almost immediately the district magistrate of Tung Kwun made a personal inspection of the places where the flags were erected and he reported that the people in Taai Chung Hau had not moved so the flag was taken from Sha Tong Fong and hoisted on top of Shek Shaan. Thus the six villages Ch'ung Hau, Lau Ka Haang, Chaak Mei, K'iu T'au and Tau Ch'ung all had to be moved, but at Kiu T'au a rope was put between it and the boundary and half only of the village was shifted. The Viceroy Lo Shung Tsun quite sympathized with the people, and joined with other high officials in sending a memorial to the throne, stating how miserable the people were, and begging that fewer villages should be caused to move. In the 10th month of the same year (1663) two head boatmen, Chau Yuk and Lei Wing revolted against the Ts'ing Government in Kwangtung. These two men were the owners of fleets of several hundreds of junks that usually fished in the rivers of Poon Yue district. All the junks had long oars as well as three sails so they were very fast. In addition they stored a lot of arms on board. Both Lei and Chau had a military title of Yau Kik bestowed on them by the P'ing Naam Wong, as their sailors had proved themselves of great assistance in fighting sea-battles against the Ming soldiers. When, however, the order was issued preventing boats from putting out to sea the junks of Chau and Lei were detained in the rivers and their families forced to live in Canton city. Chau and Lei pretended to get leave to go home and bury the bones of their ancestors. Secretly they took their families away from Canton, and collecting all the boatmen they put out to sea. Then openly they attacked the Ts'ing forces, capturing many of their ships and burning the guard stations along the coast. They never ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 100 Unfortunately Ngit Chiu, who went to Honolulu and worked as a carpenter, became addicted to opium. A burial permit dated 15 November 1924 states clearly that he had died of an overdose. Whenever he visited us, and that was not often, he would borrow from Father, who would give him only a few dollars since he disapproved of Ngit Chiu's drug habit. In 1919 when I visited his foster mother in the village, she inquired about him because she had not heard from him for many years, but I was forewarned not to tell her about his circumstances. Jok King, the fifth son, also died in his 20s and left a daughter, Iu Dai, but no male issue. Likewise, Jok Sau ‘gave' another of his sons, Dai Geng, to this brother. Dai Geng did not live long and left a widow with several sons in Canton where he had been working in a bank. Jok King's widow and daughter remained in the village. They were both quite agitated the day Aunt Auyoung and I visited them, as they related how someone had tried to get into their home by ladder via a rear window. Aunt Auyoung did not seem to feel the incident really happened, tried to be very reassuring and told them no one would dare to harm them because First Uncle would not allow it. Iu Dai is said to be the first and only old maid in our village. Because her mother was so selective of a husband for her, when she reached 18, she was considered too old to be sought after. Even though she was a victim of an old culture, the village youths would tease her about it. During World War II when no one could send support to her, I heard that she had to go out to beg for food. After Great Grandfather's death, his business continued under Jok Jun, after whose death Grandfather took over. The business failed under his management, reportedly due to a bad loan to Grandmother's family for the operation of an oyster farm. This is the reason given why no photographs of grandmothers in our family were preserved – certainly misplaced hostility. Grandfather therefore decided to emigrate to Hawaii to seek a livelihood and hopefully to be able to return the depositors their money. According to Second Uncle's wife, when she was left in the village, she often had to hide from the creditors. Many years later, First Uncle paid these debts on a percentage basis. My grandmother, surnamed Au, was born on 23 January 1846. She was a native of Joo Poo Tau Village, and was related to... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 103 later. He had always been concerned about the future of his sons, sending the two older boys to California to seek their fortune, nurturing the two younger ones with schooling in Mills School and Punahou Preparatory School, and giving them constant counsel, as evidenced by the many letters he sent to Father in Hilo. Grandfather finally decided to go back to his native land, still depressed over the loss of his youngest child. His sight was already failing because of cataracts. In 1907 or 1908, he departed for his home village, accompanied by Aunt Yim and her family, but he stopped over in Shanghai to visit with Second Paternal Uncle and his family. After about four years, he proceeded to Hong Kong, on his way back to the village. He was met in Hong Kong by his nephew, Gut Kau, and taken to a hotel. One morning as he was reaching for a towel, he collapsed and passed away, no doubt from a heart attack, without seeing his native home again. The date of his death is recorded as 14 May 1911. Grandfather had always maintained that a nephew was like a son, and coincidentally, it was a nephew who was with him at the end and who took care of his interment. I was told that he was 63 years of age when he left Honolulu and 67 when he died. Although I have no recollection of Grandfather, I do have a mental image of a fine-looking, elderly gentleman in a Chinese cap and gown from a large photograph which graced our parlour wall for many years, and I feel a sense of pride and love for him from whom I am descended. First Paternal Uncle First Paternal Uncle was born on 3 January 1868. His 'milk name' was Ping Wing, his name upon marriage, Hee Kau, and his business name, Shing Min. He was a distinguished-looking man, tall and handsome, with nicely-formed features. He held himself erect and kept a trim figure even in his later years when I came to know him well. My father told me that his two older brothers were considered the two handsomest young men in their village. After studying English in Hong Kong and getting married, he emigrated to the United States in 1886 as a carpenter's apprentice. He eventually became connected with the Bank of Canton in San Francisco and was rumoured to be the idol of women entertainers in that city. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 122 of Chung made a good marriage, for her husband, Leong Ting Bau of How Village, was the holder of the highest military degree, which gave him honour and status. He, however, had turned out to be an unfaithful husband and a ne'er-do-well, and Aunt Leong did not have an easy life. She had two children but they both died very young. I regret that I did not ask Father to tell me more about her. Third Paternal Aunt Third Paternal Aunt, the youngest of Father's three sisters, was Chan Yung Yick, born on 27 January 1872, and married to Auyoung Chew Chong ‡, a native of Ma Tse Village. He was born on 9 December 1871. Their children, all sons, were: Suk Jun born 8 August 1889 Suk Nam born 22 September 1905 Suk Chiu born 26 June 1909 Uncle Auyoung settled in Reno, Nevada, when he went to the United States, where he worked as a tailor. In 1921 Suk Jun followed his father to the United States to study in San Francisco, sailing on the S.S. China. He remembers Father taking food to him when the ship docked in Honolulu because as an alien, he was not permitted to go ashore. It was a happy meeting, their first, and the beginning of a long friendship between him and us. Suk Jun said his mother often missed her siblings and would show him my Father's photograph. In 1912, when his mother was ill, his father told him to go back to take care of her. On 24 December that year, he married Ching Lai So, a native of On Dung Village. She was born on 6 March 1906. They settled in Hong Kong, where he worked as a bank clerk. They had four sons and three daughters. Uncle Auyoung returned to China in 1926 with his wife and youngest son when he was 55 years old to retire in his native village. After Aunt Auyoung died on 24 November 1948 and the takeover of China by the Communists, he went to live with Suk Jun in Kowloon, where he died on 19 April 1957 at the age of 86. It was then that Suk Jun felt that he had fulfilled his responsibility to his parents and that he would now seek a new life for himself. Thus, in 1962, he returned alone to the United States, first to Chicago, and later in 1973 to California where his wife ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 228 It reads in translation: + + "There are two sorts of rice huller. One is made of wood. The other sort is made of mud. This sort is made with a round bamboo frame, filled with clean yellow mud. Bamboo teeth are pressed into both the upper and lower hulling faces. The upper frame of the huller has a hollow to receive the grain, the capacity of which is double that of a wooden huller. If the grain is at all damp when it goes into the huller, it will be crushed. After hulling 200 shek (E) of rice, a mud huller will start to fall to pieces. Wooden hullers require strong men to operate them, but mud hullers are suitable for operation by women or young people. The ordinary peasants use mud hullers of this type." I am grateful to Mr. Yau for drawing my attention to this description. James Hayes A GLIMPSE OF THE LAND SETTLEMENT AT SHEK PIK VILLAGE, LANTAU ISLAND, HONG KONG In the opening years of this century, following the lease of what is now the New Territories of Hong Kong, all land that was being utilised or had been occupied was surveyed by the new government. A Land Court was set up to settle all claims to ownership of land, and any disputes were adjudicated. Finally, a register of ownership for each of the 355 Demarcation Districts was prepared and bound into a folio together with a survey sheet and a Block Crown Lease. Whilst the work of the survey and land court are well-documented in the official reports of the time,1 few materials showing the process in the villages have survived. To my mind, the most interesting of these are the small printed "chits”, known to villagers and government staff alike as Chi Tsai ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 229 **Small Papers**", Measuring only three inches square, they were issued at or near the time of the survey, to the persons who claimed each plot of land and would later have to substantiate their claims before the land court by producing acceptable proof of their ownership under Chinese rule. A group of miscellaneous land papers was given to me thirty years ago by the elder of the Chi(i) clan of Shek Pik, a multi-clan village on Lantau Island, then in the course of removal to make way for the construction of a large reservoir intended to improve the Hong Kong water supply. This unexpected presentation followed the settlement of compensation for all land in the valley. Whilst I made use of most of these papers to write about the village,2 I had forgotten about the chi tsai which came with them until the other day. Looking again at the Shek Pik papers, I realised that they had something more to tell us about the village at that time than I had squeezed out of the rest. In the first place, there were two different kinds of chi tsai. One sort was printed on one side only (See Plate 14). The other, though identical with the other in that respect, was also printed on the reverse (See Plate 15). They were otherwise the same. The most likely reason for their similarity is that the second type represents a second printing, when the opportunity was taken to add headings of information that were being written by hand on the earlier version. Presumably, there were stocks of both kinds available to the government staff working at Shek Pik, as the information being recorded on them relates to the same man and his property in the several demarcation districts allocated to the several parts of the area, and gives every indication of having been collected at the same time. All the chi tsai relate to one man, named Chi Yau-kei(!). In all there are 23 of the first kind, and 16 of the second. A list of the information contained on them is given in the Table. It is not known whether the chi tsai are the total number issued to Chi Yau-kei, though a search of the ownership schedules would confirm or reject this possibility. Quite possibly they do not. A note on one of the chi tsai states "B.18. p.7 & 8. 21 Chi Tsai lost?" (See Plate 14) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q DEZAKETTRE DWUKISME) James Hayes 233 NOTES See the list of printed papers given at pp. 271-272 of my book, The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911: Institutions and Leadership in Town and Countryside (Hamden, Conn., Archon Books, 1977). Perhaps I should add that whilst the progress of the survey and land settlement are described, the records of hearings in cases where disputes could not otherwise be settled are not now available, save for some reports in the local English-language newspapers.1 See Chapter 4, "Shek Pik, A Multilineage Settlement of Cantonese Farmers" in Hayes 1977, op cit, pp. 104-128. I have also used some of the documentary material in my paper Education and Management in Rural South China in the Late Ch'ing at pp. 575-592 of Vol. 1 of Proceedings of the Sixth International Symposium on Asian Studies 1984, (Hong Kong, Asian Research Service, 1985). 1 Although surviving “Chi Tsai” from the New Territories are few in number, they are not rare either. I have come across them here and there in my research, but unfortunately dismissed them as being of no particular interest or value, compared with the Block Crown Leases and actual customary deeds of sale and mortgage. One entry from my Notes, for instance, taken at Chuk Yuen Village, New Kowloon, in July 1963, states, "Her husband's father was Lam Hei (), and she showed me a few chits for lot numbers claimed at the Land Court in 1901. They included one interesting receipt for 13 tax receipts, presumably Ch'ing land tax receipts, which must have been submitted as proofs of ownership at the land settlement following the lease of the New Territories to Great Britain in 1898“. A collection of some dozens of chi tsai from New Kowloon villages is in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong (HKMS104): these will be the subject of a separate note in due course. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1988 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/ft84gb83q 259 NOTES There are several instances where Faure distorts the anthropological literature completely. The “frontier” which Pasternak (1969) refers to, for example, has to do with the socio-political consequences of a certain economic relationship between man and his use of specific strategic resources, namely water and land. Land reclamation is not an accurate translation of this frontier situation. Faure also reads Freedman's (1958:2) interpretation of a passage by Fei (1946: 1) superficially and without much understanding of its context or rhetorical intent. Freedman's purpose in quoting Fei was to argue that the function of the lineage as a political and local organization transcends its identity "in name” as a descent group. But it should be noted also that Freedman deliberately distorted Fei as well. Had Faure actually read Fei, he would have also discovered that the phenomenon which Fei (1946:5) was describing was not even a descent group at all, which should make it quite enigmatic indeed. Sometimes among the peasants, the clan is found, but it is of another kind. In Yunnan, for instance, I have seen that in villages local organization is formed in terms of clan which includes even members of different surnames. Functionally these are not strictly kinship groups. I shall leave open as to the nature of the so-called clan-village. I rather suspect that such an organization among the peasants is a local organization, not a kinship organization. When reading Fried as he does Freedman, Faure confuses the model for empirical reality. Underlying the petty disputes over the definition of lineages and clans as analytical constructs, Fried (1970) was trying to make a more important point about the political functions of a genealogy in allocating differential access to scarce strategic resources (i.e., lineage property), this according to Fried being more important than the existence of property per se. The relative distinction between stipulated and demonstrated descent must be understood in this light. Sheer numbers never mean anything. Even in Faure's (p. 96) analysis of a Chinese funeral, there is no a priori reason to believe that the lineage or village should have any role or obligation to play in ritual preparations. The scale of any such operation is always determined by the family of the deceased. “Work” is delegated among volunteers within the community (not necessarily a territorial one), whether it be neighbours, colleagues, or friends. Correspondingly, compensation for services rendered is made either as payment or as fa see. I suspect that variations in village organization and relationships within village clusters were shaped during the formative period prior to the time when the village had any formal identity. The diversity of local experience can only be attributed to the diversity of interaction within different villages. Rules prohibiting intermarriage in Man Uk Pin and the lack of an ancestral hall in Wong Keng Tei are other examples of local phenomena which must be understood in reference to the way the villagers themselves define or interpret the nature of their own community. See Strathern's (1984) study of the "community" in an English village. The whole problem with Faure's description of “lineage-building” is that it is too easy to project a genealogical structure onto residence patterns, especially with help from Block Crown Lease Demarcation District Maps and the like. As for the Sha Tin Wai example, I doubt whether Faure bothered to match up the registered ownership of houses with its actual inhabitants or even to seek informant testimony with regard to this period of household mobility. In practice, villages rarely update actual ownership records unless there is a conveyance of sale or other transaction that requires re-registration. That registered ownership is usually a couple of generations behind is thus the norm rather than the exception. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 23 March Dr. Elizabeth Sinn "Management of the Chinese in 19th Century Hong Kong and the Role of the Tung Wah Hospital” The following Visits were made: 29 April 6 May 24 June 1 July Anita Wilson and Dr. James Hayes Visit to the Pottery Kiln at Tuen Mun, Ha Tsuen Tang Ancestral Hall and Old Market, Ling Wan Monastery (with vegetarian lunch), Lai Family Study Hall and Mansion at Sheung Tsuen, Hakka Mansion at Sham Ka Wai, and Yuen Long Old Market Dr. James Hayes and Ted Brown Visit to Kowloon Walled City, Again! Phillip Bruce Visit to Old Marine Police Headquarters at Tsim Sha Tsui, Kowloon Phillip Bruce Repeat of the Visit of 24 June 14 September Dr. Patrick Hase and Lee Man-yip Visit to Wo Hang for the Hot Air Balloon release at Mid Autumn Festival 25 November Dr. James Hayes 9 December Visit to places of interest on Hong Kong Island, including Waterfall Bay, the Aberdeen Country Park Management Centre, Chung Hom Kok, Shek O Village and Lei Yu Mun Barracks and Leisure Centre Rosemary Lee and Richard Gee Repeat of the N.T. Visit of 29 April 13-14 January Anita Wilson, Dr. Dan Waters, Rev. Carl Smith and Dr. Joseph Ting 22 January 18 February Week End Visit to Macao Phillip Bruce Visit to some interesting Naval and Military Graves in the Colonial Cemetery Phillip Bruce and Dr. Anthony Siu Visit to the Tung Chung Area, the site of Hong Kong's Future Replacement Airport This varied and interesting programme has again been due to the Activities Committee, which has worked hard under Dr. Elizabeth Sinn's ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 122 usually considered private in character, and hence the entrances are such that the general public can be excluded as desired.2 In smaller institutions, the buildings tend to form only a single range, and the Buddha Hall is built in the middle of it. Even here, however, the range of buildings will usually front an enclosed courtyard-garden, and the Hall will be raised up a few steps higher than the other buildings. 1 Although the great majority of Buddhist monasteries and nunneries in Hong Kong were founded in the last 80 years, a few are older, founded by indigenous groups before the coming of the British. Five are known to me in the mainland New Territories3 — the Ching Shan, or Pooi To (#4 · *) monastery at Tuen Mun, (certainly in existence in the fifth century*), the Ling To () monastery at Ha Tsuen (probably founded or refounded in the Ming Dynasty), the Ling Wan () nunnery at Shek Kong (an early Ming foundation4), the Lung Kai () nunnery near Lung Yeuk Tau (probably an early Ch'ing foundation5), and the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz (££‡), near Man Uk Pin on the old road from Sha Tau Kok to Sham Tsun (Shen Zhen). The subject of this article. Of these ancient foundations, the Ching Shan monastery was rebuilt in 1918 and several times since, and the Ling Wan nunnery was rebuilt between 1919 and 1927. These now show the standard Buddhist plan mentioned above. The Lung Kai nunnery is a total ruin, following abandonment and the stripping of the roof during the last War. The Ling To monastery was rebuilt in 1928, and again (from the foundations up) in 1970. It is believed that both rebuildings used the foundations from the 1861 rebuilding, but the interior layout of the present structure is only a shadow of the original. Only the Cheung Shan Kwu Tsz survives unreconstructured and undamaged as an example of a Buddhist institution in the area from before the twentieth century influx of immigrant monks and nuns. Because of this it seemed worth studying the monastery in some detail. The old road from Sha Tau Kok to Sham Tsun ran more or less along the line of the present Sha Tau Kok road from Sha Tau Kok to the Wo Hang Au above Sheung Wo Hang. It then cut to the north-west of the present road, passing Man Uk Pin village, and thence on through the mountains by a low pass called Miu Keng (M, "Temple Pass''), past Ping Yeung village, to cross the Sham Tsun river by the bridge ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 13 153 PP. 12 The inscription recording the rebuilding is at Faure, Luk and Ng, op. cit. Vol. I, 128-129, but it is unreadable through weathering, except for the heading and date. (4). Loe An-lim (羅安廉) (42), Qianren Wenxian (千人文献), ÑÍAL. [Collected Writings of Men of Past Ages], unpublished manuscript collection, Vol. 2, ff. 75a. (Copy in library of Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, Kowloon Central Library, Hong Kong). Lee An-lim was a villager of Sheung Wo Hang. (3) Lee An-lim, Qianren Wenxian, op. cit. ff 73-78. + As honour board recording the donors to the 1920 repair has recently been found. It lists the donors by village. Every village in Ta Kwu Ling donated (except Ping Che, Chuk Yuen, Nga Yiu Ha, very probably included with their lineage brethren in Tong Fong, Law Fong, Ping Yeung), as did the villages close to the road both in the Sha Tau Kok area (Shan Tsui, Yim Tso Ha, Yim Tin, Wo Hang, Nam Chung, Luk Keng, Wu Shek Kok and Sha Tau Kok Market) and in the Sham Tsun area (Sham Tsun Market, Lo Wu, and Wong Pui Ling). Shek Wu Hui from further away also donated. See Win Wen Wei Pao (SCHEW) of 17 September, 1991. U¿÷ 16 Detail from the tablets commemorating the departed leaders of the monastery, and from information given by the recently deceased resident nun. The tablet of Kuk Shan Kit reads: 羅浮山寶積古寺監裤正宗第上三代主持上谷下山潔老和尚莲座. The tablet Kuk Shan Kit placed to commemorate his deceased predecessors names the "ordained monks" HIBA · MAZA + J # and Ki£*, all of whom were dead by the date of erection + 1 of the tablet, and ✯, at that date still alive, as well as predecessors as rulers of this monastery" ALLKILMINER and "those monks who founded this monastery", A WILDFORIKA BAIMM- L 17 See P.H. Hase, “Notes on Rice Farming in Shatin', in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 21, 1981, pp. 196-206; D. Faure, The Rural Economy of Pre-Liberation China: Trade Increase and Peasant Livelihood in Jiangsu and Guangdong, Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, 1989, pp. 46-57 and 212; and Hong Kong Annual Report: Report by District Commissioner, New Territories for Year Ending 31st March, 1950, Noronha and Co., Hong Kong, 1950, p. 5. TH The Ho clan of Tsung Yuen Ha descends from Ho Chan, the Earl of Tung Kuan in the early Ming, and the Ho family history (CBMGKR — a manuscript volume in the University of Cambridge Library) suggests this area was in Ho Chan's hands before the end of the Ming. It was certainly in Ho family control before 1393 when Ho Chan's family were proscribed. The Tang family has occupied the Lung Yeuk Tau villages, Loi Tung and Tai Tong Wu since the fourteenth century at the latest. A Tang clan also occupies Au Ha (PUF Aoxia) and Wang Kong Ha (Huanggangxia). I have not been able to discover if these two villagers are genealogically connected with the Loi Tung and Lung Yeuk Tau clan, although this is unlikely. The Man family has occupied Ping Che for **18 generations", according to village elders, i.e. probably from the fourteenth century. The same family occupies Tong Fong, Heung Yuen Wai, and Lin Tong, Liantang), and a branch of it was resident at Man Uk Pin (**Man Family Houses") before the present residents, the Chung (鍾) clan moved there in the early eighteenth century. The To clan has been resident at Chau Tin village for **500 years". Local villagers consider that the Lei family has been resident at Lei Uk for as long as the To and Man clans have been at Chau Tin and Ping Che. All these clans are Punti, although sections of the Man clan at Tong Fong, and those at Heung Yuen Wai and Lin Tong, now speak Hakka. Shan Kai Wat (Lam surname, 林), Fung Wong Wu (Yip surname, 葉), and Law Fong (Law surname, 羅), are all included in the list of villages in existence in 1661 included in the 1688 Hsin An County Gazetteer, along with Au Ha, Tsung Yuen Ha, Ping Che (Ping Yuen 平遠), and perhaps Ping Yeung (坪洋) (Gazetteer, Ch. 3, f 12-13). Other Punti clans in the Ta Kwu Ling area (Wong, 黃, Chan, 陳, and Law, 羅, at Kan Tau Wai, and Hau, 侯) ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 157 that Gazetteer calls the other places Om (J), this must be taken as significant. In addition, the County Gazetteer, at ch'uan 4 (Chung Lap Pao edition, 1979, page 49 – taken from the 1688 Gazetteer) mentions a "Master of Meditation" at Ling To in the Ming by the name of Cheuk Shek-chue (pilfa;). This probably suggests a man, although the document at the Appendix shows that this term could be used for a nun. Ling To might, therefore, have been a house of monks in the early nineteenth century. Both Gazetteer references were taken over from the 1688 Gazetteer. However, village tradition at Ha Tsuen states that Ling To was "always" a nunnery. Lung Kai is not mentioned in the County Gazetteer. The rebuilding inscription of 1795 refers to it as Miu (§) and Tsz (F); at Faure, Luk, Ng, op. cit., Vol. 1, pages 36-40. Here again, village tradition states that Lung Kai was always a nunnery. The Report on the Census of the Colony for 1911 (Sessional Papers, 1911, No. 17, Noronha and Co. 1911) shows that a single man was living in the nunnery in 1911, since the village-by-village population table (Table XIX, p. 103 (33)) includes "Miu Kang Tsz" as a village, with a total population of one male. 49 This house is called Tsz ( f ) in the inscription of 1089 (Hsin An County Gazetteer, loc. cit.), which at that date should probably be given its full significance of "monastery" - no mention is made or implied there of any religious women associated with Pooi To. However, at chuan 18 of the County Gazetteer (Chung Lap Pao edition, 1979, page 148), the institution at Tuen Mun contemporary with the Gazetteer (i.e. 1819) is called Om (KE, "nunnery"), and mention is made of a further Om nearly, the Wai Shin nunnery (ME), on Sui Ying mountain, already extinct by 1819. There may, therefore, well have been a period when even the Ching Shan monastery was a house of nuns. $47 Lei Shin-yue was almost certainly one of Lei Pui-yuen's students. He was already one of the main village elders in 1905, when he was the Manager of most of the main ancestral trusts of the largest branch of the lineage. He was very elderly in 1931. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h THE HISTORY OF HONG KONG: FROM A VILLAGE TO A CITY 391 Introduction Hong Kong, which lies at the mouth of the Pearl River, has an area of 398 square miles. It lies between 113°52′E and 114°30′E, and 22°9′N and 22°37′N. It is 83 miles south of Guangzhou and 39 miles east of Macau. It consists of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon Peninsula (the land which lies to the south of Boundary Street), and the New Territories (including Tai Yue Shan and 235 adjacent islands). The name 'Hong Kong' does not appear in any Chinese historical records before the Ming Dynasty. It was the name of a small village on the south coast of Hong Kong Island.1 The village lies to the north-east of Shek Pai Wan Zi, nowadays known as Aberdeen Harbour. How Hong Kong got its name The village of Hong Kong (Heung Kong Tsai Tsuen) got its name from its export of incense products. Previously, Hong Kong and its surrounding areas were famous for the growing of incense trees which produced incense wood, known as Kwun Heung. During the Ming Dynasty, incense wood and incense products were assembled at the north-east of Shek Pai Wan before being shipped to Canton.3 Thus, the bay which lies to the north-east of Shek Pai Wan was named Hong Kong (Heung Kong), i.e. Fragrant Harbour, and the village which lay near the coast was called Heung Kong Tsuen. Hong Kong Island before the Ming Dynasty Before the Han Dynasty, Hong Kong Island and its neighbouring areas were occupied by the Si, the Yao& and the Tan. Little is known about them. However, ancient rock carvings were found in Tai Long Wan and Wong Chuk Hang on Hong Kong Island recently. The carvings have approximately the same spiral appearance& as the carvings on the bronze drums of the ancient Yuet# people. These prove that there were people living on Hong Kong Island in very ancient times. 4 During the Tang and the Sung Dynasties, most of the people lived on the south coast of the island. In recent years, lime kilns established ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 397 the Yuen Ka Walled Village E, Mui Wo, Shek Pik, Tong Fuk 塘福,Shek Mun Kap 石門甲,Shui Hau 水口, Shek Lau Hang 石榴坑, Ngau Au 牛凹, Sha Lo Wan, Shek Tau Po石頭莆,Yi O 二澳 and Yau Ku Long. Also, Hakka villages were found at Tai Ho, Pak Mong, Wang Long and Ling Pei Walled Village at Tung Chung." The population on the island increased, and they depended on fishing and farming. Nowadays, Mui Wo, Pui O, Shui Hau, Tai O and Tung Chung have developed into towns; Shek Pik Village has been removed, and a reservoir built on that site. However, many villages founded in the Ching Dynasty still remain with little development. NOTES ANTHONY SIU KWOK-KIN 1 The inscription of the 42nd year of Chien Lung (1777) on the stone tablet in the Hau Wong Temple of Tung Chung bears the name "Tai Hai Shan". 1 See Chapter 19 of Kwong Yu Kei, Ming edition. 1 1 See Chapter 2 of Yuet Man Chuen See Kei Leuk, 1684 edition. See Chapter 7 of Lin Tien-wai and the writer's Essays on the History of Hong Kong Prior to British Colonisation, Commercial Press, 1984. It is now known as Lantau Island, and in some newly published maps of Hong Kong, it is also known as Tai Ho Island. + See S. G. Davis and May Tregear's Man Kok Tsui, Archaeological Site 30, Lantau Island, Hong Kong, Hong Kong Univ. Press 1961; and “An Archaeological Site at Shek Pik”, Journal Monograph I, Hong Kong Archaeological Society 1975. 7 See Chapter 29 of the Tung Kwun Yuen Chi 8 See Chapter 1 of the Tung Kwun Yuen Chi, 1464 edition. 非 See Tsang Yat Man's "Hai Nam Chaak, an old Salt Pan on Lantau Island" 大嶼山鹽田學, No. 284, Cosmorama Pictorial, Hong Kong. 9 As Note 8. See Tsang Yat Man's "A Textual Research on the Ins and Outs of the Rebellion of the Natives of Tai Hsi Shan – Now Tai Yu Shan of Hong Kong - in the third year of Ching Yuan of Emperor Ning Tsung of South Sung Dynasty" 南宋寧宗慶元三年, Chu Hai Journal No. 11, October, 1980. 12 See Chapter 67 of the Kwangtung Tung Chi, 1558 edition. 13 See Tai Hai Shan 大箂山 in Ng Loi 吳榮's Nam Hoi Ku Chik Kei 南海古鏞記, Chapter 61-1 of Su Fu, Shun Chih edition. 14 See Chapter 12 of the Kwangtung Tung Chi, 1697 edition. + 15 As Note 4. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 41 Kong: Oxford Univ. Press, 1983), 156-160 & 163-164, on the Jiao festivals celebrated between 1964 and 1972 in Ma Tau Wai, Nga Tsin Wai, Tung Chung and Tai O. N Mathias, John R.G., Study of the Jiao: a Taoist Ritual in Kam Tin in the Hong Kong New Territories (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, Oxford University, 1977-78). #I Kani, Hiroaki, "Hồn Kôn Chugokujin no shukyo shiso no ichidan nitsuite" Shigaku 40, no. 2 & 3 (1967). 22 Obuchi, Ninji, “Hon Kon no tokyo girei" |Daoist ritual in Hong Kong] in Ikeda Sueri Hakase Koki Kinen Toyo Gaku Ronshu (Tokyo, 1980), 753-769. 27 Yoshihara, Katsuo. "Shukyo" [Religion] in Kani Hiroaki (ed.) Motto Shiritai Hon Kon (Tokyo: Kobundo, 1984), 184-191. 11 See note 37. 14 I have been told that Dr. Faure had a manuscript on the Jiao festival sent to a publisher in Hong Kong. However, due to whatever reasons, it has not yet been published. See also Hayes, 164, about Faure's book on Jiao festivals. 36 I was probably the only researcher who participated in the 1980 Kau Lau Wan Jiao festival when I was first introduced by the late Prof. B.E. Ward and Dr. S.H. Wang to the Jiao festival celebrated by the fishing village. In October the same year, Dr. Faure and I attended the Jiao festival at Pak Kong, Sai Kung. In November, the late Dr. Lu Bin-chuan of the Music Department of CUHK, Dr. Lu's student Mr. Chan Wing-Hoi and I attended the Jiao festival in Fanling. Dr. Faure, Prof. Ward and Prof. Tanaka also came. The Jiao festival of Fanling and that of other areas are mentioned here and there in Faure's 1986 book. In December 1980 students of CUHK under the guidance of Dr. Faure, Dr. Wang and Prof. Ward started an ethnographical research on the Jiao festival in Ho Chung, Sai Kung. A detailed report of daily rituals was written by Lee Lai-mui and Cheng Shui Kwan, two CUHK students majoring in History and minoring in Anthropology. The report was sent to interested scholars. Unfortunately it has never been published. Two students of the CUHK at that time should perhaps be mentioned here: Chan Wing-hoi, who specializes in music and computer, was employed by the History Museum of Hong Kong to study the Kam Tin Jiao festival in 1985, a report of which was published in the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 29 (1989). Chan's master's thesis on folk music in Hong Kong also includes a chapter on the ritual music played by the Taoists at the Jiao festival. Chan also has an ethnography on the 1986 Shek O Jiao festival published in the Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 26 (1986), 78-101. The master's thesis of Leung Chor-on, now Ph.D. candidate of Cambridge University, submitted to the Anthropology Department of the CUHK gives a good account of the ritual symbols of the festival. Chan, Leung and I held a seminar on Jiao festivals on Dec. 11, 1988 for the "Research Circle of the Regional Society of Southern China" focusing on musical, ritual and social aspects of the festival. 27 Locally published works besides those by Faure and my own are: - (a) Chamberlain, Jonathan, "Introduction” in Chamberlain J. and Iam Lambot The Bun Festival of Cheung Chau (Hong Kong: Studio Publication, 1990). This is largely a collection of photos. Chamberlain's introduction is very descriptive but no sources are quoted. (b) Chan Wing-hoi, “Observations at the Jiu [Jiao] festival of Shek O and Tai Long Wan, 1986" Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society Vol. 26 (1986), 78-101. Chan recorded meticulously what he was told and observed about the 'settlement', the 'participants', the "ritual site", the "local gods" and the "events". (c) Xiao, Kuo-jian (Anthony K.K. Siu), Xianggang Xiandai Shehui [Pre-modern society of Hong Kong] (Hong Kong: Chung Wah, 1990), 86-97. Xiao attempts to illustrate three reasons why the communities in Hong Kong celebrate the Jiao. The first reason is to plead for fortune, to pay sacrifices to the gods, to drive away evils and to prevent 4 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 TABLE 1: VILLAGE WARS IN THE HONG KONG AREA 279 Antagonist Lo Wu Antagonist Tsoi Uk Wai Date Source Comment 18.36 Above Over control of landing place Lo Wu Wong Pui Ling 1856-75 Ahove Ta Kwu Ling Wong Pui Ling TRGON Hase 1989 Sheung Shui Wong Pui Ling VERSOS Baker 1967 1979 Sheung Shui Ho Sheung Heng long-term Baker 1966 Over control of landing place Over control of river-crossings. 23 dead on TKL side alone. Hero shrine. Over control of irrigation systems San Tin Ping Kong 1851 Kam Tsin Baker 1966 1968 San Tin Ping Shan 1851 Baker 1968 Hero Shrine Shup Pat Heung San Tim Ping Shan 1851 Watson 1982 Over control of ferries Ha Tsuen Baker 1968 Sha Tseng Pok Tau Kong 185.3 Krone (above) Po Kat neighbours 1853- Above Sheung Shun Fanling long-term Ping Kong Fanling Baker 1966 Over control of market Earthwall on border Ho Sheung Heung Long Yeak Tho Fanling long-term Oral Par Fleung ?Kam Tia Tinid 19 Hero Shrine Sheung Tsuen Wang Tei Shan 2nud (19 Oral Lam Tsuen Hero Shrine Tsuen Wan Shing Mun Tsim Sha Tsui neighbours Tai Wai Cheung Sha Wan Keng tam 1862-4 1862 mid-late c19 Haves 1983 Hero Shrines Hayes 1983 Paure 1986 Hero Shrine Kak Tin Shek Pik Sha Lo Wan נִי Hayes 1983 Pui O San Tsuen Pui O La Wai 1930 Hayes 1983 Kam Tin Ping Shan Chan 1989 Heroes worshipped Pat Heung Kam Tiu Ping Shan long-term mid c19 Chan 1989 # [Baker 1966 = "The Five Great Clans of the New Territories", H.D.R. Baker, Journal. Vol. 6, 1966, pp. 25-49; Baker 1968 = H.D.R. Baker, Sheung Shui: A Chinese Lineage Village, London, 1968; Baker 1979 H.D.R. Baker, Chinese Family and Kinship, London 1979; Faure 1986 = D. Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong, 1986; Hayes 1983 = J.W Hayes. The Rural Communities of Hong Kong: Studies anet Themes, Hong Kong. 1983; Watson 1982 = Rubic S. Watson "The Creation of a Chinese Lineage: The Teng of Ha Tsuen, 1669-1751", Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 16(1). 1982 pp 69-108; Chan 1989 = "The Tangs of Kam Tin and their Jio Festival", Chan Wing-hoi, Journal, Vol 29, 1989. pp. 302-376.] ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 175 something special must have taken place nearly two hundred years before, to create an obligation that was still felt to be incumbent upon descendants of the other lineage. Running Out Of Land for Traditional Burials 14 The continuing progress of development could create great stress upon descendants of old lineages, especially if it had been their practice to concentrate their burial areas. This occurred with the Tsang lineage of Kau Wah Keng, the nearest of the Tsuen Wan Villages to urban Kowloon. Paradoxically, and unlike the other inlying Tsuen Wan settlements, their village had not been removed and resited. However, their fields and associated areas of hill land above and adjacent to the village had all been taken, with the exception of the remaining part of the hilly area, where most of their graves were located. In 1984, the Lands Department posted notices there calling for the removal of these graves. Their anguish was extreme, as shown by the contents of the following letter to the District Officer: When we worshipped at our ancestral graves on the hill at Shek Lei Tau during the recent Ching Ming Festival, we were much surprised to see notices all around, calling for the removal of all graves and burial urns to make way for development. This came as a great shock to us, as ancestral worship has been our filial duty since our forefathers settled at Kau Wah Keng more than 300 years ago, during the reign of the K'ang Hsi Emperor [1661-1720]. It has the dual intention of appeasing the [souls of the] dead and ensuring that the living flourish and prosper. Shek Lei Tau has been the burial ground for our ancestors from as early as their arrival at Kau Wah Keng, and in the selection of [auspicious] grave sites geomancers had to be engaged at great cost. Some of the burials are quite recent, having occurred in the past ten years when our then elders, acknowledging the need for land to provide [public] reservoirs, roads, hospitals and children's homes, witnessed with shame the repeated and obligatory removals of remains ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 17 ++ Very often, we designate terms such as “family”, “social class”, "teachers", "experts”, “democrats”, “Tibetans”, “Chinese”, “Americans” etc to delineate a social aggregate. It is because members in a group share some functional commonality, ascribed or achieved. They share some norms and beliefs which bind them together. They hence behave in a way as expected from a member in that particular group. If face is bounded by the three elements of status, role performance and moral conduct, then there is no reason why a group cannot have the right to a face basing on the status, role performance and moral conduct of its members in general. Furthermore, if members in the family share the same properties, status, prestige, outlook, surname, moral codes and a face in an ascribed manner, then there is no reason why members in a nation, sharing the land, the physical features, the economic achievement, political rights and so on, cannot share a face as well. The picture seems that there can hardly be any argument against leaving open the limit to the size and scope of a social aggregate within which its members can share a face. Face, theoretically speaking, can be societal, racial, national, continental and if interaction opens up among planets, planetary. While a global face may appear surreal, the hypothesis upon the presence of a nation's face may not. In fact, some scholars have found that an individual's sense of self may vary according to the prosperity or poverty of the nation to which the individual belongs (Volkan, 1985: 231). If an individual's face correlates with an image of self, as in Goffman's definition, then there is reason to believe in a relation between an individual's face with the fortunes of the nation in which he is embedded. People may share a sense of self, rising and falling, insofar as their nation does so. People may share a face, prestigious or notorious, dignified or unscrupulous, if that is what their nation appears. Images of nations are nothing new in the social sciences. Many scholars have already studied them. What is awaited from scholars is the research on a nation's image with a focus on the concept of face. Moreover, a nation's face does not seem to be an irrelevant topic of study and particularly regarding China. King and Myers have pointed out that the primary source of identity of people in the country has gradually shifted from family or village to nation. They have reported Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek as speaking of a nation's face and the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 63 More so, the relation between factors of face that belong to individuals or teams with attributes of face that belong to people, nation or government is affirmed in the study. This seems to agree with the proposition posed by King and Myers (1977). These two authors argued that due to the breakdown of the traditional social networks, such as the village, the family and so on, individuals would seek to identify more with the nation, the government or other Chinese as a whole. This identification serves to connect them with a source of face too. That is to say, when an individual gains face, he may extend it to the nation, and in turn, he could also share the face of the nation, her status, honour and so on. Such an interflow seems to have roots in the traditional Chinese character of mutual dependence (Hsu, 1981: 114). In the past, this spirit of mutual dependence was found within the family system. The social tie of parents and sons allowed the interchange of status and authority between them. In the light of piety prevalent under Confucian teachings in traditional China, the father is the one to have the upper hand in case the two come into conflict. More so, the father can enjoy the authority derived from the son even after retirement. Likewise, he could enjoy the influence, the honour, the status, the economic resources etc. obtained by the son through his own efforts. This was what happened to the concept of face in the past as has been pointed out in previous studies reviewed earlier in this paper. But the communists advocated the party as the vanguard, preached a revolution of the feudal system, the family, and the old social networks etc. After the breakdown of the family and this strong social bond, the father-son relationship needed to be replaced, the family system required a substitute. The era then saw the creation of self-reliant rather than mutually dependent individuals, "isolated, insecure, purposeless, and therefore perpetually in search of something to which he can belong and for which he can fight" (Hsu, 1981, 471). In short, the individual under the Communist rule needed to position himself in a new setting. The answer to this would be the introduction of another collectivity in which an individual could feel at home with. In the findings of the present study, the fact that face exhibits some collective character seems to signify the existence of such a new collective environment, a new set of relationships in which it works. The interflow of status, honour, influence, power etc. is now being placed in a new social network. Exchange between fathers and sons may still be present, it is hard to prove not, but what is more prominent in the press is an exchange in a new ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 151 Sam Heung (三鄉), the area immediately west of the new market. While there is no evidence as to the date of this temple, it is likely to be as old as the Am King temple.2 The third temple was the Tin Hau Temple at Wu Shek Kok some miles west of the new town. Almost certainly, the district ferries left from the deep-water harbour immediately in front of the temple, from at least Ming times to the 1830s. This site is remote, with no houses or residences within a half mile, just the hill behind and the sea in front. The temple would, therefore, have provided essential shelter for people waiting for the ferry, as well as casting the protection of the Goddess over those embarking. There is no surviving dating evidence from this temple, but it is probably old.14 Founding a new market was a risky and expensive business, and it is not surprising that the villagers felt that the deities should be propitiated before work began. The Sam Heung villagers accordingly founded a large new Tin Hau temple at the seafront near the new market site, probably about 1815-1820. They also started a decennial Ta Tsui (打水) at the new temple to placate any spirits who might be offended by the work on the reclamation and the new market.15 All markets in the area have temples, but the three older temples were too far away to serve the market. The new temple was probably designed to be the main market temple. As part of the foundation of the new town, the Shap Yeuk moved the ferry pier into it from Wu Shek Kok. It is unclear who owned the ferries before the 1840s, but certainly the Shap Yeuk was fully in control of them from that period at the latest. It was clearly felt that the new ferry pier at the new town should, like the old one, be sanctified by the presence of the Goddess: not surprisingly, therefore, the new ferry pier was built on the foreshore immediately in front of the new temple. The genealogy of the Wong clan of Shan Tsui village states that Wong Yin-tung (黃賢東) (1779-1867) of that clan managed the temple foundation project: 'Throughout his life he was upright and firm; he took the lead in the first construction of the Tin Hau Temple at Sha Tau Kok.' The Sam Heung villagers ran the temple through a trust, the Sam Wo Tong (三和堂, "The Hall of Three at Peace"). A further, small Tin Hau Temple was found by the investors into the saltpan reclamation project, to assist in the protection of this area, which ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 157 The villagers in the central part of the northern New Territories, accustomed to marketing at Sham Chun, were able to make do after 1899. They had the old satellite market of Shek Wu Hui (Sheung Shui) within British territory; as soon as the new frontier came into effect, Sheung Shui saw its business boom - it quickly replaced Sham Chun as the primary market for this area. At Sha Tau Kok the population within British territory accustomed to shop at Sha Tau Kok had no alternative but to continue to do so. Problems abounded. Village memories of the Customs are uniformly bad. The Customs officials caused the goods of the merchants to be seized unless bribes were paid. They demanded a payment of 18 bushels of rice from each merchant. The villagers from the New Territories would come to the market to have their cloth dyed. Even if the amount of cloth was very small, 25 or £10 would be charged as a licence fee - if it was not paid, the goods would be seized and the villagers penalized. As for the merchants, if they sold a pig, or if a seed-pig was bought for rearing in the villages, when they went to the Customs they would have to pay $40 per tan as registration fee for the pig. At festivals, the village ladies would come to the market to buy oil or local sugar in small quantities. They would have to pay 50 or 60, or even 120 or 130 cash (#5 - #13) as fee before they could get an export licence. For cattle, for every cow crossing the frontier - in either direction for farm work, a Certificate had to be issued, at $20 Haikwan. And, if the Certificate was lost, there was heavy punishment, and a replacement had to be taken out, to avoid confiscation of the cow. Further, at the harvest, if the crop was carried across the frontier, you had to pay what was demanded - it is said that a percentage of the crop was taken. The Customs swallowed money whatever purchases were made. These sorts of evil practices caused the villagers to hate the Customs to the very pit of their stomachs. 12 It is unlikely that the Customs were as corrupt as they are often portrayed by the villagers. The payments complained of were all reasonable, if it was accepted that the transactions were "imports" or "exports". The villagers could never see that their day-to-day marketing should be so regarded - they were only doing what their ancestors had always done. The elders of the Shap Yeuk petitioned the District Magistrate on 19 April 1899, begging that the lease of the New Territories be not proceeded with. Their concern was, essentially, that if it did proceed, then they would be faced with “excessive taxation", especially Harbour Dues and Marine Fees, given that the waters off Sha Tau Kok would become Hong... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 189 APPENDIX 2 Shops in Sha Tau Kok Market. 1925 = (WTS = Wang Tau Shek), UP = Upper Street, LS = Lower Street, OS = Old Street, SLH = Sha Lan Heung (= Fish Laans) TYK = Tai Yuen Kok, SH = Sam Heung LH = Luk Heung, WH = Wo Hang, YT = Yim Tin, YSQ = Yung Shue O, FH = Fung Hang, TT = Tong To, ST = Shan Tsui, HL = Hoklo, KLH = Kwun Lo Ha, LK = Luk Keng, JMK = Jat Muk Kiu, LL = Lai Long, AH = Au Ha, SNT = San Tsuen, NC = Nun Chung, SC = Sham Chun, STK = Sha Tau Kok A = in 1894 Shan Tsui Tablet, B = Cheung Shan Kwu Liu Tablet, C = in Oral Evidence, D = in 1906 Budd's Pool Tablet * = The largest shops) = in 1920 No. Name of Shop Address of Shop Name of Owner Village of Owner Source Comments General Stores 1 WTS Sold saws, bowls, plates, pottery, ropes, nails etc 4 LA ABC JAWN MHL WTS C C YSO BCD Donated Bell to Wu Shek Kok Temple, 1922 PL Pottery Basel missionaries, 1853 (A)BCD Occupied lower floor of gun lower Probably donated to 1898 Tai Po YSO TH BC BC Kwong Fuk Bridge sold gram, pig slaughterer, winemaker etc Pawnshop fli THI PS H YT 7 Growery X* W WTS WTS 12 I WTS China BCD sugar dealer, etc WTS + WH BC r 1 WTS $1. TTC) ABCD IS ST BC IS 7 WH AC pig slaughterer, winemaker etc 1HI WTS ΥΠ BC [4* Other Goods 15 16 FEE # WTS China BC THI IS THE C 20 AC winemaker. grocer. etc Basel missionaries, 1853 winemaker baker, probably connected with ↑ FI 21 22 ze aza夤èsa a 4 WH C dogmeal WTS SIK BCD baker Lishmongers 20 FHC WTS THE BC WTS BC ƒ SLET SI BC נו 23* SLET YT BC main donor, 1894 واع 24 26* Aumal 01 临 WTS China вс THI SETI LA BC SLEE SIK ABCD SLET! BC IS IT C = WIL C ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 193 H Details of the early Hakka examination successes are known from a recently recovered genealogy, of the Chan (陳) lineage of Nam Chung. It is understood that a copy of this genealogy will be deposited with the Hong Kong Museum of History. I am indebted to Mr Chan Wing-hot for drawing my attention to the information in this genealogy. Q Seen 8 At the time of the Block Crown Lease (1905), 12.68 acres of saltpans were recorded. However, the serious inadequacies of the first survey here led to another being conducted in 1912, when 17.11 acres were recorded. However, in 1912 two areas were left unclaimed, probably because storms had breached their bunds and ruined them. These two areas totalled about 3.3 acres. In addition, there were about 0.6 acres of houses, huts, and waste within the saltpan reclamation, which, therefore, totalled about 21.2 acres. The saltpans were very valuable property in the nineteenth century - the Basel missionaries (see below, n. 17) record the sale of a share by a Tam Shui Hang villager in 1882 for "several hundreds of dollars" (Basel Mission archive, doc. AT-16, Nr. 45). In the 1920s, however, and still more in the 1930s, cheap imported salt caused ever-growing problems, which led to the closure of the saltworks before the War. A bridge was built to the saltpans in 1934 (Administrative Reports for the Year 1934, App. J, "Report on the New Territories for 1934", p. J17). After the War, the abandoned saltworks became the site of a major squatter settlement, recently cleared. Today, the saltpan area has disappeared under new reclamation, and all that remains is a new Tin Hau Temple, replacing the old one previously on the saltpans, built on a new site on the new waterfront. For details of the history of the temples in the area, on the settlement of the Hakka in the area, the reclamation projects they undertook, the founding and management of the market at Sha Tau Kok, and the functioning of the Shap Yeuk as the district management body, see P.H. Hase, "The Alliance of Ten Settlements and Polities in the Sha Tau Kok Area", in D. Faure and H.S. Siu, eds., Down to Earth: The Territorial Bond in South China, Stanford University Press, 1995. 12. No details on the earlier history of the temple survived the very full restoration of 1894, but Shan Tsun elders believe it to be very old. 13. In the 1688 Gazetteer (Ch. 3) a ferry “along the coast” is mentioned called the "Ma Tseuk Ling Ferry". There can be no doubt that this is the ferry to Sha Yue Chung (Shayuchong, etc.), 12 miles down the coast. Ma Tseuk Ling, at the head of Starling Inlet, is the nearest old village to the Wu Shek Kok Temple (Wu Shek Kok village - probably a foundation of the early nineteenth century). The coasts of Starling Inlet within two or three miles of Ma Tseuk Ling were blocked with mudflats and mangrove everywhere except at Wu Shek Kok, where alone a hill falls steeply into the sea. Wu Shek Kok is, therefore, the only possible site for a "Ma Tseuk Ling Ferry" landing place. The Ma Tseuk Ling villagers owned the Wu Shek Kok Temple, and the Ma Tseuk Ling military post (1688 Gazetteer, ch. 7), was at Shek Chung Au, just a few hundred yards from Wu Shek Kok. These Ma Tseuk Ling connections with the Wu Shek Kok area strongly suggest that the Wu Shek Kok hill was regarded as forming part of the Ma Tseuk Ling area. Later, Wu Shek Kok formed part of the Ma Tseuk Ling Yeuk of the Shap Yeuk. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 217 REPORT ON VISITS TO THE SWIRE INSTITUTE OF MARINE SCIENCE AND CAPE D'AGUILAR, 1993 AND 1994 GEOFFREY ROPER On Saturdays, 6 November, 1993 and 5 November, 1994 parties from the Branch visited the Swire Institute of Marine Science at Cape D'Aguilar, Hong Kong Island and also toured areas of historic interest on the Cape On the first visit, the Institute was still known as the Swire Marine Laboratory but by the second visit had become an Institute - a mark of the progress it had achieved in the study of marine science in Hong Kong. Progress was also demonstrated by the expansion of facilities seen on the second visit and by the imminence of marine protected area status for the adjacent sea shore ecological research area, Lobster Bay. Professor Brian Morton, Director of the Institute, and a very welcoming host, addressed the Society on both visits. He spoke in particular on the recent history of marine biology in Hong Kong, the work of the Institute, support from the Swire Group, problems caused by increasing sea pollution, and a wide range of items of local natural science interest, including the bird life. On both visits the parties visited the nearby Cape D'Aguilar Lighthouse, first put into service in 1875, and viewed the remnants of the Cape D'Aguilar Gun Battery. An area of especial historical interest visited on both occasions was Hok Tsui (Crane's Bill) Village, with its mid-to-late 19th Century granite watchtower and Pak Tai Temple. For the second visit we were fortunate enough to be accompanied by Dr. James Hayes, Past President of the Branch, who spoke about the pattern of pre-1841 (i.e. pre-British) settlements in Hong Kong, of which Hok Tsui was one of the few remaining examples on Hong Kong Island remaining close to its original form and still settled, at least in part, by descendants of the original settlers. According to clan records, quoted by Dr. Hayes, the first ancestor of the Chu family arrived in Hong Kong in 1762 and opened a stone quarry in Shek Tong Tsui, Western District. He prospered and started a farming village at Hok Tsui before dying there in 1781 A highlight of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 189 court robes and glided along the path only to disappear into the base of a tree once he drew parallel to the watcher. Villagers have also seen fires at the Paak Kung shrines even during rain The village with the greatest number of shrines, out of the 20 villages examined in detail in the study, is Sheung Tsuen (Pat Heung). The more important Tai Wong shrine is housed in the 200 year old temple and is the governor of the village. There are also ten other Paak Kung and earth god shrines located around the village. Six of the Paak Kung protect the village at night while four earth gods of a lower rank are located in each of the four directions and are 'on duty' for twenty four hours a day as general security guards and to prevent people from becoming lost. All the shrines are worshiped on the first and fifteenth day of each lunar month and on major festivals Worship at the shrines varies from village to village, although it is common that worship is carried out on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar new year. Seven of the villages performed rites at their shrines at this time. Offerings may also be made with prayers at the main Chinese festivals, particularly during Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Harvest festival, as well as at weddings, births and the birthdays of elders and ancestors and for general thanksgiving. Some villages have their own special ceremonies. At Ma Mat Wai, the Paak Kung shrine to the earth god 'Hin Tan' is worshipped on 'farmer's day' on July 14th and at the harvest festival on August 15th. The shrine at Pak Kong is worshipped on the birthday of the popular sea-goddess Tin Hay. The Hei Shą Fuk festival is only carried out at Wo Hop Shek, near Fanling, at the end of the last month of the lunar year and at the end of the first month of the lunar calendar. Each family in the village contributes $30 to buy pork which is cooked with vegetables on stoves built into the Tai Wong shrine. February 13th of the lunar calendar is the god Hung Shing's birthday in Ho Sheung Heung, which is even more important for the village than Lunar New Year. For three days before the god's birthday, an opera is held in front of the Tze Tong while a feast and dragon dance takes place on the day itself. In June a feast day is also held to commemorate two officials, Chou and Wong, sent by the Emperor to save the village from pirates. This may represent those officials who came to rescind the Imperial evacuation order in 1669. The festivals in Ho Sheung Heung are organized by the master of the temple but in other ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 63 waters. Sai Ying Pun During the Early Years of British Colonization On 20 January 1841, Captain Elliot announced the conclusion of preliminary arrangements with the Chinese Imperial Commissioner involving the cession of the Hong Kong Island and harbour to the British Government. Lord Palmerston in April 1841, hearing of Captain Elliot's restoration of Chusan to the Chinese government in return for the cession of Hong Kong, relieved him of his post and contemptuously remarked that Captain Elliot had obtained a barren island with hardly a house upon it. Lord Palmerston was right in describing Hong Kong as a barren island. It was then almost entirely grass-covered, as the fine drawing of Collinson in 1845 showed. When on 26 January 1841, a party of marines landed and raised the British flag, Hong Kong was virtually unoccupied, apart from the little villages and hamlets, like Chek Chu, Shek Pai Wan, and Shau Kei Wan, which were inhabited by a few fishermen, stonecutters, and farmers. At that time, the area of Sai Ying Pun was mere rugged slopes of rocks with a narrow, hard-trodded pathway winding along the cliffs, to which the fanciful name of Kwantailou was given by the fishermen and villagers. It was said that the path was used by the local inhabitants to go up to the hillside to cut the grasses and wood for fuel. E.J. Eitel, in his book "Europe in China", gave a rather detailed description of the path. He said: “Along the northern shore of the Island, there used to be, previous to the British occupation, a narrow bridle-path leading, high above the beach, across rocks and boulders, all the way from Westpoint to a hamlet near Eastpoint called Kwantalou, described in the first census (May 15, 1841) as a fishing village with 50 inhabitants. This path was used by the crews of trading junks in cases of wind and tide being unfavourable to track the junks along by a towing line attached to the peak of the foremast. Now, this hard-trodden path standing, to an observer from the opposite shore, clear out from the grass-grown hillside, like a fringe or border along the skirts of the hill, was by the natives called Kwantailou (petticoat string road), and the hamlet... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 147 incense or joss sticks. According to Lo (1959, quoted in Iu, 1983), these trees were introduced into Guangdong Province from Vietnam in the Tang dynasty (619-907 AD) and were planted in large numbers in the New Territories during the Sung dynasty (960-1279 AD). In the late Ming period, the county of Tung-kuan was renowned throughout China for the quality of its incense. Until 1572, Tung-kuan county included the area subsequently forming the county of Hsin-an (including the present day New Territories) (Chan, 1989). In the Kuang-tung hsin-yu (Ch’u, 1974), it is noted that many people in Tung-kuan made their fortune from Kuan-heung (meaning incense from Tung-kuan) which was so popular that the annual sales values amounted to tens of thousands of taels. Incense trees were very suitable for the decomposed granite soils of the area and were particularly grown in the area of Shatin and the lower part of Lam Tsuen valley, whose name means "forest village", and around Tung Chung and Sha Lo Wan on Lantau. Interestingly, Schofield (1983) referring to the fine fung shui wood at Sha Lo Wan adds “In a suitable light, ancient log slides can be seen running straight down the steepest hills on this stretch of coast", although whether these have anything to do with the incense trade may never be known. The successful cultivation of the incense tree depended on three conditions, the suitability of the soil, adoption of proper methods of cultivation and the mastering of tapping and cutting methods for the collection of resin, which had a medicinal use. The general name of the varieties of incense produced in Tung Kwun, Po On districts, which included Hong Kong and the New Territories in those times, was "Kuan-heung" (Iu, 1983). The logs were collected at Tsim Sha Tsui from where it was shipped by small boats to Shek Pai Wan near present day Aberdeen on Hong Kong Island, where it was re-shipped onto Chinese seagoing junks to Canton, SE Asia and as far away as Arabia. It has been suggested that the cultivation of and trade in incense trees gave rise to the name of Hong Kong (meaning incense harbour). "Little Hong Kong, or Heung-kong-wai, is said to have been so-called on account of the quantity of Pak-miu-heung-shu then growing there, the wood of these white-wood fragrant trees is called "Nga-heung" (i.e. fragrant wood white as a tooth), is odoriferous when burnt, and ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 32 to say. These came from the Wai Chau Prefecture, particularly Kwai Shin District, and from Ka Ying Prefecture, especially Cheung Lok District - 556 males are recorded in the 1911 Census from these Prefectures, 488 from the two Districts of Kwai Shin and Cheung Lok. Only 110 females from these areas were recorded, making it clear that the bulk of the people from these areas were not accompanied by their families. The third group of Northern District men recorded in the 1911 Census as born outside the New Territories are probably mostly shop-keepers in the small market-towns, people from all over the Canton Delta (273 males and 119 females), but only a few from any one place. A few may be children born while their New Territories parents were living temporarily away from home, as doubtless the three males born in Honolulu. It is clear that, in 1911, the 556 Northern District males born in the north-east prefectures, and the 273 born in the Delta, could not have affected the basic structure of society - they together represent only 2% of recorded males. Females born outside the New Territories were more numerous than males born outside the New Territories in 1911 in Northern District, as it had long been the custom of the area to seek wives for sons from some distance away from the village. Doubtless, the 1,536 females recorded as born in San On District, and the 2,383 born in Hong Kong and Kowloon were mostly wives brought in, and thus not likely to affect the basic structure of society. Females from further away constitute only 308, a mere 1% of the recorded female population of the Northern District in 1911. In the islands, however, a full 26% of males recorded in 1911 of the land population (1,631 males) were born outside the New Territories. As in the Northern District, some of these were probably shop-keepers resident with their families (246 San On males, and 265 San On females: 195 Tung Kun males, and 144 females: 40 Macau males, and 63 females), but many were businessmen or coolies living apart from their families, in businesses supporting the coastal shipping trade. 51 males from the Chiu Chau area (only 7 females), 536 from the Hoi Luk Fung area (only 28 females), and 32 men from Lo Tung (no females) were ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 64 District, however, the total recorded urban population of males is far smaller than the recorded numbers of men in "urban" occupations. Clearly, many men traditionally went home to their native villages to sleep who worked by day in the Northern District towns and, probably, many craftsmen worked at home in their native villages, only occasionally going to sell their wares in the towns. This suggestion, of a more intimate and closely integrated urban/rural society in Northern, and a more thoroughly urban society in Southern, is likely to be correct. By day, the Northern towns may well have been twice as large as the figure given in the census, but, even if this is so, the difference between the tiny market-villages in northern District and the genuine towns in Southern remains stark. The high number (376 in 1911, 378 in 1921) of masons and allied trades in Northern District, is to be explained, in part, by the construction of the roads, and the other public works projects the Government had begun after taking over the New Territories, but even more by the very large quarry at Lung Kwu Tan, which, as is made clear in the Village Population Table in the 1911 Census, employed 215 stonecutters and others. In Southern District there were 766 males working as masons or in associated trades in 1911 (6.9% of all males with recorded trade), and there were 989 in 1921 (the 1911 and 1921 figures for Southern District both including New Kowloon); in both 1911 and 1921 these people were mostly working in the large quarries at Chek Lap Kok off Lantau, and in the “stone hills” in New Kowloon, as well as in private and public construction projects. Stonecutters clearly tended to live apart from their families at the quarries where they worked. In 1911 in "Lung Kwu Tan Quarry”, 215 males were recorded, but no females, and in Southern the quarries at Chek Lap Kok and at the "stone hills” in Kwun Tong stand out. Chek Lap Kok had 55 males recorded, with only 22 females, while Ngau Tau Kok, Sai Cho Wan, Lei Yue Mun and Cha Kwo Ling - the villages of the "stone hills" - had 625 males between them, but only 339 females. The Quarry Bay villages of Hong Kong Island, and the Shek Shan village in Kowloon, are other cases in point. The censuses are unrevealing on the other known village industries. Up to 1917 there was a major pottery at Wun Yiu near Tai Po, and incense mills at several places, especially Tsuen Wan: none of the workers in these trades are specifically recorded either in 1911 or in 1921, unless under the “general labourer" category. However, the lime ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 65 burners, who oral evidence suggests were common, are noted in the 1921 Census16 in Northern and 183 in Southern District, as also are the brick and tile makers, with 83 male and five female workers noted in Northern District in that year. The other traditional trades noted by the 1921 Census as present in numbers (vegetable oil pressers, shipbuilders, blacksmiths, carpenters) were mostly working within the market towns. In some places the “industrial” villages can be traced in the 1911 Census, even though the residents in them do not appear specifically in the "Occupations" Table. Thus, there was an area where incense wood was pounded into dust for manufacture into joss-sticks at Pak Kiu Tsuen outside Tai Po Market, and another at Tso Kung Tam outside Tsuen Wan. At the first, the census records the village of Wong Ka Uk, with 10 males but no females, and, at the second, the villages of Tso Kung Tam and Pak Shek Kiu, with 36 males and only nine females between them. These imbalanced populations strongly suggest that the villages in question were essentially industrial. Shek Tsai Po, outside Tai O - a centre for the drying of fish and the manufacture of shrimp paste - had a similarly imbalanced population of 71 males to 47 females. Villages next to important ferries - Liu Pok, Lo Wu, Yuen Chau Kok, Sha Kong, Ha Mei, Mui Wo - also tend to have recorded populations with more males than females, reflecting the boatmen and similar traders living at the ferry pier. Suburban industrial trades are probably the reason also why many of the villages on Hong Kong Island and the rural parts of Kowloon (especially Ma Kong, Chung Hom Kok, Lan Nai Wan, To Tei Wan, Tai Tam Tuk, Tong Po, Deep Water Bay, and the Quarry Bay villages on Hong Kong Island, and Ma Tau Kok, San Shan, Shek Shan, Lo Lung Hang, Wong Nai Yue, Fo Pang, Tai Shek Kwu, and Ho Man Tin in Kowloon)* show a significant excess of males over females. Suburban villages with significant excesses of males are also to be seen immediately outside most of the New Territories market towns in 1911. These villages had commercial market-gardens, industrial premises which required large areas (dyers, joss-stick makers, sawyers, etc.), and offensive trades (tanners, lime-burners, brick and tile works, etc.), and should be considered as part of the market town complex. The ring of villages with high male-female ratios around the city in 1911 should be seen in the same way, as subordinate to the commercial life of the City. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 71 villages and depopulated districts”, and by 1906 they were remarking on villages “with no adult males left at all.” As noted above, the district officer in 1912 also identified heavy temporary emigration of young adult males as a notable feature of the New Territories. Up to the 1870s, the emigration noted by the missionaries was of indentured coolies, leaving by ones and twos following inducements offered by more or less dubious emigration agents, and the missionaries castigated it as a "slave trade." However, after the reforms of the coolie trade in the 1870s, emigration became more respectable, with elders of the villages arranging for the emigration for a few years of groups of youths from the village, through well-trusted contacts with particular shipping lines. A tablet of 1894 in the main temple of the Sha Tau Kok area (the Kwan Tai Temple at Shan Tsui), lists the donors to the temple rebuilding of that year. The elders decided to seek donations in the first place from residents of the Sha Tau Kok area living away from home. Over a thousand donated and are listed, with their place of residence given. Apart from a substantial group living in Hong Kong, villagers of the area were at that date living in New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria in Australia, in New Zealand, in Hawaii, British Columbia, California, Peru, Panama, and many other places. Today, in villages of the area such as Shan Tsui or Sheung Wo Hang, elders will state that the best of the older surviving houses in the village were built by people who returned from emigration to marry and raise their families in the village in the period 1910-1930. In a few, portraits of these rich returned emigrants still hang on the walls of the houses they built. Similar tales are told of rich returned emigrants in Sha Tin; the village of San Tin there was founded by a returned emigrant of Au Pui Wan village about 1890-1895. For most of Tsuen Wan district, the 1911 Census does not give enough information to identify villages with abnormal population balances, but there is a further tablet recording donations to a temple rebuilding there, in this case of 1900, which demonstrates that some hundreds of the villagers of that area were abroad then. Those villages which can be shown to have had villagers living away from the village from the Shan Tsui tablet, or which have "returned emigrant” houses, all have low male-female ratios in 1911. There can be no doubt that the information at Appendix I and Table 31 shows the degree to which, and the area where, early emigration was a significant social factor in the New Territories. 100 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 73 The Basel missionaries make it clear that this feature of domination of the local market towns by males whose families remained resident in the village was normal in the mid-nineteenth century. In their description of Sha Tau Kok Market, from 1853, they say: The owners of these shops and stalls [in Sha Tau Kok Market] do not live in the town, but in neighbouring villages, and only come here for business and trade, or have it conducted by a substitute/manager. 102 Clearly, male-dominated towns, with shopkeepers living apart from their families in the village, are a long-standing feature of the region. The practice of young men leaving their villages for temporary residence in a town was, therefore, not a new one in the early twentieth century. The society, heavily dominated by temporarily resident young adult males, that sprang up in the city in the early decades after the foundation of Hong Kong as a port, was not either novel or a reaction to the foreign nature of the city, but was a practice with deep local roots. Obviously, the men in the market towns would often have their families within a half-day's walk away, while the city was, for most of them, more distant, but the essential factor in both cases is a widespread social acceptance of young villagers temporarily leaving home to seek fortunes away from their native village. The close link between market towns and high male:female ratios is sufficiently strong to allow this factor to be used to differentiate between towns in being, and towns not yet established. Tap Mun's 66.4% males, for instance, differentiates it from Kat O, with its 54.5%. Similarly, Ha Tsuen's 67.4% males differentiates it from Kam Tin, with no significant village higher than 55%. Kat O and Kam Tin may well have had small periodic markets in 1911, and perhaps one or two shops, but they were not yet towns. Hang Hau's 67.9% of males also marks it as a town in being in 1911. Another clearly differentiated group, again as noted above, was the specialist industrial villages, although in them, usually, the male-female ratio, while high, was less than that in the market towns (this does not hold true for the industrial villages ringing the City, as perhaps is not to be considered surprising, and also does not hold true for villages with quarries). Ferry villages, and suburban villages outside ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 77 Appendix I Villages with Low Male: Female (Less than 47%) Population Ratios, 1911 District Village No. of males Total population Age of males N San Tong Po 15 47 31.9** N Ngau Ha 6 16 N Sam Tam Lo 1 6 33.3** N Mo To Hang 2 6 33.3** N Ko Tan 8 21 38.1** N Tsiu Keng 15 43 34.9** N Wo Hop Shek 21 48 43.8 N Sheung Tan Chuk Hang 43 102 42.2 N Ping Che Yuen Ha 27 61 44.3 N Tai Po Tin 25 56 44.6 N Fung Wong Wit 39 84 46.4 N Lo Shue Ling 98 209 46.9 N Lei Uk Tsuen 41 94 43.6 N Chuk Yuen 18 44 40.9* N Tsung Yuen Ha 39 85 45.9 N Muk Wu 81 174 46.6 N Luk Keng 182 484 37.6** N Yim Tso Ha 18 47 38.3** N Shek Kiu Tau 37 98 37.8** N Ma Tseuk Ling Tai Long N 47 125 37.6** N Ha Wo Hang 20 46 43.5 N Sheung Wo Hang 66 160 41.3 N Nam Chung 175 443 39.5* N Wu Kay Tang 152 348 43.7 N Lin Ma Hang 165 423 39.0** N Ha Wang Shan Keuk 199 516 38.2** N Ha That Muk Kiu 16 43 37.2** N Kau Tam Tso 27 76 35.5** N Kai Keuk Shue Ha 13 42 31.0** N Fung Hang 47 108 43.5 N Kuk Po San Wai 61 143 42.6* N Tong To 56 126 44.4 N Shan Tsui 47 104 45.2 N Kong Ha 162 367 44.1 N Pok Wai 63 135 46.7 N Tai Che 100 225 44.4 ST Ngau Kok Wo 7 18 38.9** ST Tsung Tau Ha 3 8 37.5* ST 3 9 33.3** The table has been reconstructed for better readability while maintaining the original content and order. The column headers have been inferred as "District", "Village", "No. of males", "Total population", and "Age of males" based on the content. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Tai Hang Tsz Tong Tsuen TP 29 77 37.7** Tai Hang Chung San Wai TP 52 112 46.4 Tai Hang Fui Sha Wai TP 47 117 40.2* Sha Lo Tung TP 120 307 39.1* Fung Yuen TP 60 133 45.1 Ha Hang TP 40 97 41.2* Shuen Wan Tseng Tau TP 21 48 43.8 Shuen Wan Tung Tsai TP 14 43 32.6** Shuen Wan Po Sam Pai TP 70 156 44.9 Ting Kok TP 301 669 45.0 Shek Tau Pai TP 25 56 44.6 Ko Tong TP 34 80 42.5* Tai Tai TP 12 35 34.3** Pak Sha Au TP 52 117 44.4 Nai Tong Kok TP 19 48 38.8** Kam Chuk Pai TP 39 93 41.9* Yeung Shu Long I 5 13 38.5** Kau Lung I 2 6 33.3** Mau Tat I 23 69 33.3** Upper Tung Oi I 18 44 40.9* Lo So Shing 30 75 40.0* Luk Chau 16 54 29.6** Tai Ping I 49 113 43.4 Pak Kok 15 52 28.8** Tai Wan 52 113 39[+] Wang Lung [?] 17 50 34.0** San Tsuen I 61 133 46.2 Luk Tei Tong I 23 76 43.4 Leung Uk I 46 104 44.2 Kau Pa Kong SSP 73 165 44.2 Pak Shue Long SSP 61 151 40.4* Aberdeen Old Village HKI 74 164 45.1 Aberdeen New Village HKI 45 98 45.9 Hok Tsui Wan HKI 15 39 38.5** Villages with severe shortage of males (43% or less) * Village with extreme shortage of males (39% or less) ** ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Appendix II Villages with High Male: Female (More than 56% Male) Population Ratios 1911 81 Village District No. of males Total population Age of males Liu Pok Shek Wu Hui 136 237 57.4 Lo Wu 37 56 66.1** Tai Tau Tong 8 18 44.4* 100*1 5! 91 56.0 Tsung Pak Leng N 105 184 57.0 Yin Kong N 21 35 60.0+ Tiu Keng Wan N 38 56 67.6 Sau Hang N 25 42 59.5* Ma Wat Wan N 28 49 57.3 Wan Shan Ha N 38 66 57.6 Loi Tung N 107 191 56.0 Kuk Po Lo Wai N 140 247 56.7 Hung Shek Mun N 49 87 56.3 Wu Chau Tong N 28 48 58.3 Sha Tau Kok N 14 14 100** Yim Liu Ha N 29 47 61.7+ Ngong Ping ST 7 9 77.8** San Tun ST 77 109 70.0** Pak Tin ST 2 3 66.7** Wang Pok ST 8 9 88.9** Sheung Wo Che ST 70 100 70.0** Chek Mei Ping ST 70 122 57.2 Shek Wu Wai YL 37 56 66.1++ Tung Tau Yuen YL 26 38 68.4** Kak Hang Yuen YL 16 25 64.0** Lei Uk YL 32 48 66.7** Sha Kong Miu YL 5 6 77.4** Yuen Long Market YL 458 559 81.9** Tong Fong 83 148 56.1 Sha Kong YL 5 6 83.3** Kong Tau YL 26 46 56.5 Ha Tsuen Shi YL 120 178 67.4** Wang Che SK 4 5 80.0** Wu Lei Tau SK 6 9 66.7** Yau Ma Po SK 24 31 77.4** Uk Cheung SK 4 6 66.7** Hang Hau SK 262 387 67.8** Mau Fa Tsuen SK 28 47 59.6* ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 85 X "J Administrative Reports for the Year 1913, pages N13-17, 1914, pages N12-N13, 1915, pages O18-O19, 1916, pages 15-06-1917 page 07-1918, page 09, 1919, page O10, 1920, pages O15, O21, O29-O30, 1927, pages O17-4, O16, O22-O23, O33-O34. Scholarships were offered from these aided village schools to the Government schools in the New Territories, and from the Government schools in the New Territories to those in the City, although very few were taken up in the first few years. See RJ Phillips, Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section). A History, (Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1990), and Administrative Reports for the Year 1910, page R6, 1911, page R1. In 1911, the Sha Tau Kok light railway was opened only as far as Shek Chung Au. The extension of the light railway to Sha Tau Kok came in 1912. Administrative Reports for the Year 1910, pages P34-35, 1911, pages P40-41, 1912, page P51, 1913, pages 186-88, 1914, page P85-86, 1915, pages Q94-96, 1916, pages Q77-78, 1917, pages Q88-90, 1918, pages Q81-85, 1919, pages Q53-55, 1920, pages Q64-65, and 1927, pages Q77-78. A programme to build 6 to 8 feet wide footpaths/bridle paths had been begun in the New Territories in 1899. The footpath from Kowloon to Tai Po was completed in 1902, and that from Castle Peak Bay to Au Tau in 1911. The section from Au Tau to Fanling was completed (except for the bridge at Au Tau) by the end of 1914. No path was built between Castle Peak Bay and Sham Shui Po, or between Tai Po and Fanling in this period. This footpath construction programme does not seem to have affected traditional village life significantly, although the District Officer felt the new footpaths had made the work of patrolling and administering the New Territories easier. However, the only specific use the District Office noted for the new footpaths, other than by Government officials, was by cattle drivers sending animals to the City for slaughter. The footpaths were "justified by administrative and military needs” (the Orme Report, pages 30, 32-33, 36). The New Territories circular road was an upgrading of these earlier footpaths, where they existed, but included new construction where the earlier footpaths were lacking. Papers Land Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1899 (Hong Kong Sessional Papers), printed by Noronha and Co., Government Printers, Hong Kong, No. 9, "Extracts From Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hongkong, Laid before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor. Extracts from a Report by Mr. Stewart Lockhart on the Extension of the Colony of Hongkong," p. 187, remarks that, in 1899, the steamers from Hong Kong to Macao called intermittently at Cheung Chau. The Orme Report, op. cit., mentions that steam ferries from Cheung Chau used to carry the fish catch to Hong Kong early in the morning (para 65). See also Administrative Reports for the Year 1913, page J12, 1915, page J9, 1916, page J12, 1919, page J12, 1922, page J12. 1 Including the choice of Cheung Chau as a place to spend weekends and the summer by numbers of European families, mostly missionaries from Canton. This began in a very small way in 1912, but only became a major feature from 1918. In 1919, a “European reservation” was formed, and a small year-round resident European community with an Assembly Hall and a 10-hole golf-course had become established by 1921. Administrative Reports for the Year 1912, page J13, 1914, page J11, 1915, page J10, 1917, page J11, 1918, page J11, 1920, page J12, 1921, page J13. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 125 HH The volume entitled the Genealogy of the Chens of She Shan contains two or three separate genealogies of Chen surname from which I cannot trace common descent. It seems that some pages were missing in the copy in the Hong Kong University collection. The name pujao, if indeed an ordination name, does not follow the usual long or fa format. It is probably an ordination name from another, more well-known "folk" religion, Luozu Jiao, which have ordination names in a format of Pa followed by another character, according to an account in a Qing work of anecdotal literature quoted by Fu Yilin's article "Qing Qrankong kupan Cilaoguançaizong Qislu Kao" – first published in 1942 and included in his Fu Yin Zash wusht man Wengao Xiamen Daxue Chubanshe, 1989. The pantheon and practice of Laiozu Jio is not related to the tradition that is the subject of this article. * According to Lo, op cit, p. 216 n 21. So Lo Pun was a member of an alliance including Lai Chi Wo, a multi-surname village. With one exception, which is not So Lo Pun, all member villages were lineage extensions related to Lai Chi Wo. I know of some Huang people in Lai Chi Wo, but do not know their genealogical relationship with So Lo Pun or whether they celebrated the Fengchao in the past. The genealogy contains a spirit tablet related to Lu Shan and the Three Ladies, a passage of invocation, and two talismans. It is unlikely that the genealogy belonged to a wang specialist, whose repertoire will take up many volumes, not just a few pages in a genealogy as in this case. *I fail to date any of the generations. Some dates are given in the genealogy using Dynastic year names which cannot be found in reference books for year names. I have not checked as thoroughly some of the year names and title of emperors in the prefaces. Copied during an interview with the ritual specialist by Lee Lar-mu, then of the Oral History Project of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. For part of the memorial, I have a tape recording of the priest's recitation demonstration during the same meeting for comparison. 12. The Xu's genealogy of Shek Pik, Lantau Island in the British Library collection of genealogies from the New Territories contains a list of offerings for grave worship which begins with one raw pig and one cow. Rubie S. Watson, in her Inequality Among Brothers, Cambridge University Press 1985, p. 43 mentioned the division of raw pork after the ancestral hall ritual at Ha Tsuen but does not say if the four pigs purchased for the occasion were first offered to the ancestors as offerings. 41 Huhur Xinwen Yi hun Xu Zhi, Beijing Zhonghua 1986, p. 181. "For the note see Luo, op cit, p. 230. For his picture of the Hakka as "farmer-scholars" see ibid, pp. 16-18. **Luo Op Cit, p. 255-263. * The description is in vol. 2. In the table of contents, the author has inserted xiang ("incense") between Ahuan and Huo. The rite has some interesting features. It uses a long piece of red cloth stretched from the "lower" end near the entrance of the hall to the "upper" end of the ancestral incense burner, and the ashes were carried over the "bridge" thus formed to the incense burner. That additional ancestors are incorporated into the ancestral hall in the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 156 In recent years, mass emigration to the cities has further weakened the lineage tradition at some villages. Only the Mos at Mok Ka and the Los at lower Shek Lau Po seem to have maintained the status of their lineages. As the strongest lineage in Tung Chung, the Mos managed to rebuild their ancestral hall, the Mo-yu-t'ang, and continue to visit the graves of their focal ancestors collectively. As for the Lo lineage at lower Shek Lau Po, the reconstruction of their ancestral hall, the Lo-yu-chang t'ang, in the 1970s, as a centre for ancestor worship, contributed to the reinforcement of lineage identity. Nevertheless, the majority of Tung Chung's villagers worship their ancestors inside their family halls. The worship of the earth god in Tung Chung also occurs on a small scale. Symbolically, the earth god stands for the spirit of the village at which he is located, and is represented usually by a rock at an open-air shrine or by an old banyan tree. Variously known as Ta-wang (great king) or Po-kung (lord or paternal great-uncle), the earth god guards a village at its entrance or rear. As a guardian deity at the basic level of rural organization, the god helps to mark the territorial line between villages. In Ngau Au, for example, four Po-kungs are located there at both the entrance and the rear of the village. Three of them, as a village elder confirmed, are more than three hundred years old. At Mok Ka, earth gods are enshrined, two by the stream and one at the village entrance, and one at the rear of the village. As the oldest village, Shek Mun Kap has the largest earth god, represented by a giant boulder. On the 1st and 15th of every lunar month, during the major festivals, and on the earth gods' collective birthday, Ta-wang or Po-kung are offered sacrifices. On auspicious days of their choice, villagers also come to pray for the god's blessings and repay his protection. The ceremonies concerned include the display of wine and animal sacrifices in front of the shrine, the spraying of the wine on the ground, the burning of paper offerings, and kowtow to the god. Compared to ancestor worship, the earth god worship functions more directly to enhance the village identity, especially among individual members of a mix-lineage community. In Tung Chung, however, the ceremony has never taken the elaborate form of the tso-she (doing the she), i.e., special collective rituals and celebratory activities consisting of a feast in honour of the neighbourhood god at various times of the year. Being ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 178 NOTES Abbreviation JHKBRAS = Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society The present study is part of the research product of the Historical Fieldwork Project on Old Settlements in Tung Chung, Lantau Island, conducted by the History Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, in summer 1991, under the auspices of the Antiquities and Monument Office, Government Secretariat, Hong Kong. In the section on Tung Chung's socio-religious activities, Wai-yee Ho was one of the field interviewers and the major processor of interview transcriptions on the subject. The authors of this article would like to thank Mr Wing-kai To and Dr Cathy Potter for reading and commenting on the draft. Official geographical names are used in this paper although their romanization may deviate from the Wade-Giles system adopted by this journal. J.L. Cranner-Byng & A. Shepherd "A Reconnaissance of Ma Wan and Lantao Islands in 1794,” JHKBRAS, Vol. 4 (1964), p. 115 Administrative Report (1912), p. 110. VII-Crops * Stewart H. Lockhart, "Report on the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong," 1898 * "Table of Population Figures in the New Territories," Hong Kong Gazetteer (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1958) 6 Interviews Cheng P'o (age 77), upper Ling Pei, Jun 15, 1991, Hsieh Ch'i (age 72), San Tau, Jul 7, 1991, Mr Wang (Age 30+), San Tau, Jul 7, 1991. Wang's father was known as the "king of folk song." He used to keep some song books which are now lost. Interview of Mr & Mrs Lo # (age Mr Lo 69), Shek Mun Kap, Jun 18, 1991. Mrs Lo, who was a child bride, as were her sisters, mentioned that quite a number of child brides came from San Tau, Sha Lo Wan and the western border of Tung Chung. Interviews "Uncle Cheng", the Tung Chung Public School, Jun 24, 1991, Chang Yen, Ma Wan Chung, Jul 7, 1991. "Uncle Cheng" indicated that the price for a child bride was HK$20 or more fifty years ago, whereas Cheng Yen pointed out that the price was HK$50-60 sixty years ago. On the Hakka mores of women labouring as farmers/housewives while their husbands and grown-up sons worked outside or overseas (mostly in southeast Asia), see Wu Tsung-chuo & Wen Chung-ho, Chia-ying-chou chih (reprint of the 1898 edition) (Taipei: Ch'eng-wen ch'u-pan-she, 1968), chuan 8, pp. 53-55. For this tradition, and the custom of child brides, see also Yang Hung-hai, "Yueh-tung k'e-chia ti min-su t'e-se," in KROANKAHė K'e-chia wen-chin, ZRERE, Vol. 1 (1989), pp. 277, 281. * Interview of Cheng Man-hung W (age 63), Aug 8, 1991 "John Brim, "Village Alliance Temples in Hong Kong," in Arthur P. Wolf, ed., Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1974), p. 95 179 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 179 Stewart II Lockhart. Report on the New Territory during the First Year of British Administration, Hong Kong Sessional Papers, 1900, p. 251 Brum, op cit. p.94 12 David Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories (Hong Kong: Oxford University Press, 1986), p. 100 Interviews: "Uncle Lau" (age: 73), Lam Che, Jun 18, 1991; Cheng Man Yim, op cit.; the Tung Chung Public School, Jan 24, 1991; K'ung Chuo-Yim (age 56), Ma Wan Chung, Jul 11, 1991; Headmaster Mui Wen Hsi (age 50), the Tung Chung Public School, Jun 6, 1991; Tseng Jung Wu (age 53), Ngat Au, Jun 28, 1991 14 Interview of Lo Ch'uan Mei (age 82), Shaek Mun Kap, Jun 22, 1991 15. Ha Wan Yee, "Tung-chung-hsiang te min-chien tsung-chiao hsin-yang chi ch'i han-tung," Unpublished Graduation Thesis, History, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1991, p. 4 Sessional Paper, 1911 (Hong Kong: The Government Printer), p. 103 (38) 17 Interview of Teng Ch'iao (age 66), Ha Mei, Jun 26, 1991 18 Interview of Teng P'ei (age 61), Ha Mei, Jun 18, 1991. According to her story, the Teng's ancestral hall was damaged by the Japanese, and since then the lineage has failed to raise money for its reconstruction. San Tau's Hsiehs also lost their genealogy as well as medical books to the Japanese, according to the interview of Hsieh Ch'i, op. cit., Jun 21, 1991 19 Interview of Huang Wu (age 80+), Village Head of Tai Po, Aug 12, 1991 20 Interview of Cheng P'o, op cit. 21 Faure, op. cit., pp. 70-71; Marjone Topley, "Chinese Religion and Rural Cohesion in the Nineteenth Century,” HKBRAS, Vol. 18 (1978), pp. 9-43 22 Interview of Tseng Jung, op cit. 23 Ho, op cit., p. 5 24 For details of the ceremony, see Faure, op cit., p. 71 25 C.K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society. A Study of Contemporary Social Functions of Religion and Some of Their Historical Factors (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1961), pp. 11-12, 99 26 For details of the chan festival, see Faure, op cit., pp. 84-86; David Faure, "Hong Kong and China in the Village World,” HKBRAS, Vol. 24 (1981), pp. 76-79; Tanaka ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 182 ++ James W Hayes, "The Patterns of Life in the New Territories in 1898,” JHKBRAS, Vol 2 (1962), p. 75. James Hayes, "The Settlement and Development of a Multiple-clan Village," in Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, ed., Aspects of Social Organization in the New Territories, Week-end Symposium, 9th-10th May, 1964 (Hong Kong: Cathy Press) p. 13. Hayes. 1966 op cit, pp 92-93 ***Kung-li Ta-hsi-shan Tung-Hsi-chung Chiang-shan chu-tien Liang-hsiang ho-huo yung-yuan chao-na pei,” £££%£¶‡ui (@N✯ in K'o, et al. op cit. p 43 65 For the concept equating local temples with the yamen and temple gods with local officials, see Faure, 1986, op. cit. p 71 James Hayes, "Secular Non-gentry Leadership of Temple and Shrine Organizations in Urban British Hong Kong," JHKBRAS, Vol 23 (1983), pp. 113-114 K'o et al, op cit. pp 399-402 + * Law Man Sang, "The Rural Leadership of Tung Chung " Graduation Thesis, History, Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1992, pp 36 AT Interview of Kung Chao-hsiang, op cit For this point, see Topley, op cit p 18 Interviews of Kung Chao-hsiang, op cit, Jul 6, 1991, Jul 8, 1991 70 Ibid "Interview of Cheng Man-hung op cit Jul 1, 1991 Ibid 21 Interviews Lo Chin-hu (age 80), Shek Lau Po, Jun 29, 1991, Li P'o, Cheng Man-hung etc, upper Ling Pei, Aug 11, 1991, Huang P'ing T (age 70), Ma Wan Chung, Aug 19, 1991, Cheng Man-hung, Huang Chieh-lin etc, Tung-sheng-lou Sept 23, 1991 # "Interview of Cheng Man-hung, op cit. Aug 11, 1991 "Law, op cit p7 Th Interview of Huang P'ing, op cit. Aug 18, 1991 + "Ng Cheuk You "Land and People in Tung Chung Valley An Example of Rural Land Use in Hong Kong." Ph D Thesis University of Hong Kong, 1965, p "Interview of Ch'en Kuang-sheng, op cit, Jul 8, 1991 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 241 DISTRIBUTION OF TEMPLES ON HONG KONG ISLAND AS RECORDED IN 1981 ANTHONY SIU KWOK KIN Hong Kong Island lies to the south of mainland China. It was not known until the later part of the Ming Dynasty, when the names of Heong Kong 香港, Tit Hang 鐡坑, Chung Hum 舂磴, Chek Chu 赤柱, Tai Tam, Shoo-ke-wan (Shau Kei Wan) and Wong Nei Chung were recorded in the book called Yuet Tai Kee. During the 1st year of the Kang Hsi reign of the Ching Dynasty (1661), the people living in the coastal area had to move back to the inland.2 Seven years later, in the 8th year of the Kang Hsi reign (1669), they were allowed to come back. At that time, only the villages of Heong Kong (Hong Kong village or Shek Pei Wan Village) and Wong Nei Chung were rebuilt. However, the other villages were abandoned during the Coastal Evacuation. Then in the Chia Ching reign (1796-1820), two more villages were founded: they were the Pok Fu Lam Village and the So Kon Po Village. From then on, the population increased rapidly, with people flocking to the area. In 1841, Hong Kong Island came under British rule. At that time, there were the villages of Chek Chu (Stanley), Heong Kong (Hong Kong Village), Wong Nei Chung, Kung Lam (A Kung Ngam), Shek Lup (Shek O), Shoo-ke-wan (Shau Kei Wan), Ta Shek-ha, Kwan-tai-loo (Victoria City, or Central), Soo-Kon-poo (So Kon Po), Hung-heong-loo (Causeway Bay), Sai Wan (Chai Wan), Tai Long, Too-te-wan (To Tei Wan), Tai Tam and Shek-tong-chui (Sai Ying Pun). Tseen Sui Wan (Repulse Bay), Sum Wan (Deep Water Bay) and Shek-pac (Shek Pei Wan) were deserted fishing hamlets. Since then many local temples were built and repaired. The temples listed below are in existence in 1981. Though some are ruined, we can still get information about their previous existence. Tin Hau Temple 1. Causeway Bay Built in the early Ching period, repaired in 1848, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1998 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/1g05n0794 247 THE STORY OF STANLEY FORT Brief History R.G. HORSNELL There seems to have been a military presence at Stanley since the early days of Hong Kong as a British Colony. The original barracks were situated at Chek Chue (Stanley Village), Tytam Bay. The English name seems to have been derived from the name of the Colonial Secretary of the day, Lord Stanley.1 Work on erecting new barracks commenced in 1841 and by 1857 there was accommodation available for 3 field officers, 10 officers, 1 mess room, 1 anti-room, and accommodation for 441 NCOs and men. The high rate of fever within the Hong Kong garrison resulted in a decision being taken in 1857 that Stanley Barracks was to be used as a Convalescent Station and orders were given for the unused portions of the barracks to be prepared for convalescent soldiers. With an increasing number of troops arriving in Hong Kong the accommodation problem made it necessary for the hiring of private buildings, supplemented by Madras tents which could accommodate 20 men per tent. Bell tents were not considered to be suitable, nor were the traditional Chinese matshed temporary camp structures which formerly had been used in the very early days. The present barracks on the Tytam Peninsula, known as Stanley Fort, were built in 1936 to replace the old 1840s barracks which had been abandoned about 1895 and fallen into ruin. A contract was given to a Chinese contractor on 11 June 1936 for the following buildings: 1 Barrack Block 1 Sergeant's Mess 1 Dining Room and Cookhouse 1 Bath House 1 Medical Inspection Room and a 2-Bed Ward ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 2 of the lower Pearl River Estuary. By AD 331, when the County of Tung Kuan was established, the then Salt Intendant certainly had his yamen (official residence and office) at Nam Tau. Nam Tau became the new county seat in that year, and the then Salt Intendant was promoted to County Magistrate, and the old Salt Monopoly yamen was upgraded to become the new County Magistrate's yamen, with a new yamen thereafter built for the incoming Salt Intendant. These early references also do not speak of Kowloon City specifically, but it is very likely that, with the Salt Intendancy headquarters so close, the salt-fields at Kowloon City were already then in full operation, probably with a Sub-Intendant in charge there, and it is likely that this was so from Nanyueh times. At some date between 331 and 1163 the Tung Kuan Salt Intendancy at Nam Tau was split into four, with one of the new Salt Intendants stationed at Kowloon City (then called Kwun Fu Cheung, "Rich Official Salt-fields"). The most likely period for this development (which was associated with an attempt to increase revenue from the Salt Monopoly in Kwangtung) is the tenth century, when again Kwangtung formed a separate Empire, that of the Nanhan (907-979); considerable amounts of Nanhan pottery have been found in the general Kowloon City area, suggesting that this was a place of some significance then. By the date of this split of the Salt Intendancy there can be no doubt that Kowloon City was an important Salt Monopoly centre. In 1163 the Kwun Fu Cheung Salt Intendancy yamen was moved to Tip Fuk (Tiefu) on Mirs Bay, where it stayed for a few decades — perhaps a hundred years — before returning to Kowloon City. In or shortly before 1293, the Kwun Fu Salt Intendancy was amalgamated with the Salt Intendancy headquartered at Wong Tin outside Sai Heung (Xixiang), a little to the north of Nam Tau, and the old Kowloon City Salt Intendant's yamen (which was a walled compound) became the yamen for a new County Sub-Magistracy then formed. This Sub-Magistracy was upgraded in 1370, and moved to Chek Mei Village outside Sham Chun (Shenzhen) in that year; it was moved back to Kowloon City in 1841, together with the yamen of the local Military Commander, which had previously been at Tai Pang (Dapeng) on Mirs Bay, to bring the Sub-Magistrate and Commander closer to the anticipated problems arising from the British occupation of Hong Kong. The walls of Kowloon City, which ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x were also to be found in Ta Kwu Leng and Ma Tau Wai. 23 It will be seen that Kowloon City, Kowloon Market, and the suburban villages around them, apart from Sha Po, (that is, Tung Tau, Sai Tau, Hau Wong, and Hoklo Villages) had no part in the League of Seven. These areas were considered to fall immediately under the control of the Sub-Magistrate in Kowloon City, or under the control of the Kowloon Market Kaifong. Apart from these places, the League of Seven covered all the area around Kowloon City. The Kowloon City and Kowloon Market areas worshipped at the Hau Wong Temple outside the Walled City, and did not worship at the Nga Tsin Wai Tin Hau Temple. There was a Tin Hau Temple at Sha Po where the residents in the Market also worshipped. Ma Tau Wai had a temple of its own: this was to Pak Tai, worshipped under the title Sheung Tai (7). Only the gate pillars of this temple survive today, in the Lomond Road Garden. To the east of the area of the League of Seven was the large and ancient village of Po Kong, belonging to the Lam (*) clan. Po Kong never joined the League of Seven. Po Kong had its own temple (it was dedicated to Tin Hau), and the Po Kong people did not go to the Tin Hau Temple at Nga Tsin Wai. Chuk Yuen and Sha Tei Yuen were genealogically connected with Po Kong. According to the Nga Tsin Wai elders, the villages of Po Kong, Chuk Yuen, Sha Tei Yuen, Nga Yiu Tau, Ngau Chi Wan (including its "Mau Tsuen” of Pak Uk Tsai, or Ping Shek), and Yuen Ling (both the Upper and Lower Villages) formed an inter-village alliance of their own, the Six Villages Alliance (AM). Ngau Chi Wan had its own temple, to the Sam Shan Kwok Wong - this temple still survives. According to Ngau Chi Wan village elders, there was no Six Villages' Ta Tsiu, but Ngau Chi Wan conducted these rituals on its own every ten years. Ngau Chi Wan also held the She (£) feast before their higher earth god, every year, when every family made an offering of food, which later formed the basis of the communal feast. Ngau Chi Wan was, clearly, rather independent where the worship of the deities was concerned, and may well have been rather less well-integrated into the Six Villages than the villages closer to Po Kong. Ngau Chi Wan was a Hakka village, founded in the very early eighteenth century. It was founded by the Lau (1) clan, but the To (†), Yeung (), Tsang (4), and Yip () clans joined the Laus during the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 24 eighteenth century. The Fungs () came there much later, at the end of the nineteenth century: they had fled from the Tai Ping rebels to Shek Lung Tsai in Sha Tin, and from there moved to Ngau Chi Wan. Very little is known of the Six Villages Alliance, and it is likely that it was more loosely structured than the League of Seven. It will be noted that Tai Hom, of the League of Seven, is completely surrounded by land that formed part of the Six Villages Alliance. Tai Hom, which is a single-surname village of the Chu (*) clan, is the only village of the League of Seven with no genealogical connections with Nga Tsin Wai. That it formed part of the League of Seven, rather than the Po Kong Six Villages Alliance is probably due to the circumstances of Tai Hom's foundation. The Founding Ancestor of the Chus, Chu kui-yuen, was a Hakka from Ng Wah District far to the northeast of Hong Kong22. He was a stone-cutter. He came to Hong Kong in 1762, to look for work in the quarries which were at that date starting up in the eastern part of what is today Victoria Harbour. He prospered, and established a quarry at Shek Tong Tsui in 1771. Later, he found Shek Tong Tsui rather remote, and exposed to pirate attack, and moved to Sha Po near Kowloon City. Later still, he bought quarry-land at the tip of Cape d'Aguilar Peninsula, and founded nearby the village of Hok Tsui. He had eight sons. His eldest son died unmarried, and Hok Tsui is today lived in by the descendants of his second, third and fourth sons. The fifth and sixth sons died unmarried or disappeared later. Chu kui-yuen bought more land, at Tai Hom, for his seventh son, Yan-fung, leaving his youngest son, Cheung-fung, , the land at Sha Po. After Kui-yuen's death, his widow lived at Tai Hom with her seventh son, who acquired a minor official post at Kowloon City, presumably after the re-establishment of the yamen there in 1841. Yan-fung was born in 1781, and died in 1857. Tai Hom was, therefore, a late settlement. It is unlikely to have been founded earlier than 1800. The land at Tai Hom was not fertile, and was steep and rocky (the Chus ran a quarry there, which supplied poor quality stone used for laying foundations in the Kowloon City area). Until 1992 a few remnants of Tai Hom, including the Chu clan Ancestral Hall, remained, buried within the Diamond Hill Squatter Area. It is likely that Po Kong refused to guarantee the good behaviour of these incoming Hakka (some already settled family was always required to guarantee incomers under the Pao-chia rules), while Nga Tsin Wai was willing, and that it was this which brought Tai Hom into the League of Page 60 Page 61 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 25 Seven, rather than into any relationship with Po Kong. Tai Hom was the only Hakka village in the League of Seven. It was probably this Hakka ethnicity, their rejection by Po Kong, and their relative isolation from Nga Tsin Wai that led the Tai Hom villagers to establish a temple of their own outside their village, somewhere in the period 1821-1850, probably late in the period: it was greatly expanded in 1904. This temple, the Tung Shan Temple (it was dedicated to Kwun Yam) became, for a short period during the 1920s and 1930s, the main religious focus of the "thirteen villages of Kowloon", that is, the villages of both the League of Seven and of the Six Villages Alliance, but it was left ruined in the War. The land south of Ma Tau Kok formed part of the Alliance of Three (三聯盟) of Hung Hom (Hung Hom including Tai Wan, Hok Yuen including Shek Shan, and To Kwa Wan, probably including Ma Tau Kok). The land east of Ngau Chi Wan and Pak Uk Tsai formed the inter-village alliance called "The Four Stone Hills" (四石嶺). This was a sworn alliance of the quarry-villages of this mountainous and infertile area (Ngau Tau Kok, Sai Cho Wan, Cha Kwo Ling, and Lei Yue Mun). Inter-village alliances normally centre on joint worship by the elders, either at the higher earth god of the area, or at the local temple. Nothing is now remembered in Nga Tsin Wai of any inter-village worship by the elders of the League of Seven as a group at any higher earth god shrine, nor of any She, * , Feast of the elders in front of the shrine. However, the Nga Tsin Wai villagers do not now even remember where their earth gods used to stand - they were all removed by the Japanese, except for the earth god of the Village Gate - so too much should not be made of this. The elders of the villages of the League of Seven did and do worship the Nga Tsin Wai Tin Hau, however, on her Birthday each year (the Tai Hom elders consider the villages of the League of Seven as "belonging to the Tin Hau of Nga Tsin Wai"): it is likely that this was the ritual focus of the League, and that the meetings of the elders of the district took place after the worship. The elders hold a feast today after the worship of Tin Hau, and this is probably a very ancient tradition. The Temple, however, was the property of Nga Tsin Wai alone (it is owned by all three of the Nga Tsin Wai clans, and the Manager of the Temple, chosen by the elders of the three clans, is the Village Headman): it was probably for this reason that, on her Birthday, the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 42 area faced in consequence a sellers' market, and doubtless the result was a steady increase in the number of fields under vegetables, and in the number of village households rearing pigs and other livestock for the market. During the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, buyers from Hong Kong could only buy from villages on the mainland sea-coast opposite the City, since there then were no roads to bring in produce from further afield, and no vehicles to carry anything either. However, even though market gardening must have increased in importance throughout the later nineteenth century, it is likely that demand from Kowloon City and the ships calling there was enough to make market gardening a significant feature of local life even before 1841. The Nga Tsin Wai villagers say that rice cultivation stopped in the village well before the last War. Most of the elders cannot remember seeing any rice cultivation there in their youth in the 1930s. By then, the area was entirely devoted to producing food for the market. One contact said his mother and grandmother ran a pig-farm in the 1930s with 40 head of pigs - a very large farm for the New Territories at that date. That farm operated out of sheds built on the family fields, but a lot of villagers kept pigs and cattle actually within the walls of the village. The elders say that a lot of houses within the walls were empty in the 1930s. Many of the villagers had moved to the larger and airier homes outside the walls leaving empty premises behind (twelve villagers in 1902 owned houses both within the walls and outside, and a further nine had houses only outside the walls then). These empty houses within the walls were mostly used as pigsties and cattle sheds in this period: indeed, it is doubtful if there had ever been enough resident population at Nga Tsin Wai to fill all the village houses within the walls. A Sha Tin villager, Hui Wing-hing, F, of Shek Kwu Lung Village, wrote a series of poems about villages in Sha Tin and adjacent areas, mostly in the period 1890-1905, i.e. at approximately the same time as the Block Crown Lease Survey. For each village, he wrote about what caught his eye as important and special in that village. Market gardening was what he found most significant about the Kowloon City villages, and, in particular, the growing of fruit for the market. He has this to say of the League of Seven and Six Villages areas in his poem on the villages of Hong Kong, Kowloon, and Tsuen Wan: ================================================================================ 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 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 58 small patches of vegetable fields. The present Diamond Hill Squatter Area, with the remains of the old Tai Hom Village at its centre, is all that remains of this huge area today. Nga Tsin Wai was buried in this squatter area. Squatter huts were built up against the outer face of the old walls of 1724. The old moat area was not built over, however, because the ground there was too unsafe and damp. The Ng clan Ancestral Hall disappeared into the centre of the new Tung Tau Squatter Area, and the area north of the village was covered with a network of vegetable plots and squatter huts. As before, the villagers were, in most cases, quite unable to get any rent from the squatters, and just lost control of their sole economic asset - their fields. To the northwest of the village an even larger squatter area developed around the Wong Tai Sin Temple (founded here in the 1930s), and the villages of Ta Kwu Leng and Shek Kwu Lung. This squatter area was cleared from 1955 for the construction of the Wong Tai Sin Housing Estates: Ta Kwu Ling and Shek Kwu Lung villages were cleared with the squatter huts which surrounded them. No special compensation was paid to the villagers of these villages, who received cash for their fields, and a unit in the new estates. Thus, by the middle 1950s, Nga Tsin Wai was left as the only indigenous village left in the whole area, except for Chuk Yuen, Yuen Ling, and Ngau Chi Wan to the east. Ngau Chi Wan with Pak Uk Tsai was in turn cleared for development in the late 1960s (the villagers here were given a resite just north of the new road), Ngau Chi Wan for the construction of Lung Cheung Road, and Pak Uk Tsai for the site formation for Ping Shek Estate. What was left of Chuk Yuen went in the early 1980s (some of the village had disappeared a decade or so earlier), for the development of Open Space along Po Kong Village Road. Both the Yuen Ling villages went in the early 1990s, with the squatter area which surrounded them, for the site formation for the Chi Lin Nunnery. At Nga Tsin Wai itself, the site formation for the original Tung Tau Estate (1960), and its access roads, led to the resumption of all the remaining village fields. The Ng clan Ancestral Hall was cleared with the squatter area around it. A resite was given for the Ancestral Hall, at the western end of the old moat (the resite was less than a quarter the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x "in the mind.' Nevertheless, the money and effort needed to stage tun fu ceremonies does demonstrate resolve. The ritual also appears to have a therapeutic effect on believers taking part who are contented in that they have done their duty towards their ancestors and the community. Frequently in Hong Kong, villagers find themselves in the path of tumultuous upheaval. Until the New Territories has been almost entirely transformed by urban development, tun fu ceremonies will probably continue, albeit on a gradually reducing scale. The custom is more firmly rooted among the older generations among whom local festivals and ceremonies like tun fu are an important part of village life. Nevertheless, because a person does not believe when he or she is young does not necessarily mean that they will not believe when they become older. Sentimentalists probably agree that it will be sad if ceremonies, such as tun fu, disappear altogether and, with globalisation, these are replaced largely by western-style entertainment such as karaoke and bars with hostesses similar to those which have sprung up, in recent years, in the Yuen Long-Kam Tin district. Acknowledgements The Author is especially grateful to the Hong Kong Government Antiquities and Monuments Office whose members have provided considerable help, in a variety of ways (including supplying six of the seven photographs which are gratefully acknowledged). Likewise, sincere thanks are due to the staff of the Lands Department, Railway Development Section, and to the village elders and committee members of Pat Heung and elsewhere who invited the Author to observe and take part in their tun fu ceremonies. Grateful thanks are also due to authors listed in the bibliography, to whom this paper refers. Without the help of all concerned, this study would not be as detailed as it is. NOTES E.g. Ma Wan villagers held a tun fu ceremony when they felt 'threatened' when the Tsing Ma Bridge, leading to the new Chek Lap Kok Airport, was being constructed. Many objects serve in Chinese culture as talismans or charms. These range from couplets, or even a single Chinese character, for example meaning 'blessings' or Page 135 Page 136 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 255 NOTES AND QUERIES FENGSHUI AND ROAD WORKS AT TONG FUK VILLAGE, SOUTH LANTAU, IN 1958 JAMES HAYES In my memoir of government service, Friends and Teachers, Hong Kong and its People 1953-1987 (Hong Kong University Press, 1996), one of the opening chapters was devoted to my duties in connection with the Shek Pik Water Scheme on Lantau Island to the west of Hong Kong in the late 1950s. In it, I recounted the periodic confrontations with the villagers of that then remote place over the drillings and soil excavations needed to establish the viability of the proposed design for the dam, along with the similar difficulties experienced later on, during construction work on the reservoir, its access roads and catch waters. Bringing obstruction and delays, the local people's opposition stemmed from their strongly rooted belief in geomancy (fengshui) and in the adverse effects for man and beast certain in their minds to follow any tampering with the landscape, especially when its orange-red coloured soil was exposed to view. Similar problems were also being encountered in adjoining old villages during the extension of the only recently completed South Lantau Road to the reservoir site. Five miles of new motor road were required, and the line passed through several settlements. There were difficulties with the villagers at each of these places, particularly at Tong Fuk Village, to which at one point I and my land staff had to make frequent visits because of the villagers' continual interference with the contractor's workmen on site, regardless of promises made and assurances given. Needless to say, the appearance of Tong Fuk village today, with its array of smart "Spanish Villa" type houses, restaurants and shops bears no resemblance to its former self. In 1958, every house was old and built in the traditional architectural style, occupied by humans or livestock, or used for storage, and all its inhabitants were engaged in agricultural work, mainly in raising the two annual rice crops on which they depended for a subsistence livelihood. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 263 interest payable on the principal. This sum, though unstated, is likely to have been one dollar. As indicated above, those members who took loans early paid more interest than those who were prepared to wait. Thus, Yeung Tai would have paid least by waiting longest for his turn to have the use of the principal sum. As for place, the participants' varied names suggest a town rather than a village. Since the book in which it was found was bought in Hong Kong, and as the currency used in drawing up the record was in use there, it is very likely that this small group of persons were living and working there. There is no mention of the purposes for which men and women clubbed together in this way, but it was usually for small, attainable objects connected with household, economic or religious purposes. Such associations were certainly popular at the time, in town and country alike. It is significant that money loan associations feature in the older Western literature on China, gaining a mention, for instance, in compendia like Dyer-Ball's Things Chinese, first published in 1892. In Hong Kong, defalcations and mismanagement among their members brought many civil cases into the magistrates' courts. This particular association, if such it was, was combining for very modest sums. In this regard, it was on a lower level than the money loan associations I reported from the village of Shek Pik on Lantau Island in Vol. 8 (1968) of this Journal; afterwards reproduced with additional material as Chapter 15 of my The Rural Communities of Hong Kong: Studies and Themes (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1983). The sums borrowed there were larger, since land and houses were available as security for participation, and could be used to guarantee repayment of loans taken. This made them more significant than the smaller associations, more akin to clubs, represented by this scrap of paper. Other Explanations? (a) The list represents the outstanding sums owed to a money loan association Dr. Patrick Hase, to whom I sent the draft of this paper, questions ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 272 on the events of that time It seems that the Japanese authorities, strict though they were, did take the initiative which led to the provision of Model Village, and that it was they who had appointed contractors to carry out construction, and had allowed those involved to work on the project and to receive a payment in rice for a day's work. Such payments were received on other projects of the time. One such was the construction of the new stormwater nullah that ran alongside Nga Tsin Wai - referred to in Patrick Hase's article on the village. Two ladies from Ngau Tau Kok village in East Kowloon, interviewed in 1967, had both worked as earth coolies on it, and also on the demolition of houses and the lowering of small hills for the extended airfield. Stones from the houses had been used to build the nullah. The two had carried the 100 piculs of soil and stones needed to earn one catty of rice, but said that men who could manage 140 or 150 piculs would earn proportionately more. The working day was 7 am until 12 noon, and then 1-5 pm. At that time, rice was precious, and more useful than money. As one village woman told me (born 1880), 'you could buy 40 catties of rice for a dollar when I was young, but during the Occupation, one catty cost two dollars - if you could get it.' Another villager, one of the elders of Nga Tsin Wai, born in 1884, said that 'people would sell a whole roof of tiles and wooden beams to contractors, for two dollars.' I also spoke to two ladies at Chuk Yuen Village in 1963, who had described the removal of the large and old village of Po Kong, in its entirety, along with the nearby hamlets of Ta Kwu Ling, Shek Kwu Lung and Kak Hang, to make way - as they said - for a road and the airfield extension, adding that the Japanese built new stone houses for them and gave rice compensation instead of cash; which 'was much more useful to us at that time, when money was worth very little.' Other information was available that embellished the account of this difficult time. A man of 52, born at Ta Kwu Ling in 1915, told me in 1966 that part of the village was demolished, not for the airfield extension but because they were too close to it; the Japanese military authorities thinking that it might harbour guerillas who could damage ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2000 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/nk328168n 273 its installations and parked aircraft. Around a hundred structures, all told, were demolished at Ta Kwu Ling, among them 14-15 large village houses. The people had been told to move out in October-November 1943, and were not offered houses in Model Village. In lieu of resettlement, they were given 75 catties of rice per adult and 35 catties for children - clearly with the intention of providing some assistance in an emergency for those concerned. Nonetheless this must have been a time of great hardship, with winter coming on. It was reported that the village headman, who had held office since about 1925, had died of starvation. This removal, together with Shek Wu Lung and Tai Hom, was said by the Nga Tsin Wai elders to have been unnecessary, caused by greedy Chinese contractors working for the Japanese authorities (and perhaps in collusion with some of their people), who had coveted the building materials and saw this opportunity to force people from their homes. According to the elders, the Chu lineage of Tai Hom were too frightened to object to the Japanese about this, for fear of being executed, and had said nothing. During the main clearance, the Nga Tsin Wai leaders averred, they had had the courage to visit the Japanese officer in charge, and even to call upon the military governor. He had asked them to return to their native village in China, whereupon they had explained that they had none, having lived in Kowloon for six hundred years. Thereafter, a diversion was arranged for the light rail track carrying the earth wagons used in the nullah excavation and construction, whereby the main village - but not its outlying houses and structures - was saved from the planned demolition. If even part of the above can be believed - its reliability is surely strengthened by the fact that it came directly from the mouths of affected parties - it will be seen that the Japanese authorities were not completely ruthless in their behaviour towards those Kowloon villagers affected by the airfield extension, or in their treatment of those men, women and children who laboured on the various public works projects undertaken by them during their wartime occupation of Hong Kong. Finally, as reported by Patrick Hase, cash compensation was paid by the returned colonial administration after the war to those village ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 251 Situated on the South slope of Danger Flag Hill, Kowloon, on Military Reserve Land, midway between the Military and Association Rifle Rangers and about thirty yards to the North of the line joining the butts. The Cemetery measures fifty-feet square and its limits have been defined by wooden pickets.77 There was another Indian cemetery at Tai Shek Ku78 recorded in a government notice, which was ordered to be closed in 1927;79 however, the origin of this cemetery is not known. Cemeteries in the Early 20th Century The first two decades of the 20th century was a period of steady economic and administrative development in Hong Kong, in spite of the influx of Chinese as a result of unsettled condition following the 1911 Revolution in China. A long list of cemeteries was added during this period. In 1903, the 'Sai Yu Shek Cemetery'80 (晒魚石墳場) was appointed 'to the North of Kowloon City and West of Nga Tsin, as a sufficient and proper place for a burial ground for Chinese living in the vicinity of Kowloon City.'81 In addition, there was also a Sai Yu Shek (Christian) Cemetery.82 In the same year (1903), it was also announced that the 'Po Kong Po Cemetery' (), 'situated to the North-east of Kowloon City and West of the Village of Sha Ti Un'83 () was to be closed. Again, no information examined has revealed the origin of this cemetery, although the cemetery is mentioned in a privately published memoir regarding the burial of a woman in 1896.84 As this burial predated the lease of the New Territories in 1898 and the fact that the cemetery was adjacent to several villages in the Kowloon City area, Po Kong Po Cemetery might have been an extension of some villagers' burial ground,85 A year later, another Chinese Christian Cemetery was authorized ‘on the hillside about 200 feet to the North of Kowloon Walled City, measuring, on the North 208'9,' on the East 208'9' and on the West 208'9,' and defined by boundary stones.' This cemetery still exists today as the oldest surviving cemetery on the Kowloon Peninsula. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 253 '106 Western side of Cheung Chau Island and about half a mile to the South-West of the village of Cheung Chau and containing about 5.19 acres, was authorized. This was the first cemetery designated on an outlying island and was later extended in 1921.107 108 In 1912, two Chinese cemeteries were authorized. The first one was situated at 'New Kowloon Survey District 1 Lot Nos. 582 and 583,' very close to Sai Yu Shek Cemetery. The cemetery appeared in a 1924 map109 and was marked as 'Fukienese Cemetery.' In another 1940 HKGG Notification, the cemetery was also referred to as 'Fukienese Cemetery.' The second cemetery appointed, a Christian cemetery, was 'to be known as the Tsun Wan Christian Cemetery situate and being near Tsun Wan in Demarcation District No. 453 in the New Territories in the Colony of Hongkong, containing an area of 10,000 square feet,'111 In the following year, a site 'to be known as the Hau Pui Loong Cemetery situate and being near Hau Pui Loong in Kowloon in the Colony of Hongkong containing an area of about 19 acres' was appointed.112 The Chinese Permanent Cemetery in Aberdeen Although a number of Chinese cemeteries were authorized and appointed since the 1870s, these cemeteries were not intended for the upper and wealthier classes. By the early 20th century, the absence of what were considered proper and decent sites for these Chinese who wished to settle in Hong Kong was apparent. In 1901, the Cemeteries Committee of the Sanitary Board moved to set apart a piece of hillside between the Aberdeen Channel and Deep Water Bay for wealthy Chinese as a burial ground.113 However, for some reason, eventually this site was not appointed. Eight years later, the issue was presented again to the Sanitary Board by Lau Chu-pak, a member of the Board and one of the most prominent members of the Chinese community in the Colony,114 Lau said: The better class of Chinese who had made Hong Kong their permanent home had not a decent cemetery in which to bury their dead, and the Chinese had no control on what were called Chinese Cemeteries. These cemeteries were simply tracts of barren land set apart by the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 272 Man Tin Village before Argyle Street was laid out in the 1920s. This Indian cemetery should therefore be different from the Hindu Cemetery. 79 HKGG Notice 300 of 20th May 1927. The location and boundary of this cemetery is shown on the CO1047/455 map of 1920. 80 Site of present Lok Fu / Wang Tau Hom area. * HKGG Notification 334 of 22nd May 1903. In 1923, the Inland Lot No. 9 section of this cemetery was closed and removal of some graves was ordered for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notice 7 of 5th January and Notice 208 of 4th May 1923. Other removals were ordered in 1927 and 1929, see HKGG Notices 286 of 13th May 1927 and 191 of 19 April 1929. In 1949, removal of all graves in the 'old' section of this cemetery was ordered, see HKGG Notice 936 of 30th September 1949. Sai Yu Shek Cemetery was later renamed as New Kowloon Cemetery No.4 in 1930, see below. 82 Sai Yu Shek Cemetery and Sai Yu Shek (Christian) Cemetery had separate burial entries in the Administrative Reports of the 1910s and 1920s. *The village was located about the present site of the 7-storey resettled factory blocks in San Po Kong District. 84 是但居士(譚榮光)(1952),華甲回憶錄,privately published, p. 4. 85 All the graves in Po Kong Po Cemetery were ordered to be removed in 1914, see HKGG Notices 448 of 13th November 1914, 86 HKGG Notification 234 of 31st March 1904. 87 HKGG Notice 963 of 10 December 1947. ** The cemetery was closed temporarily in 1925 and 1926, see HKGG Notices 402 of 10th July 1925 and Notice 325 of 18th June 1926. 89 HKGG Notice 410 of 10 July 1925. 90 HKGG Notification 581 of 19th August 1904. All graves in this cemetery were ordered to be removed in 1923 for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notices 162 of 13th April and 462 of 26th October 1923. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 273 * For instance, HKGG Notices 423 of 13th August 1920 and 44 of 4 February 1921. The old Kowloon Tong Village was located about the present Tai Hang Tung Recreation Ground site. HKGG Notice 369 of 16 July 1926. 93 See Empson, p. 181. » HKGG Notice 540 of 23rd December 1921. Removal of some graves in Kowloon Tong Cemetery was ordered in 1924 for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notices 366 of 20th June and 712 of 19th December 1924. 95 HKGG Notice 936 of 30th September 1949. SI 9 HKGG Notice 1020 of 1 September 1950. 97 Around the present Wah Fu Estate area. The cemetery had also been referred to as MARK'in some government notices, e.g., HKGG Notices 420 of 18th July 1924 and 253 of 29th April 1927 etc. 98 The road was later renamed Victoria Road. 99 The origin of this early Kai Lung Wan Cemetery is not known yet. 100 HKGG Notification 692 of 17th August 1906. Similar to Chai Wan Cemetery, a very large section of the Kai Lung Wan Cemetery was later under the management of the Tung Wah Hospital, the cemetery was called 'Tung Wah Hospital, Kai Lung Wan'. But the detail for this development is not known. In 1939, there were 10,679 interments in the Tung Wah section of the cemetery, see Annual Report of the Chairman Urban Council Hong Kong for the year 1939, p. M(1)17. Also, according to a 1951 stone inscription at the Chiu Chow section of the Wo Hop Shek Cemetery, another section of the Kai Lung Wan Cemetery was reserved for the Chiu Chow dead in about 1923. 101 In a 1978 government map (HONG KONG STREETS & PLACES VOLUME 2: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE KOWLOON & THE NEW TERRITORES, p. 83), Tseung Loong Tin (Cheung Lung Tin) is referred to a hillside area between Lam Tin and Yau Tong. 102 Cha Kwo Ling was one of the 'Four Hills' (194) villages in eastern Kowloon. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 10 Pak Lap is a single (Lau) surname Hakka village in which 17 houses built in two rows. In the past, Pak Lap's villagers depended on both farming and fishing; however, beginning in the early 1980s, farmland was taken out of agricultural production and most villagers moved away either working overseas or in the city. In 1993, a total amount of 300,000 square feet farm land belonged to Pak Lap villagers was all sold to a local developer; however, house land was still kept by the villagers. In addition, I was told that a condition of the transaction required by the villagers was that the developer had to rebuild the two rows of village houses (which they called Hakka pai house), even though the developer could have the rights of using them on a long-term basis to rent out for outsiders/visitors. Until 1999, Hong Kong's economy was still on the downside, the developer was no more able to fulfil the previous contract made in 1993. With the mutual understanding between Pak Lap villagers and developer, restoration instead of rebuilding was agreed; moreover, the rights of using were passed on to the constructor, Mr. Wong, because of the incomplete payment owed by the developer. Starting from that moment, the Wong family was in charge of managing the 17 houses in Pak Lap; two for their own use and 15 for renting out. When I visited them in early 2002, I found the rebuilding of the Lau Ancestral Hall was complete and some abandoned farmland was cultivated to grow different kinds of vegetables for the meals provided to visitors and customers staying overnight in the Hakka houses. Chek Keng The third village that I would like to introduce is Chek Keng. Unlike Tai Long Wan and Pak Lap, most buildings in Chek Keng can still be seen as they used to be, even though some of the houses had collapsed. Chek Keng is a traditional settlement consisting of five different lineage groups living together, and it was probably founded more than 200 years ago. Regarding the history of lineages in this Hakka village, I was told that there were five different lineages with surnames Fan, Chiu, Lee, Wong and Cheng living in the village. I got a chance to contact the village representative, Mr. Fan, who spent most of his time between UK and Hong Kong. The situation of Chek Keng was reported on by an English-language daily regarding lives of elderly New Territories villagers. Based on the only one Chek Keng resident ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2003 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2v242g390 11 Hon, an 81-year-old woman's experiences in the village, Mr. Fan made comments related to the government's decision on rural development in Sai Kung: A trip to town for Hon involves phoning for a boat to take her to Wong Shek pier and then a bus to Sai Kung. The alternative, an hour's hilly walk, is beyond the frail old woman now. "It is very inconvenient that we have no road, no vehicles can come in," says Fan Koon-mui, ... ++ "If the Government had provided us with transport, our fate wouldn't be deserted villages,” Fan says. Since the 1980s, the Kuk has badgered the Government to provide link roads for the villages, but without success. A chicken-and-egg situation exists - there are not enough people to justify the building of roads but, if they were built, more people could live in the villages. "Solitary zone' (by S. Lee, South China Morning Post, May 4, 2002) The village is abandoned now, but I suggest that there is a lot of potential in developing the village into a heritage education centre in which there are at least several aspects we should try to cover. In order to achieve a better understanding of the history of Chek Keng for the further concerns both in heritage preservation and environmental development, we suggest some research topics for consideration: • Migration history and social change in Hong Kong's Hakka settlements • Traditional village lifeways and folk cultures • The Catholic church and influences given by the missionary of the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (Pontificio Instituto Missioni Estere as well as P.L.M.E.) from Milan, and • Oral history on villagers' lifestyles and cultural traditions, etc. Discussion: Development with local people's support Therefore, we need to think about whether the development of ================================================================================