RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES 85 examination by the District Magistrate at Nam Tau and by the Kwang Chau prefect at Canton, proceeded to the Viceroy's yamen in the same city where eventually a favoured few would manage to pass the first degree of sau choi. This in theory entitled the scholar to qualify for an official post. In practise there were many more sau choi than there were posts and a scholar had to pursue further study and pass other examinations before he stood a real chance of becoming an official. In every district there were sau choi who would never obtain posts. Many became local schoolmasters. Others by virtue of wealth and position became the local gentry who, by report, were sometimes a help to the magistrate and frequently a nuisance, both to him and to the litigant or criminal public. They sat on the local tribunals kuk and advised the magistrate on local affairs. Being literati like himself they had ready access to his yamen and to his ear. Sometimes they even outranked him. Elders, on the other hand, rarely sat on the kuk. Lockhart estimated that there were one hundred and fifty sau choi in the whole district.20 In 1898 the elders of important villages like Ha Tsuen and Ping Shan were literati. Several of them played a leading part in the planning of operations against the British take-over.27 20 Sometimes the wealthier village elders enhanced their position by purchasing degrees. In the late Ch'ing period the sale of examination titles appears to have been considerable. Smith mentions it in his Village Life in China** and I have come across several such persons in villages in the Southern District of the New Territory. They were usually substantial villagers. Such a one was CHAN Tak-hang4 of Cheung Kwan O in Junk Bay who died in the seventeenth year of Kwong Shui (1892) at the age of sixty-four. According to his descendant, the present Village Representative, he was a man of substance who built a guest house in the village which is still standing to-day, gave money for the upkeep of the stone tracks which linked the villages of the area with Kowloon, and was well known locally. His portrait, painted at the age of fifty-seven, shows him in his borrowed finery as a kwok hok sang, for which he paid an unknown consideration to Government. A man such as this would obviously play a considerable part in the affairs of his immediate neighbourhood. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 88 J. W. HAYES 36 Disturbances apart, the common people preferred to be left to themselves. They rarely had anything to do with the magistrate and his followers and preferred it that way. The magistrate, in his turn, was glad to leave routine affairs to the local tribunals. The price paid for these attitudes was the prevalence of crime. Poor communications were no help. The magistrate was often rendered powerless by unrest and disturbances of all kinds. Robberies and descents on shore by pirate gangs could take place with impunity since, even if help came, it invariably arrived far too late. Crime might eventually be punished but it was seldom prevented. No one would inform on disturbers of the peace for fear of reprisals or being entangled in the meshes of the law. Commenting on coastal piracy in 1897 Consul Brenan wrote, "The boat people never attempt to effect an arrest; there would probably be bloodshed and they would then be involved in judicial proceedings almost as unpleasant for themselves as for the pirates. They are thankful enough if they can get rid of their dangerous passengers, and persuade them to go off and try their fortune elsewhere"** However, it is only fair to state that the people of the district were also apt to create trouble among themselves, especially when circumstances conspired to make life difficult as in the dry season. This was especially true of the more closely populated agricultural areas, with villages in close proximity to each other, often sharing the same water supply for their fields and personal needs. The volatile Cantonese temperament is not suited to a cautious settlement of complicated personal problems: it is easier by far to fly off the handle and strike an attitude than to sit down and think. Hence difficult situations often were made intolerable by proximity and a quick temper, and clan fights were not uncommon, especially in the Yuen Long area. Hostilities between southern villages were well known at the time.** A tablet in the Tin Hau temple at Miu Kong, Tsuen Wan, refers to the death of seventeen male villagers by armed conflict between this village and Shing Mun Pat Heung in three years of intermit-tent strife which began in 1861. To these disturbances between the Punti villagers can be added a general antipathy between Hakka and Punti which sometimes erupted into violence and was still smouldering after the Hakka rebellion thirty years before."" 38 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 92 J. W. HAYES wrote a prayer for divine help to the city god of Nam Tau after a dark mist resembling the shadow of a black dog haunted womenfolk in the third moon of the third year of Ch'ung-cheng (1630): and the magistrate LI Ho Shing wrote the "Lamentations" or odes and addresses burnt in sacrifice, when a severe typhoon hit the district city in the fifth moon of the twelfth year of K'ang-hsi (1673); this was preserved among the literary works recorded in another chapter of the history. There is no mention of later imitations. Besides this preoccupation with spirits of all kinds and a general disposition to ensure against all possible acts of ill will on their part which was, one almost thinks, a by-product of the bad times and the uncertainties which usually surrounded the Chinese peasant and his city counterpart, there was a regular and intense devotion to the ancestors of the clans which was carried on through the centuries. This, of course, was Confucianist, as opposed to the Taoist and animist forms of religion to be seen inside temples and on the fields and hillsides. There is no doubt that the clans were kept together by the regular attention that was paid to the ancestral duties and the particular reverence accorded to the first ancestor who had settled in the village. I have already explained how, on the material side, management of land by the clan for the clan assisted in keeping both land and people together. On the spiritual plane the ancestral duties had the same effect. At the heart of the clan was the ancestral hall.52 Here the soul tablets of past generations were ranged in rows on an altar: these can still be seen in a few ancestral halls to-day, notably at Ping Shan and Ha Tsuen, two villages of the TANG clan, whose green and gold tablets date back to the Sung dynasty. Most villages in the New Territory, large or small, appear to have had ancestral halls at the time of the lease. Many of them are standing to-day and I have traced the presence of others which have mouldered away since 1898. Each clan had its own hall and here its members gathered to perpetuate its corporate identity on occasions like births, weddings and funerals, and regularly each year at the New Year festival. 53 As an adjunct to the tablets in the ancestral hall, the graves of ancestors were also the subject of regular attention by the villagers, particularly the grave of the first ancestor and his wife.54 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f LIFE IN THE NEW TERRITORIES 95 2 Extracts from the Report are given between pages 181-209 of Papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong 1899, (Hong Kong, Government Printer, 1900). For this quotation see p. 198. Lockhart was referring specifically to development which was noticeably lacking. The same cannot be said of the population during this period. The evacuation of the coastal areas (1662-69) caused a great disruption to the villages at the time. For a brief mention in English, based on Chinese authorities, see S. F. Balfour, "Hong Kong before the British", an article in T'ien Hsia, Vol. XI, No. 4, 1941, p. 334. In any case there has been a continuous inward flow of both Cantonese and Hakka since then, more especially of Hakka in the 19th century, from which time many of the hill villages in the Colony take their origin. It is interesting to compare this report with a book on Wei Hai Wei, Lion and Dragon in North China (London, John Murray, 1910) which was written by a junior colleague from Hong Kong, R. F. Johnston (1874-1938) who went to Wei Hai Wei as Magistrate and Secretary to Government in 1904, probably at Lockhart's request. Johnston, later knighted and Professor of Chinese in the University of London was a man of great application and erudition who became tutor to the deposed boy emperor, P'u Yi, (1919-25) and wrote the well-known book Twilight in the Forbidden City, (London, Gollancz, 1934). He was himself Commissioner of Wei Hai Wei 1927-30. His detailed description of Wei Hai Wei, its people and their customs leaves an impression of the striking similarity of life and thought between that remote part of Shantung and this small corner of Kwangtung. The means of government was of course the same, but so also are the ways of doing and thinking which seem, in my own experience, hardly to differ at all despite the different agricultural background. To anyone interested in the Chinese peasant Johnston's book is a mine of information. The annual reports on Wei Hai Wei presented to both Houses of Parliament are, too, an interesting commentary on life in this northern leased territory. The market towns of the New Territories in 1898 were Tai Po, Yuen Long, Tai O, Cheung Chau, Sai Kung and Tsuen Wan. A despatch of 1905 in connection with the Kowloon-Canton Railway No. 59 dated 11th January 1905 from Governor Sir Matthew Nathan to the then Secretary of State, Mr. Lyttelton gives some figures. Yuen Long had "seventy-four shops of which twenty-five are large and deal in rice, oil, samshu etc. The remainder belong to barbers, doctors, jewellers, vegetable sellers, piece goods dealers etc." Tai Po Market consisted of twenty-three large shops and fifteen smaller ones, Tsuen Wan had a few shops supplying the local needs". No figures are given for Cheung Chau or Tai O with which the railway was not concerned, but an inscription of 1878 inside the grounds of the Fong Pin Hospital at Cheung Chau states that there "used to be over two hundred shops trading here". Lockhart Papers 1899, p. 207 gave Cheung Chau a population of 5,000, whilst Tai O with its fisheries and salt pans was reported to have about 3,000. These were larger towns than Yuen Long (no figure given), Tai Po (280), Sai Kung Market (800) and Tsuen Wan (900). The present New Territories towns were not the largest in the San On district. Pride of place went to Sham Chun, now on the Chinese side of the border, with sixty-one large shops and three hundred and twenty-three medium sized shops, and to Kun Lan Hui, also north of the border which was the cattle centre of the whole district with fifteen large and one hundred and thirty-six medium sized shops. (Enclosure C to No. 59). See Eastern No. 88 Correspondence relating to the Kowloon-Canton Railway (London, Colonial Office, 1907). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 100 J. W. HAYES exerts itself with unprecedented vigour and hardihood in local affairs. No dispute arises but one or more of these social pests thrusts himself forward between the contending parties, and no fraud on the revenue or wholesale extortion is free from their similar influence". Lockhart (through Governor Blake) says that the New Territory's literati "have hitherto lived by irregular "squeezes" from the people" and he blamed the opposition to British rule to them and to "gamblers and bad characters banished from Hong Kong" and not to the people who were incited by the gentry and elders. See Papers 1899 pp. 520 and 554. 26 Papers 1899 p. 194. 27 Papers 1899 p. 554. 28 Arthur H. Smith Village Life in China (Edinburgh, Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier, about 1900) p. 121. 29 These affected the coastal and riverine regions of Kwangtung. See C. F. Neumann's Translations from the Chinese and Armenian with notes. 1. History of the pirates who infested the China Sea from 1807 to 1810, (London, John Murray 1831). This includes, pp. 97-125, a very interesting account of an enforced stay of eleven weeks and three days with the pirate fleet in 1809 by Richard Glasbrooke, the mate of an East Indiaman. The pirates spent a considerable time on and near Lantau, which must have suffered from their depredations. The clan record of the HO family of San Tsuen, Pui O, on the south side of the island mentions pirate raids and a decision to fortify the village with walls which can still be seen, with several embrasures for cannon. Piracy continued until a much later date. The Cheung Chau police station was attacked and burnt in 1912, necessitating its removal and enlargement, one of the Cheung Chau ferries was pirated in 1923, and in 1925 a band of sixty robbers from the Delta entered Tai O by way of Po Chue Tam creek, killed a woman and made off with young men and a fair amount of booty without any difficulty. The Police Station is situated at the other end of the town and knew nothing of the attack until it was over. See Administrative Reports, District Officer, New Territories 1912, 1923 and 1925. 30 Papers 1899 p. 528. 31 Foreign Office Report 1606 on Trade of Canton 1894. 32 Salt was smuggled into China from Tai O as the government monopoly and price ring made it profitable to do so. See also Enclosure D to Sir Matthew Nathan's despatch No. 59 of 11 January 1905 in Correspondence relating to Kowloon-Canton Railway which mentions rice smuggling from Shum Chun and Deep Bay into Hong Kong. The export of rice from China was forbidden, and checked by the Imperial Maritime Customs. **F O Trade Report No. 1778 for 1895. 34 F O Trade Report No. 1983 for 1896. 33 Papers 1899, p. 540. Brenan, with his thirty-two years' service wrote feelingly "The Chinaman is happiest who never sees an official, who does not even know the name of one". J N CBRAS XXXII (1897-98) 37. 31 Foreign Office Trade Report for Canton No. 1606 for 1894. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1962 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9s166f47f 102 J. W. HAYES there are sometimes several. As a general rule they are small buildings, but the major clans have constructed large high spacious buildings with several courtyards and side rooms. Among the largest in the New Territories are the ancestral temples of branches of the TANG clan at Ping Shan and Ha Tsuen near Yuen Long. These are fine and impressive buildings but are not, unfortunately, kept in good repair. Much of the opposition to the British troops in 1898 was planned in the ancestral hall at Ha Tsuen. Beside the Ping Shan hall there is a school/library building, now used as a private residence. 53 The reason is always said to be lack of funds though I suspect a lack of leadership is also a prime factor. The clan usually waits until something is seriously wrong, by which time it is often too late; a storm completes the ruination. There seems to be some truth in this as I have found newly built ancestral halls in several villages, e.g. the CHEUNG ancestral hall at Lo Wai, Pui O which was rebuilt in 1960 on a new site, the old one having been in ruins for twenty years. 54 Clan worship at the graves still goes on, but is much more informal than in 1898. Mr. TANG Kiu-fong of Fui Sha Wai, a retired schoolmaster, previously quoted, who was born in 1894, tells me that when he was a boy the ceremony was taken very seriously. Everyone wore the long robe, elders were carried to the graves in sedan chairs, and male members of the clan were drawn up in ranks by generations and worshipped in strict seniority, under the direction of a master of ceremonies. 55 These ancestral obligations often imposed considerable inconvenience and up to several days' travel for the whole family. Mr. CHEUNG Yau of Tai Ping village, North Lamma, (b. 1883) tells me that his grandfather settled on Lamma Island from his native village of Wai Tau in the Lam Tsuen valley in the present Tai Po district. Ever since he can remember, and until old age interfered with visits a few years ago, he has gone back to his ancestral village at least three times a year, as dictated by custom. For the first twenty-five years there was no railway and his family used to go by junk to Kowloon and walk the rest of the way, children included. Others went further afield. Mr. LAM Shue Chun, Chairman of the Peng Chau Rural Committee, told me that his family went regularly to their ancestral village of Nam Leng Wai in Po On, north of the border, and were interrupted in their journeys first by the Japanese and latterly by the Communists. He has been twice since 1942 and an uncle has been visiting fairly regularly up to last year. The family travelled to Kowloon by junk, then used the railway and had a long walk from Sham Chon Market. Sometimes there was no need to go from home as contact had been lost with the ancestral village which was too far away. 56 They were full at any time. There is an interesting count of travel on the Colony's border roads and the Shum Chun ferries taken 11th and 12th December 1905 in Enclosure E to Despatch No. 59 in Correspondence relating to Kowloon-Canton Railway already quoted. The first was a market day, when the count of persons, with and without goods, roughly doubled the figures for the second, or ordinary day. On the two main ferries, for instance, the count on December 11 was with goods 1126, without goods 1379 and on the Shum Chun-Sha Tau Kok road 521 and 1302. On the day following the figures were 468 and 1124, and 158 and 550 respectively. At New Year and the two grave festivals the number must have been very much increased. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1964 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qz20zx09r PENG CHAU 81 The first ancestor came from Po Kat in Po On, then San On, district. He settled not far from the anchorage and the shops nearby, and the family flourished there for several generations, farming most of the cultivable land and planting an extensive forestry lot.29 But the position had changed for the worse by 1899. At the land settlement which followed the British lease, though the LUIs were credited with owning house land, four and a half acres of paddy fields, and nine and a half acres of dry cultivation and vegetable land on Peng Chau, all except their houses were mortgaged to different persons without hope of return.30 When my informant was a boy, the LUI houses were in a broken-down condition. They also owned a lot of land on the Lantau coast opposite Peng Chau, but much of this too was mortgaged by the end of the century.31 The CHUNG family are said to have been the next arrivals. According to old Mr. CHUNG, his great-grandfather, who was the family's first ancestor to live on the island, came together with his son, a boy of ten. Consultation of the grave tablet, which is dated 1834,32 shows that he probably arrived in Peng Chau in the first quarter of the nineteenth century, not long after the LUIs. He came from his parent village of Tin Liu Ha in the Lam Tsuen Valley near Tai Po in the present New Territories. In 1899, the family still owned very little land of its own on Peng Chau, having, besides houses, only one-third of an acre of dry cultivation, but they held the mortgages of nearly nine acres of the LUI land, including most of their paddy fields.33 The family farmed their own and the mortgaged land, but, as I have said above, fishing was their chief concern about ten years before the British lease, another seeming "irregularity" which warns against the assumption that our local communities have separate characteristics and perform distinct functions which do not overlap. It was very likely Mr. CHUNG's grandfather's success at sea which enabled him to loan money to the LUI family and so gradually obtain their land; and the lack of land which made this family concentrate on the sea in the first place. Another family of Hakka settlers are the LAM ✯ clan who came in the mid-nineteenth century. According to family tradition, three brothers who were operating a pawn-shop in Shum Chun Market were "squeezed" by yamen runners when a murder... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1966 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/bz60k0811 28 HUGH D. R. BAKER point in history at which the clans arrived, and with their subsequent development. Grant gives some maps plotting the regions of land of various qualities, dividing the land into categories according to the number of catties of paddy per dau chung per crop it can produce.38 Best quality land produces 300 catties and upwards per dau chung, and then he grades the qualities down in units of 50 to 150 catties per dau chung, the lowest category of production worth his recording. The region of the New Territories which has the largest area of double-cropping land is the Kam Tin Valley, settled largely by the earliest comers to the district—the Tangs. The land is not all of the best quality, about two-thirds falling into the category of moderate productivity (200–250 catties per dau chung),40 but for sheer size, with good water supply, it is the best region of the New Territories. In the early thirteenth century the lineage segmented, one branch hiving off to the Ping Shan area, where again was a large region of paddy-growing land, double-cropping with moderate productivity,42 fairly well watered, and close enough to the parent village to be within the range of easy communications. Three generations later another branch hived from Kam Tin and established itself in Ha Tsuen.43 I have no information as to the quality of the soil in the area (though from Grant it would seem that productivity might not be very high44), but there is a large quantity of land. The Tangs thus secured to their near-exclusive possession the whole of the agricultural land in the Southwestern corner of the New Territories. When later other groups hived off to found villages on the Eastern side of the New Territories at Lung Kwat Tau in about 1368 A.D.,45 and at Tai Po Tau perhaps two generations earlier,47 they were less fortunate. Not only were they out of the immediate power sphere of the Tang Clan but they moved into an area where other clans were already settled or in the process of settling. The Hau48, who were the next of the clans to arrive, settled in an area which was well watered but rather too low-lying to be safe against flood. They appear to have had little power, and after an initial period of growth, when they founded several new villages,49 seem to have lost all impetus. Their land is of good quality, but when they expanded to Ping Kong,50 Kam Tsin,51 and Yin Kong,52 they did so along a line of poorer quality soil,53 arguing perhaps prior settlement in the nearby rich Sheung Shui ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT J 105 This officer established himself at a place then called Shak-tse-kong, the present Nam-tou, a part of which situated on a hill was surrounded by walls. But it was found that this officer was unable to rule efficiently the whole of the district, and some men of influence, supported by the high mandarins at Canton, demanded that the part of the country which they inhabited should be made a separate district. The Emperor Wan-lik granted this petition in the first year of his reign; the new district was called "Sanon,” new peace; and the walled part of Nam-tou rose to be the district town of Sanon, and accordingly received the name of Sanon Yuen-shing 新安城. The Sanon district included the islands of Lan-tow, Hongkong, and all the small neighbouring islands. The mainland portion of the district was bounded to the North by the districts of Túng-kun 東莞 and Kwei-shin 歸善. The northern boundary is formed by the Pik-tau River, which flows into the estuary of the Canton River, and is navigable for small Chinese sea craft (such as passage-boats) for about 8 miles; and several chains of mountains further to the East. This boundary, however, is very arbitrarily drawn, as sometimes villages in the midst of Sanon belong to Túng-kun. The borders of the three districts join together in the neighbourhood of the mart of Kun-lan, a place notoriously unsafe, as being the abode of thieves and vagabonds, who can with facility escape from the jurisdiction of one mandarin to that of another. To the East, the Sanon District is bounded by the estuary of the Canton River. This estuary is divided by the Chinese into several parts with different names: the part to the south of the Bocca Tigris into which the Pik-tow River falls, is called Hop-lan Hoi; the bay named by the English Lintin is designated by the Chinese Nam-low Bay, after the city of that name; Deep Bay is called Hau-hoi or Back-water Bay*. This bay is generally very shallow, a deep channel however running down the centre; the navigation is rendered more dangerous by the many oyster-beds which exist. The bay terminates in a considerable creek, which is navigable at high-tide for three or four miles, as far as the important mart of Sham-tsuen. & PA. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1967 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/0c488p70g A NOTICE OF THE SANON DISTRICT 123 along the banks of rivers or of ponds, you have an opportunity 水牛, of observing how appropriately the Chinese name "Shui-ngau” ★ †‚— water ox, has been applied to them, for you will see the beasts with their huge carcases entirely submerged in the water and mud, their heads only to be seen, and they will lie thus contentedly for hours. There are large numbers of pigs, which, as in Ireland, form an integral part of the family, and are admitted to the domestic hearth. Goats are scarce, and are found chiefly in the mountainous parts. Ducks are seen in immense flocks, and are generally hatched in heated ovens. Fowls are kept by people of all conditions. The poor generally keep them, not for their own consumption, but to make a few cash by selling the eggs or the chickens, which are consumed in great numbers at marriage festivals and other popular entertainments. The principal Trading-places of the district are, Nam-tow 南頭, Sai-heong 西鄉, Wong-kong 黄崗, Sham-tsuen 深圳, San-keaou 新橋, Tai-pung 大鹏, Fuk-wing 福永, Ku-shu 固戌, and Sha-tsing. These places are here mentioned according to the extent of their trade. From each of these places, passage-boats ply regularly to Hongkong, Canton, Tai-ping (at the Bogue), and Shek-lung. From Namtow only a boat is occasionally despatched to Macao. The trade between these towns and Hongkong has of late years become of great importance. For instance, six years ago, only one passage-boat started from Sai-heong for Hongkong, every third or fourth day. Before the commencement of the present hostilities, the number of these boats had increased to five, and they were of a much larger size, and started from Sai-heong in company every third or fourth day. Other boats were projected when the present difficulties interfered with the enterprise. In Sai-heong alone there were more than 400 traders who frequented Hongkong. The exports consisted chiefly of fruits, vegetables, eggs, poultry, cattle, oil, sugar, charcoal, fish, and dried ducks, and they imported in return rice, salt, calico, and other European manufactures, besides articles which came from the northern ports of China. Timber, silk, and paper, are imported from Canton, Shek-tung, Tai-ping, and other parts of the province. The trade with the interior of the country is unimportant, for there are no highways along which goods can be conveyed into the interior. All goods are conveyed either by coolies or in awk. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1968 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833948d NOTES AND QUERIES 163 cloth, of which they make their winter dresses. In the Jin-on district [= San On] the spinning of the hemp of which grass-cloth is made, is more frequently seen, but the women do not weave it, and there are journeymen weavers who go round in the villages with their primitive looms to do the weaving for the families. It is interesting to note that these Hakkas did not restrict their visits only to Cantonese villages in this region, but that their services were also utilised in Hakka ones. An old Hakka man born in 1886 in the village of San Tsuen at Pui O, Lantau Island states: When I was a boy we wore clothes made from hemp cloth. We grew the hemp ourselves and the village women cleaned and sorted it and prepared it for weaving. They did not weave the cloth themselves but relied on itinerant Hakka-speaking men from the Lung Kong and Tam Shui districts who came yearly to our village and the nearby settlements to weave the hemp yarn into cloth. They brought their tools with them. I think this was an old practice and had been going on for a long time before I was born. These people stopped coming when I was about thirteen or fourteen years old. The cloth they wove was very strong and hard-wearing, suitable for wear in both seasons but best for summer use. Though they did not weave, our village people knew how to make clothes. Clothes were much simpler then and much wider, the sleeves being 6-8 inches wide, San Tsuen is a Hakka village in a mixed Hakka-Punti complex where both dialect groups are of equally long settlement. According to his family's genealogical record, my informant's ancestors have been settled there since about 1710. Yet it appears that not all local Hakkas relied on visits from their fellow-countrymen from North-east Kwangtung. An old Hakka woman who was married into the Hakka stone-cutters' settlement of Ngau Tau Kok in East Kowloon at the age of nine in 1897, recalls that her sister-in-law bought hemp in Kowloon City market and brought it home to weave, took it back to Kowloon City to be dyed and later brought it back to the village to make into clothes for the family. Making bed-clothes and mosquito nets was also mentioned. Most items were dyed black in colour. Her ================================================================================ 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 51 A third letter explains the reasons for posting forces to Castle Peak and to Sha Kong, near Deep Bay. "A strong force must be posted at Tai Po in order to resist with our full force. The two posts at Castle Peak and Sha Kong should have many flags flying in order to mislead the enemy. A force of the stronger men of your district should be detached to take part in the engagement [at Tai Po]. Sixty per cent should be retained for self protection. If troops arrive from Ngan Tin [Pan Tin] they should all be sent to Tai Po."66 Monday, 17th April, began quietly for the British at Tai Po. H.M.S. "Humber" and H.M.S. "Peacock" arrived during the morning and anchored off-shore. A conference was held on the mat-shed hill and General Gascoigne indicated that he hoped to establish a new base camp, in the Lam Tsuen valley, by Tuesday evening. These leisurely plans were not realized. Shortly after three o'clock Chinese forces moved onto a hill some 3,000 yards away and commenced firing. The British artillery returned fire and 250 men from the Hong Kong Regiment moved off in an attempt to dislodge the militia. The British force — Indian troops commanded by British officers — entered the Lam Tsuen valley and began to work to the southwest. The valley is about half a mile wide and two miles long. A narrow path ran down its centre and much of the level ground was devoted to rice. The militia of Kam Tin, Pat Heung, and Shap Pat Heung had taken up positions on the higher, wooded slopes. When the British moved into the valley, the militia opened fire. According to one British participant, they had "chosen their positions well, and if they had fired well, the British troops would have fared badly." The Chinese had assumed their opponents would advance along the path down the valley and placed their guns accordingly. But immediately they came under fire, the soldiers abandoned the path for the hillsides and "drove back the enemy from hill to hill and working admirably, like true Indian Frontier fighting men, took full advantage of cover." 68 In spite of their initial mistake, the militia fought well and vigorously. They "fired almost incessantly for one and a half hours, pouring in round shot 3.4 inches in diameter from muzzle loaders and dropping musketry fire all about our men. Fortunately ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 52 R. G. GROVES the configuration of the country favoured cover and our casualties were few." But, "had this advance not been conducted with great care the loss to our troops must have been heavy."69 After fierce fighting the militia withdrew from the valley, leaving it by way of the saddle which gives access to the Pat Heung district. The soldiers followed and, having lost touch with the Chinese, bivouacked for the night at Sheung Tsuen, on the foothills overlooking the Pat Heung valley. The next afternoon a large force (subsequently estimated at 2,600 men), was seen approaching from a distance. It consisted of men from Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, and Castle Peak and from four villages in adjacent Chinese territory, including Pan Tin. The British force took up positions and stood watching the militia, deployed in three lines, "advance across the open in excellent skirmishing order.70 The British Officer Commanding later conceded that it was "distinctly a determined advance for Chinamen.”71 The militia began firing at long range and their rifle and jingal fire shortly became almost continuous. When the distance had been reduced to 500 yards the British tried a few ranging shots, moved forward under cover of a dry water course, and advanced into the open toward the on-coming militia. In the face of such a determined response, which now became a general advance accompanied by heavy fire, the militia broke and ran. This battle marked the end of organized resistance within the New Territory. The next weeks were spent in establishing the civil administration and in persuading villagers to return to their normal occupations. The Governor, in attempting to explain what had happened to a remote Colonial Office, drew upon another Celtic parallel. The resistance, he said, revealed "a state of clan feeling and power of combination not unlike that of the Scottish Highlands two centuries ago . . ."72 The Occupation of Sham Chun and its Aftermath-- May to September, 1899. Thus far, operations had been confined to the newly leased territory. Early in May, however, reports reached the Hong Kong Government of an impending attack from across the Sham Chun river. Police informers said that 140 ‘bare-sticks' from Tung-kuan Hsien had assembled in secrecy at Sha Tau, on Deep Bay. They were to form the nucleus of a force which was to be augmented by ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 56 R. G. GROVES Kinship ties played a large part in the organization of the resistance. In the Yuen Long area, leadership and probably manpower were overwhelmingly supplied by the three Tang lineages of Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, and Kam Tin. In the Shek Wu Hui district, it was a matter of cooperation between a number of lineages of roughly equal status. At Tai Po, the Man lineage of Tai Hang provided leadership, within the Ts'at Yeuk, for a large number of smaller lineages. Ties of clanship enabled the Tangs of Yuen Long to enlist the help of the Tangs of Pan T'in. They, in turn, received support from agnates living in Tung-kuan City. The Tang higher-order lineage of the New Territory did not act as a unified lineage during the resistance movement. The leaders of Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, and Kam Tin were concerned, first and foremost, to consolidate plans for resistance within the Yuen Long area. Leaders of the Tang lineages of Lung Yeuk Tau and Tai Po Tau only subsequently became formally involved with preparations for resistance, along with other leaders from their respective marketing areas. The leaders of the three Yuen Long lineages carefully coordinated their plans. There is no evidence that representatives of Lung Yeuk Tau and Tai Po Tau were similarly consulted. Moreover, the Lung Yeuk Tau settlement, along with others in the Shek Wu Hui area, was threatened with attack by the Tangs of Yuen Long. There is insufficient evidence to materially advance the discussion concerning the relationship between hsiang and marketing areas. However, the data strongly suggest that, for the purposes of resistance, the highest order of effective inter-lineage cooperation among the Tangs of the New Territory was achieved within the Yuen Long marketing community. There is also the possibility that long- or short-standing disputes between the various local lineages of the Tang higher-order lineage inhibited their cooperation across the boundaries of marketing areas during the resistance movement. But this would not necessarily weaken the argument that the standard marketing community was the optimum unit for inter-lineage cooperation. Wakeman, in his discussion of militia, has stressed the importance of gentry leadership. The documents concerning the resistance name 63 people as active in the movement, in that they: (i) took part in the meetings which organized it; and/or, (ii) acted ================================================================================ 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 33 Ibid., p. 113. MILITIA, MARKET AND LINEAGE 61 34 This event has a tangled academic history. The establishment of the association by the twenty-four villages was originally reported in the Chinese Repository (IV, 1836, p. 414), and is quoted by Wakeman (op. cit., p. 63) from that source. It is also quoted by Hsiao (op. cit., p. 309) as an example of inter-village co-operation for the purposes of defence and the maintenance of order. Skinner (op. cit., p. 39, n. 80), quoting from Hsiao, argues its significance for the analysis of standard marketing communities. 35 Wakeman, op. cit., p. 39. 36 Skinner, G. W. "Marketing and Social Structure in Rural China Part II". The Journal of Asian Studies, vol. XXIV, no. 2, February 1965, pp. 207f. 37 Only those aspects of the New Territories most relevant to the argument will be discussed. There is a growing literature about the area which, taken together, gives considerable detail. Freedman, op. cit., p. viii, provides a bibliographical note on published works. 38 The land frontier of the territory begins just north of the Sham Chun river and runs eastward from Deep Bay to the market of Sha Tau Kok. J. H. Stewart Lockhart, the then Colonial Secretary of Hong Kong, was deeply opposed to this boundary. "It cuts in two the rich valley of which Sham Chun is the centre, and, while excluding that town, divides the villages in the valley hitherto linked together by family ties and common interests; all these villages regard Sham Chun as their central and most important market, where they dispose their goods and make their purchases" Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Extracts from Papers Relating to the Extension of the Colony of Hong Kong, 1899, Hong Kong, 1900, p. 196. 39 Ibid., p. 187. Stewart Lockhart's population estimates cannot be regarded as very accurate. By 1900 he thought the number of villages to be 597. Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1900, Hong Kong, 1901, p. 252. The Hong Kong census of 1911 gave the total population of the territory as 104,101. In the Northern District alone, 398 villages were enumerated. Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1911, Hong Kong, 1912, pp. 103ff. On the other hand, as guesses go, Stewart Lockhart's count is by no means disreputable. His estimate of 100,000 is not all that far from the 1911 census figure cited above. Other examples could be given which suggest that his estimates are sufficiently accurate to indicate general magnitudes of population, if not precise numbers. 40 Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, Extracts..., op. cit., p. 188. 41 This discussion will be confined to that part of the territory which used to be known as the 'Northern District' and will not consider the markets at Sai Kung, Tsuen Wan, Sham Shui Po, and Cheung Chau island. For brief accounts of these, see Hayes, J. W., "The Pattern of Life in the New Territories in 1898"; "Cheung Chau 1850-1898: Information from Commemorative Tablets", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 11, 1962, vol. III, 1963. 42 Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hong Kong, 1911, op. cit., pp. 103f.; Correspondence (December 15, 1903, to February 27, 1907) Relating to the Proposed Canton-Kowloon Railway, Eastern No. 88, Colonial Office, London, 1907, pp. 85ff. 43 For example, the marketing schedule of the two Tai Po markets was 3-6-9. That is to say, the markets met on the 3rd, 6th, 9th, 13th, 16th, 19th, 23rd, 26th and 29th days of each lunar month. The same principle applies to the schedules of each of the other markets. Normally, in specifying a schedule, only the first three days are given. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d CHINESE DESCENT SYSTEM 121 of the two should in fact have proportionately more empty houses than its poorer neighbour22; it is not impossible that the sort of inefficiencies in the descent system that I have described whereby the swelling of a descent line in one generation may leave the next with more house-property than it needs or can redistribute — may account for this anomaly.* H. G. H. NELSON. NOTES 1. Göran Aijmer, "Being Caught by a Fishnet: On Fengshui in South-eastern China", J.H.K.B.R.A.S., Vol. 8, 1968, pp. 74-81. 2. Field data drawn on in this paper are derived from a period of work in Sheung Tsuen, Pat Heung, from June 1967 to October 1968. I was employed as a Research Officer of the London School of Economics, on a project financed by a grant made to Professor Maurice Freedman by the Social Science Research Council. Much of the information from the Hong Kong Government's land records was collected by my wife, whose fare to Hong Kong was provided by the London-Cornell Project for East and South-East Asian Studies, financed jointly by the Carnegie Corporation of New York and the Nuffield Foundation. I am very glad to acknowledge their generosity. 3. See for example J. E. Spenser, "The Houses of the Chinese", Geographical Review, Vol. XXXVII, 1947, pp. 254-273. 4. Cf. J. W. Hayes, ‘A Chinese Village on Hong Kong Island Fifty Years Ago Tai Tam Tuk, Village Under the Water', in I.C. Jarvie and Joseph Agassi, eds., Hong Kong: A Society in Transition, London, 1969, p. 33. 5. Block Crown Lease, Demarcation Districts Nos. 112 and 114, 1905; various Memorials in Yuen Long District Office; and ‘A-Roll' volume X.14. I am most grateful to the New Territories Administration for their courtesy in allowing me access to the invaluable information contained in their Land Records. 6. The current records conceal the difference between inhabited structures and "house-lots' (Crown Rent being assessed on the site rather than the structure) - a difference of which the villagers are aware. Many of them, when asked how many houses they own, will say, "so many houses and so many lots "(uk-tel_£)". It seems to me possible that some villagers may, in 1905, have been far-sighted ---or fortunate enough to register both their houses and their ruined lots, thereby avoiding the expense and complication of obtaining a New Grant Lot when they wanted to rebuild on an old site. * Groups of houses, bigger and more durable than usual, have also been built as a form of long-term investment (and prestige expenditure) by particularly wealthy men; but their hopes of producing enough sons and grandsons to justify this deliberate over-production of houses are often sadly unfulfilled. * On the subject of this article see also Mr. Hayes' note at pp. 158-160. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1969 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/9g553n20d 132 J. T. COOPER had contours. A few areas, such as Kwun Tong and Tsuen Wan, had been mapped with 20 ft. contours on a scale of 200 ft. to 1 inch. In the New Territories, where land administration is the responsibility of the District Commissioner, the only large-scale plans were the old D.D. (Demarcation District) Sheets, surveyed in 1899-1904 by Indian surveyors seconded from the Survey of India. These sheets were at scales of 16 and 32 inches to one mile, i.e. multiples of the 1 inch to one mile series used in India. They had never been revised and were mostly in a very tattered state; several had been lost during the war. They were purely cadastral plans, i.e. they showed property boundaries but not topographical detail. In the early fifties, it was decided to have the developed and cultivated areas of the New Territories re-mapped at a scale of 1/1200 (100 ft. to 1 inch). The undersigned was recruited to take charge of this project, which was commenced in 1954. The traditional method of plane-table survey was used, and no contours were surveyed, since the primary object of the new survey was to replace the old D.D. cadastral sheets for land administration. It was intended that the staff of the New Territories Administration should reconcile the property boundaries on the new plans with the old title plans (based on the D.D. Sheets) and the old land records. Difficulties and delays in recruiting and training local staff, and in retaining them once they had been trained, slowed the mapping programme, and after a couple of years, it was evident that the task of mapping the New Territories by such methods would require at least eight years. In the meantime, accurate contoured plans were urgently needed for the many large projects which were planned both in New Kowloon and the New Territories. After investigations into the feasibility and cost of mapping the whole Colony at large scales from air photography, tenders were called for in 1962. Bids were received from several international firms, and the contract was let in December 1962 to Hunting Surveys Ltd., a very experienced English firm. It was estimated that the whole project would take five or six years to complete. The contract called for: (1) mapping at a scale of 50 ft. to 1 inch all areas of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon, and New Kowloon where plans ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 122 JAMES HAYES the settlement into a fortress to guard against marauders. This involved construction of a walled enclosure, built of stone, and the replacing of the existing wooden gateway by a stone structure on the advice of the writer of the clan record, then an old man. As the positioning of the wall and its main gate was of great importance, for geomantic reasons as well as military considerations, a message was sent to Shing Mun* to invite a man named Cheung Lam-to, presumably a noted geomancer and perhaps a distant relative, to advise on the siting and on auspicious days for carrying out the work. The record ends: Work began on the 13th day of the 8th moon of the 8th year of Chia Ch'ing, and the gate was fixed on the 16th day. All the village men and women co-operated in the work which took a month to complete. Other areas of the Delta suffered in these years. In 1789, the 54th year of the Ch'ien Lung reign, an official of Hsiang-shan, the district in which Macau is situated, led an expedition in person against a considerable pirate known as the "wave-leveller".1 The scourge continued in the Delta and riverine areas of Kwangtung for over twenty years, and reached its worst proportions in the years 1807-1810. An interesting account of an enforced stay of eleven weeks and three days with a pirate fleet in 1809 was given by Richard Glasbrooke, the mate of an East Indiaman, who was captured by them. This fleet spent a long time on and near Lantau which probably suffered from their levies and depredations. One of these pirates, Cheung Po-tsai, is remembered today in the Hong Kong region, where local stories link many places with his activities.3 With the help of the Macau authorities whose squadron fought a sea battle off Lantau in January 1810, Cheung was blockaded in the shallow waters of the bay of Hsiang-shan and was induced to capitulate with over 270 junks, 16000 men, 5000 women, 7000 swords and jingals and 1200 guns.4 1 Waley, 1956, p. 176. 2 Neumann, pp. 97-125. 3 Lo, 1963, pp. 106-118. See also the Ch'ao-lien of Hsin-hui gazetteer pp. 281-284 and Centenary History of Hong Kong, pp. 12-14. Cheung's memory lingers strongly in the region, though most attributions are unsubstantiated and many stories are probably apocryphal. 4 Montalto de Jesus, pp. 231-248: he calls him Ĉam Pao Sai or Chang Pao. *In the Tsuen Wan sub-district of the New Territories. See Gazetteer, pp. 147-148. ================================================================================ 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 130 JAMES HAYES However, despite the foregoing recital of disturbances over the years, many old persons in the Hong Kong region who were born between 1875 and 1900 have told me that their early years were very peaceful. This serves as a reminder not to telescope time and place too readily; and not to confuse occasional excitements with the regular rhythm of rural life. Nor too readily to deduce from them that there was a deterioration in institutions at the local level, as at the centre, in the later 19th century—a point made by Rhoads Murphey in his study of China's modernization.1 POSTSCRIPT There are two other happenings that must be mentioned in this survey of events. One, the establishment and rise of Hong Kong from 1841 on, and its effect on the surrounding and adjacent territory, I do not intend to treat with here.2 The second, rural depopulation, though it might appear to have some connection with the first, is in fact a separate phenomenon. Linked to over-population, malnutrition and disease, it is important enough to warrant a concluding notice.* The problem of depopulation early intruded itself into my village studies through the preoccupation with feng-shui noted in many places, so much of it linked to a reported decline in the numbers of local populations. I have encountered this in many villages on Lantau Island3 and in other parts of the old Southern District, in places as far distant from Lantau as Pak Lap on High Island in the Sai Kung District, and Ho Pui with Muk Min Ha in Tsuen Wan. These have also claimed depopulation in the 19th century and after. In the northern New Territories the well-known Tang clan of Kam Tin records a similar loss of population;4 whilst at Lin Ma Hang, a large village on the present Sino-British frontier,5 a stone tablet dated in 1893 was erected to detail the geomantic 1 Murphey: 27-30. 2 The first is well-documented, the second scarcely at all, though discussed in Potter 1968. 3 See JHKBRAS 3, 1963: 143-144; JHKBRAS 9, 1969: 156-158 and Hayes 1967:22-30. 4 Sung in HKN, VII, Dec. 1936:256. 5 See Gazetteer: 214. Especially as, in Hsin-an, it is not to be linked with devastating Taiping campaigns and official retribution, nor with Hakka-Punti wars on the scale that occurred in some parts of the province, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES 169 South and North of this country; later, when the number of descendants became very many, we lived apart in the two waais T'aai Hong and Kat Hing; round both of these waais were built tall walls and deep ditches were dug round them. We think that the idea of doing this by our ancestors, was to protect our houses and guard them against robbers only. When during the 25th year of Kwong Sui of Ts'ing dynasty, on Kei Hoi year, i.e. A.D. 1899, the Government of Ts'ing leased the South part of Sham Chan to the British Government, in that time, the Ts'ing Government did not inform the people of this beforehand, so when the British army arrived, the ignorant people of the country were inflamed by some persons and arose to resist them, the people of our waais being afraid to be disturbed, in order to avoid them they shut the iron gates firmly. The British army suspecting that bad characters were hiding inside, then assaulted and made the gates open. After they went into the Waai, they understood that the people inside were all good men and women, so did not give them any bad treatment, but just had the iron gates taken away. Now, the 26th descendant, Paak Kau, represented the people of these waais to petition the Hong Kong Government, asking the Government to bring the matter before London, and have the iron gates returned, and re-hung as before. All the expenses were paid by the Hong Kong Government. We also thank H.E. the Governor, Sir Edward Stubbs for his presence at the ceremony; from this can be seen the deep kindness and great virtue of the British Government, and shows that our people are pleased and sincerely submitted, therefore we specially carve the above on the tablet, in order to remember and never forget this kindness. Great Britain, May, 26th, 1925 Chinese Republic 14th year, on Yuet Hoi year the "yuen" 4th month, 5th, the lucky day. we carved.' Another ancient wall in the South district is Naam T'eng (†4) where the silver came to and where Tang Naam had his house. It is to be found to the South of Kat Hing Wai, but no houses are left inside. The North district, Pak Wai, has two villages, Shui T'au ("The head of the stream") and Shui Mei ( ) “the end of the stream," Tang K'ei Fong ( ) and Tang K'ei Wah ( ) both from T'aai Hong Tsuen were the first persons who lived in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 LEGENDS & STORIES OF THE NEW TERRITORIES 175 found in Wing Lung Wai where his portrait in military officer's uniform is to be seen. Tang Ming Luen, the son of Tang Kuen Hin, was another military officer. He was a very powerful man with exceptional strength in his arms. When he was young and before he studied the military arts, he came across, one day, two water buffaloes fighting in a road. The people standing by were unable to pass and yet could do nothing to separate the animals. Tang Ming Luen, seeing this, seized each buffalo by the horn, wrenched them apart, and stopped the fight. It happened that a newly passed Kui Yan named Tang T'in K'ei, who came from Tung Kwun district, was visiting Kam T'in to worship at the ancestral hall, and, according to old Chinese custom, to report the good news of his degree to his ancestors. He witnessed Tang Ming Luen's feat of strength and greatly admiring him, he encouraged him to study for the army, giving him ten taels of pure silver sycee as a reward. Tang Ming Luen passed his Mo Sau Tsoi in the 25th year of Ka Hing, A.D. 1820, and the Mo Kui Yan in the following year. There is another story that Tang Ming Luen dug up some hidden treasure in his orchard, which was near Sui T'au Ts'un. To the North of the garden, there was a large banyan tree and close by it a rock covered with creeping plants. On dark days, it was said that a light used to shine near this rock and at a distance, it appeared like a big white horse. One day, Tang told a labourer to dig a hole for planting a fruit tree in a corner of the garden where a lot of long grass was growing. In doing so, the man dug up a large earthenware jar with a lid on it, which was full of silver sycee. He seized a handful of them and started to carry them home, but at once, his eyes became dim-sighted and he was unable to see his way. Thinking that it must be a punishment for trying to take money that did not belong to him, the man put the coins back in the ground, and his sight recovered at once. When he told Tang of his discovery, Tang had the ground thoroughly dug, and many more jars, each full of silver coins, were found. Tang Kuen Hin was born in the 20th year of Kin Lung, A.D. 1755, and he built a school called So Lau Yuen in Shui Tau Tsuen, one of the Kam T'in villages. This building has a curious carving inside, rather like the face of a clock with Roman lettering on it, the origin of it being unknown. Another building called Ch'eung Tsun Yuen was built by one of his descendants. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 232 Sam Tung Uk NOTES AND QUERIES The Sam Tung Uk (village), is a small, square-walled lineage village dating back to the 18th century. It was settled by the Chan (陳) family. Before the Ch'ien Lung period of the Ch'ing Dynasty (清朝), the Chan clan lived in Ning Fa District, Ting Chow prefecture in Fukien Province (福建省). One of the branches then moved to Lo Fong, of Po On District* in Kwangtung Province (廣東省). Later Chan Yam Shing (the 13th generation) came to Tsuen Wan (old name Chin Wan meaning shallow bay) with four sons. Guided by his uncle (ancestor of Kwan Mun Hau Village, Tsuen Wan), they took up farming. They worked very hard, put up sea walls, reclaiming much land, and were content. Straw huts were built firstly at Lo Uk Cheung (羅屋丈) (where Block 2 of Tai Wo Hau Estate, Tsuen Wan, is now located) in the 22nd year of Ch'ien Lung, (1757). The elder son, Kin Sheung (堅常) was a herbalist doctor, renowned in fung shui and possessed a wealthy home. The other sons, Ying Sheung (應常), Wai Sheung (維常) and Cheuk Sheung (卓常) were farmers, living moderately. Kin Sheung, after settling down, searched around Tsuen Wan hoping to find a suitable site to establish a village. He found that a piece of land situated on the right side of Ngau Kwu Tun (牛牯墩) (present site of Tsuen Wan Government Secondary Technical School) would be the best, but it belonged to the Sun clan of San Tsuen at that time.† His brothers were told to contact the Sun family, hoping for a possibility to purchase it. One day a member of Sun clan turned up being, at that time, urgently in need of money. He offered to sell the much-desired land but no decision could be made as Kin Sheung was not at home. Mr Sun then said that he would go to Shing Mun to consult with other rich men who were likely purchasers. The brothers debated what should be done but in their elder brother's absence were unable to make any decision. When their elder brother returned home and heard of the Sun Clan's proposal, he was delighted and rushed to Wo Yee Hop (old name Woo Lee Hop meaning Fox's Valley), and the bargain was made. * Strictly speaking, San On (新安) at that time. †新村孫旗 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 NOTES AND QUERIES 233 The fung shui name of the selected spot was known as "Sleeping Beauty" (*) Her legs were in the crossed position, and the selected point for the erection of the village was at her thigh. The village was to be pointed 256° at the west, to accept the incoming water from Kap Shui Mun, and would rest on a hill at the back (local name Lion Land *), with the hills of Tsing Yi Island to the left and Fa Shan to the right. The frontage of the village was to face the water channel. It was a glorious view showing the sun setting with the sails of homeward-bound fishing craft, especially in the Spring and Autumn seasons. When the sun is just lowering on the horizon, millions of golden beams reflect from the sea, shining at the village. It is really an excellent site for a village to be established. That is perhaps why Sam Tung Uk and Yeung Uk Village are facing west while the other villages in Tsuen Wan are facing in a south direction. A well was constructed on the right, apart from the north corner of the village, for drinking purposes, just below the Sleeping Beauty's lower part. This well never dries up even in the driest seasons. Even when the supply of water was given once in every 4 days in the 1963 drought, the water was still adequate for use by all the surrounding villagers. How wonderful to find that it is 95% full of water even in the dry season to-day. To suit the fung shui requirement, all members of the family started to work jointly, after farming hours, to lower the site. This task lasted for several years, and was very arduous labour. They then began building the super-structures. Solid walls 16 inches thick were formed with a mixture of lime, clay and straw. The entrance to the Chi Tong (ancestral hall) was partly decorated with long hand-hewn granite stone blocks. Roof tops were constructed with wooden beams and clad with Chinese tiles. The entire structures in the village are approx. 17 feet high, of one storey. No height addition or alteration has since been made. Stone steps were laid to the door-way of every house. The structures proved to be strong and stable for nearly 200 years. There were three rows of houses built in the first instance and for this reason it was called Sam Tung Uk (A). After the construction work was completed, they moved in on a lucky day, in the 51st year of Ch'ien Lung (1786). The Chan Sze Pit Tong (), shown in the land record of District Office, Tsuen Wan, was formed by the four brothers at the time of village establishment. Another row of ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1974 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/x633mp077 234 NOTES AND QUERIES houses were built later at the back when they had more descendants. That is the entire village even to this day. There are 42 dwelling houses within the village, divided by 5 lanes and ten gates; measuring 162'-3" in width and 125'9” in depth. The idea of this layout would seem to have been to protect themselves from pirates, when the whole family stayed inside. The Chi Tong is located in the centre with three roofs and two light wells (#). There is a village school 150 feet from the southern corner for primary education of their children, and a Tin Hau Temple within 500 feet to the northeast for worship. Land Registration took place in 1906 in Tsuen Wan after the Lease of the New Territories. The village was recorded from Lot No. 1528 to 1559 (Lot No. 1546 excluded) in Demarcation District No. 449 in the Block Crown Lease, totalling 0.43 acre of house land and 0.03 acre of waste land, all belonging to the Chan family. It is a pity that 0.135 acre of house land were sold to outsiders since 1937 otherwise the village would still remain solely in the hands of the descendants of the founder. Chan Kin Sheung, the founder of Sam Tung Uk, was awarded a portrait by Chien Lung of Ch'ing Dynasty, worded "Heung Yam Tai Bun” (means Honourable Guest in Village Parties). To everyone's sorrow and great loss it disappeared during the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong. There have been very many big changes in the area surround-ing the village since re-development of Tsuen Wan. Fung shui trees at the back were felled, village type houses were built around, roads were constructed in front, multi-storeyed buildings were erected with obstruction of the front view. Ngau Kwu Tun, the small hill by the left, was removed to make way for a school building, and the hill at the back was partly cut off for construction of the Rapid Gravity Filter. Even the grave of the village founder was affected as it was in the same line and over-looking the village. The name in fung shui was called "Lion over-looking the village platform" (獅子瑩樓台) It is to be hoped that the Walled Village can be retained as a historical relic in Tsuen Wan, even if the whole area is to be re-developed. God has blessed it for over two centuries and it is hoped will continue to do so. Text and visits are organized and prepared by Mak Kai Yim, A. H. Mackreth, Brian Liu and Helga Werle. Page 240 Page 241 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q PRESIDENT'S REPORT FOR 1975 (Covering the period April 7, 1975-April 1, 1976) This has been another active twelve months for your Society. I start my Report with a review of the programme and will then turn to matters concerning publications, the Art Centre, Library, Membership, and the Photographic Survey which has been one of our more recent ventures. During the period we have organised nine lectures, 2 excursions to places of local interest, and one tour abroad, to Burma. We have arranged two film shows, one recital and a symposium — the seventh in our series. Most events were well attended. Lectures and films related to the regions of China, contemporary and traditional, Vietnam, India, Korea and Hong Kong. The year started last April with a lecture on changing patterns of merchant organization in late Ch'ing China given by Dr. Wellington K.K. Chan, a visitor from the United States, and also in that month we arranged our first excursion, to Macau, where members, guided by Dr. Leigh Wright, visited Chinese temples and toured the Museum and colonial cemetery. In May and June our focus was on Peking opera. In May, Dr. Rulan Pian, visiting professor in music at Chung Chi College, spoke on musical elements in the opera; and in June Dr. Chiao Chien explained revolutionary opera as a means for transmitting values and political ideas. The arts were further represented in June with a demonstration of Kathak dancing by a well-known expert Mr. Satyanarayana Charka; and in July and August we showed films--one on Chinese paintings and one on music. Another film dealt with the excavation of a Silla tomb of 5th century Korea. In August Sir John Addis, formerly Ambassador to China, described a visit to Ching-te Chen; and in September a talk was given on Brahman ritual by Professor Fritz Staal. Also that month James Hayes, our editor and one of our vice-presidents who in his professional life is District Officer Tsuen Wan, led members to visit his area. The focus was on the past-historical places, the present, as well as the future of the area--development plans. Following, in October, a discussion was conducted by Drs. Graham and Elizabeth Johnson, both anthropologists working in Tsuen Wan ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q # THE TEOCHIU: ETHNICITY IN URBAN HONG KONG 35 a reflection of the general mutual animosity between Teochiu and other Chinese. Any further discussion of general patterns becomes less meaningful given the variation within the Teochiu population. The discussion in one of the following sections of the Teochiu population in one resettlement estate considers this variation and the processes discussed above in a particular social setting. The geographical distribution of Teochiu in Hong Kong in 1971 is presented in Table 1. The only area of heavy Teochiu concentration in Hong Kong Island is the West census district, which of course includes Nam Pak Hong, the oldest area of Teochiu concentration. Hung Hom is the only area of substantial Teochiu settlement in the Kowloon census districts. More than one half of the Teochiu recorded in the census reside in the New Kowloon census districts, with one-fourth of all Teochiu in the Kai Tak district and almost one-fourth in Ngau Tau Kok and Lei Yue Mun districts. The Kai Tak census district includes Kowloon City, an area of heavy Teochiu residential concentration. The Ngau Tau Kok and Lei Yue Mun census districts roughly correspond to the industrial town of Kwun Tong. Thousands of Teochiu squatters were resettled into Kwun Tong's resettlement estates, particularly Ngau Tau Kok Resettlement Estate. Another census district in New Kowloon with significant Teochiu concentration is Shek Kip Mei; many Teochiu in this district reside in the Shek Kip Mei Resettlement Estate. The only areas of significant Teochiu concentration in the New Territories are Tsuen Wan and Yuen Long. Again, many Teochiu in Tsuen Wan reside in resettlement estates, mostly in Kwai Chung. Personal experiences in Tsuen Wan suggest that the actual number of Teochiu in Hong Kong is greater than the 1971 census figures. Table II indicates that more than 39% of Teochiu land domestic households are located in resettlement estates and almost one-half are located in one kind of housing estate or another. I would estimate that at least one half of Teochiu households at one time or another resided in squatter structures. In 1971 over 8,000 Teochiu households resided in "temporary housing" and another 4,700 households in "stone structures". These two categories refer primarily to illegal squatter structures, which suggests that a fairly large number of Teochiu are still squatters. 1 The information in Table 1 and in the other tables was very kindly provided by Mr. M. C. Leong, Statistician, Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong Government. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 50 DOUGLAS W. SPARKS TABLE I Teochiu Population by Census District (N.T. & Marine in Census Area) — 1971 Census Census district/area No. of persons Central 1,352 Sheung Wan 5,844 West 27,557 Mid-levels & Pokfulam 2,634 Peak 115 Wanchai 4,966 Tai Hang 5,309 North Point 8,359 Shau Kei Wan 13,641 Aberdeen 13,141 South 1,352 HONG KONG ISLAND 84,270 Tsim Sha Tsui 6,744 Yau Ma Tei 6,575 Mong Kok 4,731 Hung Hom 13,132 Ho Man Tin 4,129 KOWLOON 35,311 Cheung Sha Wan 12,048 Shek Kip Mei 21,827 Kowloon Tong 1,170 Kai Tak 100,935 Ngau Tau Kok 46,507 Lei Yue Mun 34,889 NEW KOWLOON 217,376 TSUEN WAN 27,496 YUEN LONG 13,365 TAI PO 6,552 ISLANDS 4,575 SAI KUNG 835 MARINE 1,674 COLONY TOTAL 391,454 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 60 DOUGLAS W. SPARKS exception to this is the rivalry between ethnic gangs and more organized criminal groups in the area, who are competing for territory and access to the local market in illegal gambling, extortion and narcotics. There are various kinds of formal and informal associations within the estate, including several estate-wide associations as well as several ethnic associations. The most active and organized associations within the estate are the two registered Teochiu religious associations and another informal, unregistered Teochiu association. There is one informal Hoi Luk Fung religious association and one Cantonese association which is the least active of the ethnic associations. The primary functions of these ethnic organizations are the organization of ritual and the maintenance of small temples within the local area. Separation between ethnic groups is expressed in competition in the performance of particular religious festivals. This article will not consider the internal organization and dynamics of these ethnic organizations. The Teochiu segment of the estate population was resettled from squatter settlements in Tsuen Wan and Kowloon. Prior to resettlement, Teochiu in a particular squatter settlement were likely to be from the same village in China or from nearby villages and were involved in very dense kinship and friendship networks. A majority of Teochiu who were resettled into the housing estate are from one of the Teochiu districts in China and a very large portion are from a small number of villages in this district. This is due to the resettlement of certain squatter settlements, many of which were in Lower Kwai Chung, which contained high concentrations of Teochiu from that district. Most of the members of the Teochiu associations in the estate are from a small number of villages in this district, and these associations may be seen as extensions of social networks developed in squatter areas into the realm of ritual organization. Some of the most active members are from a single village which has over 400 “descendants” residing in this and nearby estates. The social and ritualistic core of this transplanted village is one extended family with over 40 members living in the estate studied. This pattern is by no means unique to this estate; other resettlement estates in Hong Kong have high concentrations of Teochiu from particular districts. This "same village" density is the basis for the organizational strength and ethnic solidarity of Teochiu in Hong Kong. Page 75 Page 76 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q ETHNICITY IN A HOUSING ESTATE IN HONG KONG 67 to clearly demarcate the two groups, Organizations, ritual differences and stereotypes will be discussed shortly. The number of Hoi Luk Fung in the housing estate is not more than one-tenth of the number of Teochiu, and there are only several hundred people from the Kap Jih area. The latter are sufficiently large in number, however, to be considered socially significant by local Teochiu, and for the label "Kap Jih" to have meaning within the local area. The primary concern of this paper is that the label has different meaning for different people, and some are not at all sure of the appropriate meaning. The largest, most active and organized Teochiu association within the housing estate maintains an office and a small temple, which has been recently expanded, and is primarily concerned with the organization of public rituals. The latter are almost entirely supported by the local Teochiu population with very little participation by other ethnic groups. The other registered Teochiu association is organized around a spirit medium and his public presentations, and has recently built a tiny concrete temple (which is not in the immediate local area). The third Teochiu association is informal in that it is not registered with the government and is only active during a period of several months each year during preparations for the major Teochiu religious festival, the Hungry Ghost Festival. Most of the members of these associations are Teochiu, primarily from the district of Hui Lai, a few members are Kap Jih, and there are no Hoi Luk Fung members. There are a number of other Teochiu associations within Tsuen Wan, the industrial town within which the housing estate is located, as well as a large number of temples and temple organizations. The Teochiu associations discussed above have no formal contact with most of these; formal contacts between associations tend to follow the personal networks of the members. Thus, there are close formal ties between the three associations in the estate and other Teochiu associations in nearby housing estates in South Kwai Chung. These ties are very clearly a function of the extension of friendship and kinship networks from the one estate into the other estates, where fellow villagers, kinsmen, and old friends reside. There is only one informal Hoi Luk Fung association within the housing estate, whose sole function is the organization of a five-day religious festival which in most respects is similar to the Teochiu Hungry Ghost Festival. The only substantive difference ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q "PATTERNED BANDS” IN THE NEW TERRITORIES OF HONG KONG Introduction ELIZABETH L. JOHNSON* These notes on a form of peasant textiles are based on research conducted in Kwan Mun Hau (关门口), one of the old villages of Tsuen Wan District, in the New Territories of Hong Kong.1 Tsuen Wan, now an industrial city with a population of nearly 600,000 with a small rural hinterland,2 consisted until after World War II of a group of about twenty Hakka villages, with a central market area. The villages remain, (some have had to be resited) but most are now surrounded by the city. The area's rapid urban development has meant that traditional forms of dress and adornment have virtually disappeared, to be replaced by western-influenced styles of clothing. Despite this, women of Kwan Mun Hau village were able to describe the use and significance of these textiles, and to demonstrate the technique of weaving them.3 The information reported here, which refers to Tsuen Wan of about thirty years ago but is applicable to the more rural areas of the New Territories even today, is derived from interviews with informants in Kwan Mun Hau Village, as well as from observations elsewhere in the New Territories. The findings are only preliminary; additional research must be done elsewhere in the New Territories to supplement this report. Definition The fa tai (花带) or "patterned band” is worn by Hakka women in the New Territories of Hong Kong as an article of personal adornment. Patterned bands are hand woven, intricately patterned ribbons about 1 CM wide, and ranging in length from about 65-145 CM. They are most commonly flat, with tassels of varying length and thickness at either end, and are either multicoloured, or white with coloured or black patterns. If multicoloured, they are made of silk (now often synthetic) threads with silk tassels; if white, they are of cotton with the patterns in silk or cotton and the tassels of white cotton cord. * Dr. Johnson is on the staff of the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia. The plates illustrating this article are at the back of this volume. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 88 ELIZABETH L. JOHNSON Tai Po. Bands, mounted on hat, predominantly of white cotton, with thick white tassels. One half the length of the band commonly has zigzag pattern. Bands commonly worn on headcloth, also of white cotton. Patterned bands not often worn on apron, which is fastened with a strip of cloth. Apron relatively short and narrow, with coloured trim at the top. Headcloth is long, hanging down the wearer's back. Yuen Long. Band is used to fasten hat under wearer's chin, being drawn under the chin through rings mounted on either side of the hat, and then back to be tied under the chin. Such a band is very long and narrow, with thin tassels. These bands are silk and cotton with small patterns appearing less clear than those from other areas because of the use of a double weft thread, of white cotton and coloured silk. Similar bands, although shorter, are used on aprons, which are narrow like those in Tai Po, but longer. They are trimmed at the top and sometimes have ornamental frogs. Shatin. Shatin bands are mounted on the hat and have long thick tassels like those of Tsuen Wan. The aprons are like those in Tsuen Wan. Sai Kung. Pink and purple predominate in the bands. They appear to be rarely worn on hats, but are worn as apron bands and to hold head cloths. The tassels are less long and thick than those of Tsuen Wan. The bands, and other aspects of dress and adornment, thus served as indicators of regional identity at a time when these differences were socially and politically significant. Topographic conditions in Hong Kong, with its mountains, islands and water, meant that enclaves with distinct identities developed. These were sometimes demonstrated in the form of alliances, as well as in the system of measuring land area. Tsuen Wan, for example, formed a self-conscious enclave of people with a shared identity and an ideal, at least, of cooperative relations. Despite the importance of regional identity, some Tsuen Wan men married women from outside the Tsuen Wan District. The reasons for this may have been to broaden their network of contacts, or perhaps to avoid the problems which sometimes resulted from living in too close proximity to relatives by marriage: or because the go-between arranging the marriage knew of a suitable match in another place. Interestingly, women upon marriage con- ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q "PATTERNED BANDS" IN THE N.T. OF HONG KONG 91 9 See John A. Brim, "Village Alliance Temples in Hong Kong”, in Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, Arthur P. Wolf, ed., Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1974, pp. 93-104. 10 J. H. Stewart Lockhart, in his "Report on the New Territory at Hong Kong" (H.M. Stationery Office, 1900, p.6) states that different systems existed in Tai Po, Yuen Long, and "Ts'ün Wan and other areas". 11 In my census sample of Kwan Mun Hau Village, only 15% of the wives of household heads were born in Tsuen Wan. However, 89% of the mothers and 69% of the wives of Village Representatives interviewed by Graham E. Johnson in 1969 were born in Tsuen Wan District. (Graham E. Johnson, Natives, Migrants, and Voluntary Associations in a Colonial Chinese Setting, unpublished doctoral dissertation, Cornell University, 1970.) The reason for the discrepancy between the two samples is not clear; it may reflect differences between leaders and ordinary people, or between Kwan Mun Hau Village and Tsuen Wan in general. 12 Reported by Pat and Roger Howard, Canadians teaching in China. 13 Reported by Graham E. Johnson in 1976. 14 This was stated by Fei Hsiao-tung in an interview with Helga E. Jacobson and Graham E. Johnson in October 1976. 15 There is, for example, no mention of a backstrap loom in the very comprehensive study China at Work, by Rudolf P. Hommel (The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1969). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 192 MAURICE FREEDMAN and the Nuffield Foundation), and partly by the London School of Economics and Political Science out of a Ford Foundation grant. In addition, for the first three months of my work in the New Territories I was fortunate enough to receive from the Hong Kong Government the services of a guide-interpreter and the use of a motor car. I wish to record my appreciation of this aid. 2. My plans were not to be fully realised. Before the end of the first period of three months I fell ill, had to enter hospital, and was medically advised to leave Hong Kong. The result has been that, while I have been able to carry out most of what I intended to do under the heading of a general survey of New Territories social conditions, I am forced to write this report away from the Colony, cut off from the chance of checking my findings and filling in gaps in my knowledge. 3. My report is based on field observations made from early February to early May and on reading done in the same period in the Colonial Secretariat Library. I travelled extensively in the New Territories but, owing to the fact that I lived for most of the time in Tai Po, I am more familiar with conditions in the District of that name than with those of the other four Districts.* It will be obvious, too, that the short time at my disposal sets a severe limit to the validity of my generalisations. Anthropologists usually spend some months getting used to a new field before embarking upon detailed enquiry, for there is a good deal of groundwork to be done. If I am bold enough now to set out some of my preliminary findings and tentative conclusions it is because I believe that the New Territories Administration ought to be given an idea of the kinds of problem which anthropologists find important and of the possibilities of correlating the interests of social research workers with its own. There will be increasing opportunities for co-operation. To begin with, in the autumn of this year two graduate students at London University are expected to arrive in Hong Kong to undertake intensive field work in the New Territories. My colleagues and I hope that their studies may be of some service to the Administration. Certainly, they will be able to probe more deeply into matters which in this report are treated superficially. * Yuen Long, Tsuen Wan, Sai Kung and Islands. An account of the New Territories at that time is given in the Annual Departmental Report of the District Commissioner, New Territories 1963-64, and of Hong Kong as a whole on the Hong Kong Annual Report 1963, both printed by the Government Printer, Hong Kong - Ed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 202 MAURICE FREEDMAN on its own, Lam Tsuen consisted of twenty-six villages. When the constituent villages of the seven yeuk are plotted on a map they can be seen to form a more or less continuous arc around Tai Po, but there are two striking irregularities in the distribution. First, the three villages making up the yeuk of Fan Leng stand away to the north, being in fact so much out of the immediate Tai Po area that today they fall administratively into a different sub-district and are not involved in local Tai Po affairs except in so far as they remain responsible for the market. Second, about twenty villages in the area of the arc are not members of any yeuk. Some of these are settlements which have come into being since the 1890s, but a few certainly existed at the time the market was planned and were deliberately excluded, or excluded themselves, from the union. Naturally, the Tang settlement at Tai Po Tau is one of them; they were the general enemy. Others were probably clients of the Tang and unable, or unwilling, to participate in the revolutionary move. Were they previously members of yeuk who fell out when these were combined to form the seven? 21. The Tang and the Man are Punti, the former being members of the dominant clan group in the New Territories, and the latter a branch of a clan group whose most important settlement is at San Tin. The Man had for long intermarried with the local Tang (their genealogy book shows that the Tang gave them many women), were rich, and had produced some scholars. (Their main ancestral hall, now in ruins, must have been a splendid building). Their rivalry with the Tang at Lung Yeuk Tau and Tai Po Tau had had a long history. As the story of the market demonstrates, the rivalry was in part commercial; the Tang at Tai Po Tau tell jokingly of the leading Tang and his Man counterpart competing to see who could lay the longer line of silver dollars along the path leading north from their settlement. But the area in which the contest was fought out was predominantly Hakka, and it was necessary for the Man to find their support in Hakka villages. Second in importance to the Man in the founding of the new market were the Hakka Ma of Wun Yiu. They appear to have been a small but well-to-do settlement. (The only crockery kiln in the whole region was in their area, and a Roman Catholic chapel had stood there for at least thirty years before the founding of the new market; they were clearly in a centre of some importance). The last flickers to be seen today of the hostility to the Tang in Ts'at Yeuk circles fail to ================================================================================ 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 205 greatly in importance in recent times, but it is now, as far as I can see, a large-scale charitable organisation of business men which, while it rests in theory on the representation of villages falling within the area once covered by the old yeuk-complexes, is in fact essentially both city-based and city-run. (At the present eighteen villages appear to be represented in the Lok Sin Tong: one in Sha Tin, one in Tsuen Wan, and eight each in Sai Kung and New Kowloon. But I am not sure that the representatives are members of the villages they represent). 25. Yeuk existed also in the Sha Tau Kok area (note the Nam Yeuk mentioned in the early British records) and in the area of Ho Sheung Heung (Hau Yeuk). It will be seen, therefore, that at the time of the advent of British rule many central, southern, and eastern areas of the mainland part of the New Territories were covered by a network of yeuk which, while certainly not including every village, nevertheless generally affected the political organisation of these areas. The striking omission is the west, that is to say, roughly the modern Yuen Long District. As far as I have been able to discover (my enquiries in this area were cut short by my premature departure from the Colony), the term yeuk has no traditional meaning here. (I stress 'traditional'. The British used the word for their own purposes; demarcation districts for land and the broader administrative districts were called yeuk after the new regime was established; and, as a result, by hearing the word used today one may be misled into thinking that it has a longer local history than it in fact has). Similarly, I know of no evidence that there were yeuk in the islands. Groupings of villages there certainly were in the Yuen Long area, under the names of heung (although I am not sure how old this usage is) kung shoh, just as these groupings sometimes appear in the areas where yeuk also existed; but the absence of yeuk seems to call for comment. 26. If we look again at the evidence on yeuk-complexes, we may perhaps conclude that they were formed to protect the interests of the weak against the strong. The powerful Liu of Sheung Shui were never members of a yeuk. Indeed, on their own they were the enemies of the Luk Yeuk of Ta Kwu Ling. Similarly, the Tang of Lung Yeuk Tau (in which name, incidentally, the character for Yeuk is not the one we are concerned with here) and Tai Po Tau stood aloof from yeuk. It is probably significant that the Man of Tai Hang formed a yeuk on their own when they assumed leader- ================================================================================ 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 POLITICAL AND PUGILISTIC FREEMASONRY?* CHINESE FREEMASONS 281 Door front of a house in a Chicago China Town street. The Chinese inscription on the glass panel: +##NR% (literally: China Hung Mun Peoples' Governing Party). "Hung Mun" is a branch of Chinese martial art (kung fu); "Peoples' Governing Party" is probably what Freemasons are known to be by this organisation in Chicago. This photograph was taken by Y. F. Lam, P.M. 428 and 493, S.C. during his U.S.A. tour in May, 1976. Mr. Lam continues: I am indebted to my good friend, James W. Hayes, M.A., Ph.D., currently Town Manager and District Officer, Tsuen Wan, N.T. and Editor of the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch, who provided me with a relevant and interesting excerpt from a book entitled Ex-Chief Inspector Kenneth Andrew, Hong Kong Detective, published by John Long, London 1962. It runs: * Reprinted, with permission, from the "1975-1976 Year Book and Proceedings of the District Grand Lodge of the Far East". Mr. Y. F. Lam is, of course, our Member and Printer. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1976 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/hq382988q 282 NOTES AND QUERIES "It was a serious offence to be a member of a secret society and, under Hong Kong law, possession of what was called the membership cloth or any of the regalia of such a society was regarded as sufficient proof of membership. The cloth was what a member had, instead of a card, just a scrap of cotton material, seven by four inches with the name of the holder and details of the society. I remember arresting a man in Hong Kong who was on his way to China and finding he had a membership cloth that had been stamped with a large gold seal on which were printed, in English, the words 'affiliated to the Chinese Freemasons of America' round a design of the Square and Compasses in the second degree.” The Hon. Editor recalls seeing a similar sign "Chinese Freemasons" on a door in China Town, Vancouver, B.C. during his recent visit there in May 1977, but unfortunately did not take down the full English and Chinese text. SANDAL WOOD MILLS AT TSUN WAN* The following extracts from various publications relate to this now almost forgotten but long established local industry, located at Tsun Wan in the New Territories of Hong Kong. Formerly a small market centre serving the surrounding villages, Tsun Wan is now a large industrial town. From J.H. Stewart Lockhart's Report on the New Territory, The Hongkong Government Gazette, 8th April, 1899, p. 544. “A large establishment exists near Tsun Wan for the manufacture of joss-powder, out of which joss-sticks, used in the worship of idols, are made. The powder is made from fragrant wood, which is pounded into dust by means of water-wheels, six of which were seen at work. Although there is a large force of water throughout the territory available for water-power, this is the only instance in which we saw water utilised for manufacturing purposes."† * Usually romanized as Tsuen Wan: see A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories (Government Printer, n.d. but c 1960) p. † On his short visit, and necessarily cursory inspections, Mr. Stewart Lockhart appears to have missed the use of water wheels to crush clay at the Wun Yiu pottery kilns: see CSO1904 Ext/6929 in the PRD Hong Kong. For mention of Water Wheel Licences see Hong Kong Administrative Reports, Assistant District Officer, New Territories, Southern District, 1912 (p. I 15), 1913 (p. I 13) and 1914 (p. I 10). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n PRESIDENT'S Report TREASURER's Report THE LIBRARY CONTENTS Page 1 6 10 TRANSACTIONS : Brunei: A Historical Relic - LEIGH WRIGHT Behind Japanese Barbed Wire: Stanley Internment Camp, Hong Kong 1942-1945 - G. C. EMERSON A Journey to Yenan 1946 - W. A. REYNOLDS ARTICLES: Two Essays on the Ch'ing Economy of Hsin-An, Kwangtung - J. T. KAMM Under Altars - K. G. STEVENS Social Organization and Ceremonial Life of Two Multi-Surname Villages in Hoi-p'ing County, South China, 1911-1949 - YUEN-FONG WOON "Little Fujian (Fukien)” Sub-Neighbourhood and Community in North Point, Hong Kong - GREGORY E. GULDIN Reprinted ARTICLES: Cheung Chow - Long Island - W. J. HINTON Memories of the District Office South, Hong Kong - W. SCHOFIELD NOTES AND QUERIES: Notes for the Royal Asiatic Society Visit to Tai Mo Shan, 3rd April 1976 — (I) L. B. and S. L. THROWER (II) JAMES HAYES Notes for the Visit to the Tang Family Graves, 11 December 1976 - DAVID LIU and JAMES HAYES Royal Asiatic Society Visit to Tsuen Wan, 10th December, 1977 - A Village War'. JAMES HAYES The Rural History Project in Yuen Long and Field Notes on the Social History and Fung Shui of Kam Tin - J. T. KAMM Bean Skim, A Product of Blood and Sweat Four Chinese Banks Fail, Partners Blame Head Two Letters From Wartime China A Further Note on Feng Yun-Shan and Gützlaff - Jen Yu-wen Reptiles New to Hong Kong - J. D. ROMER The Public Botanic Garden of Hong Kong Birds of Tai Mo Shan - MICHAEL Webster Occurrence of the Birds - J. D. ROMER 12 30 (55) 85 101 112 130 144 179 (185) 199 216 218 220 228 232 234 236 237 Page 15 Page 16 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 168 NOTES AND QUERIES ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY VISIT TO TAI MO SHAN, 3RD APRIL 1976 HISTORICAL AND GENERAL NOTE 1. Tai Mo Shan is 3,140 feet (957 metres) in height, the highest mountain in Hong Kong territory. 2. It is a curiously unimpressive mountain at close quarters. Viewed from Tsuen Wan, the former small market town at its foot on the southern side, the visitor could be forgiven for not noticing the mountain at all. It is, from there, only part of a large hilly area that arises quickly from sea level and extends in all directions, with occasional higher points of which the Tai Mo Shan summit is only one, in no way outstanding or separating itself from its neighbours. 3. From a distance, however, the true splendour of its peak and general mass is revealed. A visitor looking north from Magazine Gap or Wong Nei Chong Gap on Hong Kong Island, some 10-12 miles distant, cannot fail to notice, to the north, the bulk and height of the mountain, overtopping all around. The Lion Rock range of hills behind Kowloon Peninsula, closer to the viewer and usually so impressive from low ground, then appears in its true and diminished scale. 4. Mountains figure prominently in Chinese historical geography. There is, in every district, prefectural, provincial or general gazetteer, a section devoted to Shan-chuen - 'Hills and Streams'. As befits its size, Tai Mo Shan always receives a notice in the local works. The earliest mention I can find so far is in the 1688 edition of the Sun On District Gazetteer. This is repeated with much the same text in the 1819 and last edition, and in the 1822 and 1879 editions of the provincial and prefectural gazetteers respectively. The 1688 notice may be translated as follows: Tai Mo Shan is 50 Chinese miles east of the District City. It has the shape of a big hat. It extends south and west from Ng Tung Mountain. Its peak measures 2,000 Chinese feet. It is a big mountain in the Fifth Division, with a stone pagoda and many tea plantations. 5. So far as I know, there never has been a separate gazetteer of Tai Mo Shan such as has been provided for the more famous mountains of the Province; e.g. the White Cloud Mountains near Canton or ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 180 NOTES AND QUERIES A visit will be made by coach to five of the oldest graves belonging to the family and, in addition, to a school in Kat Hing Wai at Kam Tin to see some of its heirlooms. Quite a bit of walking is involved and lady members are advised to wear flat shoes for comfort and ease of movement over hill paths. The visit will start from the Tsuen Wan Ferry Pier at 11 a.m. Members are advised to catch the regular ferry from the Central Terminus, Hong Kong (35 minutes by ordinary ferry, 20 by hover ferry). Please check ferry times with HK Yaumatei Ferry Co. (Tel. 5-220393) and make your own arrangements. Otherwise, come by car and park locally, allowing plenty of time to find parking space (try the western end of Yeung Uk Road, in the area of the Yeung Uk Road Sports Ground, in the same road as the pier). Members are advised to bring a picnic lunch. The visit should end between 5--6 p.m., back at the Tsuen Wan Ferry Pier. The tour will be limited to two buses and members and their friends are invited on a first-come-first-served basis. Please telephone names to Mrs. Kam at 12-403396 (District Office, Tsuen Wan). Programme notes will be available on the day. DAVID LIU and JAMES HAYES Joint Organizers 29.11.76 THE TANG (4) CLAN IN THE NEW TERRITORIES AND ITS OLDEST GRAVES According to the genealogical record kept by the Tang clan at Kam Tin, it originated from a branch settled in Kut Shui County (*) of Kiangsi Province during the northern Sung period (960-1126).* It all started when one of the ancestors by the name of TANG Fu-hip (###) passed through this part of Kwangtung on his way to his new official assignment as the magistrate of Yeung Chun County () after he had successfully passed the imperial examination and was awarded the chin-shih degree during the reign of Hsi Ning (1068-1077). * With the exception of "Kiangsi” romanizations used in this Note are in Cantonese. ================================================================================ 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 181 He must have come by boat as the record states that "he left his boat at Tuen Mun - the present-day Castle Peak Bay - and rambled through the woods of the New Territories and visited many mountains. He fell in love with the scenery, and found many excellent grave sites for he was an accomplished geomancer." After he finished his official tour of duty in Yeung Chun County, he returned to his native home at Kiangsi and brought down the exhumed remains of his great grandfather TANG Hon-fat (#) and his great grandmother and those of his grandfather TANG Kun () and his grandmother to this area for reburial, presently the New Territories of Hong Kong. He buried his great grandfather and great grandmother in a grave at a site called Yuk Nui Pai Tong (#), meaning "the newly married girl is presented to her in-laws", at a small hill near Wang Chau (#), Yuen Long. He also buried his grandfather TANG Kun and his grandmother in a grave the site of which is called Kam Chung Fook Fo (4ƒƒX), “the golden bell covers the flame”, on a small hill behind the present Pok Oi Hospital on the main road from Kam Tin to Yuen Long. Both sites were considered auspicious. We do not know whether TANG Fu-hip's father TANG Yuk (e) was brought here dead or alive. He and his two wives were buried in a grave on a small hill not far from the Tsuen Wan District Office. The name of the site is called Pun Yuet Chiu Tam (*AR), “a half moon is shining over the water pond”. Owing to the proximity to the urban area and its easy accessibility, the Tang clan led by their elders come here every year on the 19th day of the Tenth Moon (lunar calendar) to pay homage to this ancestor. The record does not tell us how TANG Fu-hip brought the bones of his ancestors from Kiangsi, whether by boat or by the overland route. When TANG Fu-hip died, he was buried in a grave he had chosen himself. The name of the site is called Sin Yan Tai Tso (^) “the grand seat of the fairy", and it is located not very far from where he buried his great grandfather and great grandmother. ================================================================================ 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 five graves may be summed up chronologically as follows: (1) TANG Hon-fat (2) TANG Kun (3) TANG Yuk (4) TANG Fu-hip (5) TANG Wai-kap Hong Kong, Nov. 1976 183 (Yuk Nui Pai Tong) near Wang Chau. Yuen Long. (Kam Chung Fook Fo) on a small hill behind Pok Oi Hospital. (Pun Yuet Chiu Tam) Tsuen Wan on Castle Peak Road. (Sin Yan Tai Tso) near Wang Chau, Yuen Long. (Wu Lei Kuo Shui) near Au Tau cross- roads. DAVID LIU ACCOUNT OF THE VISIT On Saturday, 11th December, 1976 some thirty members of the Society visited the five main graves of the Tang family of Kam Tin and other old established villages in the New Territories (see the programme notes above). We first visited grave No. 3 in Tsuen Wan which is located on a small hill that was bought by the family in 1927 to protect the grave in the face of various encroachments. In addition to the grave, there exist two round granite pillars (similar to those at graves 1 and 4 but without their lion-dog tops). These are situated each at a distance of 132 feet and angles of 125 and 217 degrees from the centre of the grave, as measured standing at the main table with the compass pointing north.* Lower down, a little off the main road there is also part of an entrance, built of inscribed rectangular granite pillars, erected in the 4 year which the Tang elders say is, in this case, 1894. Mr. Peplow was Land Bailiff, Southern District at the time the Tangs purchased the land in 1927, and his account,† quoting from a silk scroll given to him by one of the Tangs, is as follows: † S. H. Peplow Hong Kong About and Around (Hong Kong Commercial Press 1930) pp. 148-149. * I have since learned from the Tangs that the two pillars stood further to the front of the grave, nearer the former shore line, and that they were moved to their present location when the first Castle Peak motor road was constructed about 1917-1919. ================================================================================ 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 191 spot in the fields near Kam Tin, beside one of the new villages built by the Shing Mun people with funds provided by the Hong Kong Government. This temple (Plate 40) contains a tablet bearing the names of 17 Shing Mun villagers who died in the struggle.16 (Plate 41). (b) Tsuen Wan The Tin Hau Temple, which likewise is the community temple for the Tsuen Wan villagers, also contains a tablet to the 17 Tsuen Wan villagers who died in the war. (Plate 42). We shall also see the memorial recording the war according to the Tsuen Wan viewpoint. (c) One of the local weapons, estimated to be over 100 years old, and likely to have been in use at the time, is preserved in Muk Min Ha Village, one of the Tsuen Wan group, and I have permission to bring it with me on the visit. In the quaint phraseology of the past it is of the type known locally as 'Little Duck-bill', no doubt on account of its shape. (Plate 43),17 7. Comment This episode in local history is interesting for several reasons: (a) It took place between persons of the same language group. (b) All the contesting villages were small and their inhabitants closely related by intermarriage and other links over the preceding one to two hundred years of local settlement. (c) The Shing Mun villages were known locally as the Pak Heung18 or 8 Villages. Their one major and several minor lineages banded together to oppose Tsuen Wan. The latter, even more diversely settled than Shing Mun, also closed ranks to deal with the enemy. (d) It was purely a local struggle: no outside factors or participants were seemingly involved, other than the group from the other Pat Heung. (e) The district magistrate and local military forces apparently did not interpose themselves between the contestants: at least not on the local memory of these events. (f) Such incidents throw light on the war-like nature of local villagers, and the obligations of lineage groups to each other in offence and defence: they are typical of the Hong Kong region and other areas of S.E. China at this time. ================================================================================ 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 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 202 NOTES AND QUERIES in the shuffle. As a consequence, phenomena of this order are hardly understood. In my opinion, as large corporate groups continue to disintegrate in the New Territories, a complex structure of social life will emerge to fill the vacuum. This structure will be composed of 'popular' elements, previously considered 'incongruities' by most theoreticians, which are no less traditional than the Confucian ideal, yet more resilient. It is precisely within the corpus of oral tradition that the historical basis of this structure comes to light. Aside from these reasons, the project would provide useful materials for the study of Hong Kong history in the lower and middle schools, while being of general scholastic worth to advanced research. The initial project would hopefully be attached to the District Office, its scope of research encompassing the villages and townships of a single Administrative District. I estimate that a staff of three or four researchers working for a minimum of two years would complete an adequate history of Yuen Long. At this time, I would like to thank the New Territories Administration, and most especially your office, for the assistance and encouragement offered the pilot project over the last few months. I look forward to a further exchange of opinions on the points touched on above. Yours, [Signed] JOHN THOMAS Kamm FIELD NOTES ON THE SOCIAL HISTORY AND FUNG-SHUI OF KAM TIN* 1. Kam Tin is properly the name of a community; it is a generic term applied to a number of settlements (walled and unwalled villages - respectively wai (圍) and tsuen (村)) clustered together to form a heung (鄉). Until recent times (mid-1930's), with the notable exceptions of servile families (sai-man (世民) and ha-fu (下夫)) and tenants, this heung was inhabited exclusively by members of the large and powerful Tang (鄧) clan. Indeed, Kam Tin, * As such, these notes should be read in conjunction with the various papers to which reference is made in the text. ================================================================================ 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 213 dation of the Land Court, the Governor decided that 14 elders of the Northern District should be compensated for certain "tax-lord" rights claimed by them to have existed before the convention, but not compatible with the principles of British administration, by the grant of 252.33 acres of Crown land in the Northern District, to be selected by each "tax-lord" in proportion to the value of the right claimed by him." Also, see Enclosure 7, no. 172 mentioned above, to the effect that Kam Tin collected taxes in the Pat Heung Valley on land it didn't own. Much more is to be learned on this tax-lord system; I expect to glean more information from the records of the debate before the Land Court, 1904, which may be contained in the CSO reports.* 28. The Tangs of Kam Tin existed as a power often beyond the reach of the local magistracy. There is evidence of widespread non-payment of land-taxes and squeeze. On the former point, see the San On Letters appended below. Squeeze was collected primarily from the Tai Ping Kuk and similar organizations of Structure B type. The Tangs of Kam Tin were apparently not members of this Sham Chun group [see Petition to Lockhart in Extension Papers.] Also, note Sung's tale regarding the use of the Wong Ku relationship in the successful refusal to paying squeeze, the major source of revenue in San On county. 29. In summary, then, the Tangs were land-lords and tax-lords who existed and operated as a power unto themselves, dominating the local scene and ignoring the tendons of local government whenever possible. 30. Two statements regarding the status of sai-man (*R,): “We give them cows, we give them houses, we even give them women”. Also, "When the bridal procession passed through Kam Tin on its way to Pat Heung or Sap Pat Heung, the bride and groom were forced to descend and kow-tow." There is general agreement among Tangs and non-Tangs in the Kam Tin area that sai-man and sai-chuk (clans "with same name") were constantly reminded of their "place". 31. We uncovered a great deal of smouldering resentment and bitterness in Kam Tin, directed against the Ha Tsuen and Ping Shan branches of the clan. One tale concerns a "war" with Ping Shan over tax-collection rights in the vicinity of Shun Fung Wai. * Kept in the Public Records Office, Hong Kong. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 216 NOTES AND QUERIES head for the hall, the result is that the hall would bring about Great Wealth (大富) On the ancestral hall itself, it is apparent that it is being surrounded by green mountains and beautiful streams. Its walls are finely made and its direction is carefully orientated so as to suit the Dragon form. The rooms inside are spacious, comfortable, and neatly packed together. In front of it is Shau Sing Kung Shan (壽星宮山) ("Long-life mountain") and on the left of it is Kwun Yam Shan (觀音山). All these signs imply that from here “Great Nobility" (貴) would appear. Its form, so magnificent, calls for the Red Bird (朱雀) to lead the way (朱雀護送迎) and the Green Dragon and White Tiger to kneel (†). It drives the ranges to curl around it and the stars to look after the outlet. Every mountain, no matter how far comes to guard the cave, and every stream comes to gather round the hall. This indicates "Great Wealth" (大富). Thus the window of Heaven is made open and the door of Hell is tightly shut. This is the best Dragon form. It should foster great wealth and great nobility. It explains why the Tang clan has had so much success in wealth, fame, and in civil examinations, as compared with the other villages in Pat Heung (八鄉). Of course, it owes very much to the keen choice of Fung-shui by the Tang ancestors. Hong Kong, 1973 JOHN THOMAS Kamm BEAN SKIM (豆漿皮); A PRODUCT OF BLOOD & SWEAT FROM THE MAKERS Bean skim is a traditional rural product in the Tsuen Wan District of the New Territories of Hong Kong. The following account was written by WAN Chung-yan of Pun Shan Village, Chai Wan Kok, Tsuen Wan on 12.1.1976, at the Hon. Editor's request. Bean skim is a kind of bean product of rich nourishment. In the age when the electric motor had not yet been invented, such product was really a product of blood and sweat from the makers. The making of bean skim is easily described. Choose the best yellow beans, dry them under the sun and peel them. Then soak the beans in water and crush them into a paste. After filtering off the refuse, boil them in a pot. Skim off the upper layer of foam. Keep heating the paste at a certain temperature until a thin layer ================================================================================ 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 which drew a great deal of stimulating discussion: Leadership and Ideas in Singapore since 1945. Altogether then, there were twelve lectures during the year. Excursions During June, Dr. James Hayes, the very busy Town Manager of Tsuen Wan, and editor of your Journal, organised an excursion to his district. During preparatory work for the redevelopment of Northern Tsuen Wan various religious institutions came to the notice of his department, which was also able to discover more information about others. The group attending the excursion visited a Buddhist monastery, where they had a vegetarian lunch; another religious establishment for the so-called "Three religions"; the Holy Mother Yiu temple, in a squatter area; and a temple to a sect established to help opium addicts and which has branches also in Singapore. Another local excursion is planned for March 29 to Macao, with the help of Dr. Leigh Wright of your Council. It plans to take in visits to places not on the usual itinerary of tourist visits, such as the Theatro Pedro V. There will be a Portuguese lunch and information on the places visited will be given by Father Texeira who has helped us on past occasions. I would like to take this opportunity of thanking him for his generous help to the Society. This visit should be a 'must' for those who like old architecture, churches, cobblestone streets as well as archives and libraries. Excursions to neighbouring territories and states also remain an important part of the Society's activities each year. Some twenty-two members visited Kashmir and Kathmandu (with an unscheduled but very interesting overnight stop at Amritsar) during last Easter, under the leadership of your Hon. Secretary, Dr. Brian Shaw; and it was possible to make a refund to each participant of over two hundred dollars as a result of various economies. A further group of twenty will be leaving this Easter for Darjeeling and Sikkim; and in July a smaller number will go to Ladakh (“Little Tibet”). Some members expressed interest in proposed visits to Central Java and to sites in Thailand, but the numbers were not sufficient to make the trips feasible last year. Our requests to Peking concerning visits to cultural sites in Central China have unfortunately not yet received a favourable response, but our efforts will continue during the coming year. For ix ================================================================================ 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 207 One day he asked Liu Kung-ch'üan about the proper methods whereby a person could become a good calligrapher. 'The movement of the brush is directed by the mind,' Liu replied. "The brush will move properly if the mind is rectified." The emperor changed his expression immediately since he knew that Liu's remarks had a double meaning. They were a remonstration, though indirect and implied. Of another famous calligrapher, Tung Ch'i-ch'ang of Ming, it was written Tung Ch'i-ch'ang was equally famous for seal carving and calligraphy. Hardly did a day pass without someone requesting his work. Even a letter or a brief note of his became a collector's item, and people were willing to pay a high price for it. He was profound and discriminating as a critic—a single word in his own handwriting commanded such attention that a collector would consider it a matter of great prestige to have obtained it. Our abbot, then, followed in a great tradition and his work on presentation boards and inscriptions, done in various styles, can be appreciated by visitors. He used three pen names, *, *, and *. The abbot also took a great interest in natural beauty and was instrumental in calling attention to various local beauty spots which he and his friends and disciples proceeded to embellish by carving names and inscriptions on rocks. They added, in a tasteful way, to the amenities of the area since many persons would come to visit them. The most famous of these places is Sam Dip Tam (=the three saucer-like pools) to the west of the Monastery, which owes its present name to Abbot Mou Fung. Closer by is a small garden area, now neglected, with a pool called Kan Lo Chi (*) commemorated with an inscribed tablet and formerly nicely laid out with statues of Kuan Yin, the Goddess of Mercy, a popular Buddhist deity. The Abbot chose this area because of the two rivulets of clear water which ran through this small area. Unfortunately, they have since been polluted by pig farms and bean curd factories above the site and the area has been neglected. However, the District Office Tsuen Wan intends to assist in restoring the place and put it under proper management, so that visitors to Lo Wai village and the monasteries can again enjoy its former charms. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1979 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/2801w5938 208 NOTES AND QUERIES (b) Holy Mother Yiu Temple (*****) This temple was first established by persons from Pok Law district (###) of Kwangtung who came here immediately after the war in search of work and shelter. It was first established in a squatter area at Ma Sim Pai () but was later moved to its present location in Fu Yung Shan (*) overlooking the town. Here we have a Kwangtung worthy! The goddess after whom it is named was a famous woman inhabitant of Kwangtung who lived in the Han Dynasty nearly 2,000 years ago. This person received an entry in the Kwangtung provincial gazetteer (1822 edition) which reads as follows: "Lady Yiu's temple () is in Mok Tsuen (#) in the east of the Pok Law District. In the Ho Ping reign period of the Former Han, 28-24 BC, there lived a chaste and virtuous woman named Yiu who was praised by the local people. After her death they erected a temple to her memory at Pun To Wan (#), and the worship there is in the name of ‘Our Lady Yiu'.” Another old account has the following quaint story: “Lady Yiu Temple. During the Han dynasty, a lady named Yiu of Pok Law county was renowned for her virtues. After her death, a temple was erected to offer sacrifices to her. Chen Yao-tsao† accompanied by Hsu Shen,‡ a Chiu Chow scholar, departed for Pok Law to take up the post of Sub-Prefect of Chiu Chow. On their way, they moored the boat to the bank on a certain night. There they heard several horsemen addressing them in a dignified tone: "The Prime Minister and the Commissioner for Grain Transport are sojourning here tonight." On the next morning, Chen and Hsu visited the place and found there a Lady Yiu Temple. Later, they were in fact promoted to the two posts respectively. †I have mislaid my reference to this source, but my friend Mr. Anthony Siu Kwok-kin of Hong Kong has traced the story further back to a Sung book (與地紀勝卷九十九廣東南路惠州博罪官吏) which dates the incident to the 2nd year of Hsien Ping in the Sung Dynasty **** (999 A.D.). †陳堯佐 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 Membership Total membership of the Society on February 28 was 539 which breaks down as follows: 5 honorary members, 114 local life members, 309 local ordinary members, 69 overseas life members and 42 overseas ordinary members. Changes in membership between March 1979 and February 1980 were: 21 resignations, mainly departures from Hong Kong; 4 deaths; 7 notices returned, presumed resigned; 23 unpaid members, presumed resigned; and 33 new members. The Journal The Hon. Editor, Dr. James Hayes, has written his own short report on progress and problems with the Journal (see footnote). As Dr. Hayes says, and as anybody who has lived in Hong Kong for any length of time will realise, his official duties as Town Manager and District Officer Tsuen Wan are of a particularly demanding nature at present, and this has affected the speed of publication of the Journal. We have received a number of enquiries about delays from members, and concerning which journal they may expect to receive. Essentially, you receive those Journals for the years in which you were a member of the Society, but you may, of course, always purchase those for years your membership does not cover. The present situation is that vol. 18, that is for 1978, is expected from the press within several months, and 19, for 1979, is well advanced. Besides distributing free copies of our Journal to members, we do, of course, sell our publications. I would like here to record my thanks to Mr. Tony Rydings and to Mr. Geoffrey Bonsall of the University Press for their work on distribution of publications, and to Mr. Bonsall again for distributing the Journal to members. The Hon. Editor has had special problems this year owing to the demanding nature of his official duties as Town Manager and District Officer Tsuen Wan, which have been intensified by the tight programme of land recovery, clearances and village removals for the construction of the Mass Transit Railway and its associated development. This has made finalization of the Journal slower than usual. He regrets the delay but reports that an advance copy of Volume 18 (1978) will be available for perusal at the AGM. It is expected from the printer in the early summer. Dr. Hayes will also provide a note for Members on the contents of Volume 19 (1979) which is advanced and expected to be finalized before his annual leave in August this year, making a late 1980 publication date likely. He hopes that the valuable contents of the two journals will in some measure make up for their delayed appearance. J.W.H., March, 1980. xiii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 40 JIANN HSIEH or the reorganization of existing ones. However, contrary to this view, in the Waichow case both kinship and locality as abstract concepts are still effective for organizing new associations or reorganizing existing associations. C. A Historical Sketch of the Development of Waichow Associations in Hong Kong* 7 The development of the Waichow associations in Hong Kong did not take place before the Second World War, even though Liao Hsin-chi, a Hakka from Waichow, had joined with others to establish the Tsung Tsin Association in 1920 (CCCHS, 1950: H-16), a headquarters for all the Hakka people. To my knowledge, the first effective Waichow voluntary association in Hong Kong was the Tung Kong Sports Club, established in June 1946. With an increase in the number of its members, a simple sports club could no longer cater for all their demands, so it changed its title to the Waichow Merchants' Mutual Aid Association and its purposes were expanded to include education, and provide assistance for obtaining employment, medical welfare, etc. In March 1948, with still more Waichow Hakka having come to Hong Kong because of the political situation in China, and the Hong Kong Residents of Waichow Ten Districts Countrymen's Association was set up in order to replace the Mutual Aid Association (HTSCT, 1978: 58). In 1956 this Association was registered under a new name as the Waichow Clansmen General Association. This core organization of the Waichow Hakka, nominally representing all Waichow people in Hong Kong, has developed considerably in the past twenty years, and has set up branches in Sheung-shui (1956), Tai-po (1956), Yuen-long (1956), Tsuen-wan (1965), Peng-chau (1966), and Lam-ma (1977), as well as a series of subsidiary organizations: Waichow Music Society (1965), Waichow Lion Dancing Club (1967), Waichow Sports Association (1968), Kindergarten in Tsuen-wan (1965) and two Waichow public schools in Yuen-long (1965) and Kwai-chung (1968). In addition to their headquarters and their subsidiary organizations, the Waichow Hakka have also set up several district level * The romanization used for the names of associations is taken from the form in which they have been registered with the Hong Kong government. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 42 Fig. 1. J1ANN HSIEH Association Clusters of the Waichows in Hong Kong, 1979, C D E F I T B I. M A. + formal relationship association cluster Walchow Clansmen General Association in Hong Kong B. Ten-Districts of Waichow Association in Hong Kong C. Walchow Union Sheung Shui Branch, Hong Kong D: Walchow Un Long Residents Association Ltd. E: Walchow Union Hong Kong Tai Po Branch, N.T. F: Waichow Main Union Tsuen Wan Branch G. Waichow Clansmen General Association (Hong Kong) Ltd., Peng Chau Branch H: Walchow Clansmen General Association of Hong Kong, Lamma Island Branch I: Ha Foon District Association J: Lu Foon District Association K: Loong Chuen Native Association L: Tze Kam District Countrymen's Association Limited M: Hong Kong Residents of Pok Law District Association N: Ho Yuen Clansmen Association ed, consider these associations as "gangplanks” which help rural immigrants across pitfalls in their transition to new urban ways of life. Nevertheless, emphases are different among various researches. Little (1974:89-90) and Banton (1968: XVI, 360), arguing from urbanization studies in West Africa, stressed the creation of voluntary associations by the natives anxious to learn the life pattern of the Europeans. Fallers (1967:12), however, focused his attention on the awkward position of the new immigrants - sandwiched between the rulers and the autochthonous. In his excellent introduction to Immigrants and Associations, he wrote: Clearly, then, one reason why the immigrant trading community is so productive of associations is that, lacking satisfying and reliable moral ties with the indigenous local community, it must ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 PERSISTENCE & PRESERVATION OF HAKKA CULTURE 53 CHTCH 1970 Chiao-kang Huei-chow tung-hsiang-huei Ch'üan-wan fên-huei t'e-kan (A Special Publication of the Waichow Main Union, Tsuen Wan Branch). CHTH 1964 CHTPC 1973 СРТНН 1976 CTTH Chiao-kang Huei-chow tung-hsiang tsung-huei huei-kan (Journal of the Waichow Clansmen General Association, Hong Kong, Ltd.). Chiao-kang Huei-chow tung-hsiang tsung-huei Ping-chow fên-huei t'e-kan (A Special Publication of the Waichow Clansmen General Association, Hong Kong, Ltd., Peng-Chau Branch). Chiao-kang Po-lo tung-hsiang-huei huei-kan (A Publication of the Pok-law District Association). 1969 Chiao-kang Tzu-chen tung-hsiang-huei huei-kan (A Publication of the Tze-kam District Countrymen's Association, Ltd.). HKCCTH 1971 Ch'ung-chêng tsung-huei chin-hsi ta-ch'ing t'e-kan (A Publication in Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary, Tsung Tsin Association). HSKOCT 1973 HTSCT 1978 SSHTTL 1978 STTCCS 1978 STTCCY 1976 YHTTL 1969 Huei-chow shih-shu kong-huei chêng-li chi-nien t'e-kan (A Publication in Commemoration of the Grand Opening of the Ten-Districts of Waichow Association). Huei-chow tung-hsiang tsung-huei san-shih ch'ou-nien chi-nien t'e-kan (A Publication in Commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of the Waichow Clansmen's General Association). Hsin-chiai Shang-shui Huei-chow tung-hsiang-huei ti-êrh-chiai li-chien-shi chiu-chih t'ien-li t'e-kan (A Publication in honor of the Second-Term Members of the Executive and Supervisory Committees, the Waichow Union Sheung Shui Branch, Hong Kong). Shih-chieh Tsêng-shih tsung-ch'in-huei Chiu-lung fên-huei chêng-li san-ch'ou-nien chi-nien t'e-kan (A Publication in Commemoration of the Third Anniversary, the Kowloon Branch of Tsang Clansmen Association, Ltd.). Shih-chieh Tsêng-shih tsung-ch'in-huei Chiu-lung-fên-huei chêng-li san-ch'ou-nien chi-nien t'e-kan (A Publication in Commemoration of the First Anniversary, the Kowloon Branch of Tsang Clansmen Association, Ltd.). Yi-lan-lang Huei-chou t'ung-hsiang-huei ti-san-chiai li-chien-shi chiu-chih t'ien-li chi huei-yüan lien-huan ta-hui t'e-kan (A Publication in Honor of the Third-Term Members of the Executive and Supervisory Committees and the General Meeting, Waichow Un Long Residents Association). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 142 NOTES AND QUERIES During the early Tang Dynasty, the importance of Tuen Mun increased. Thus a garrison of two thousand men was posted1, and Tuen Mun became known as the Tuen Mun Military Zone19 5. The garrison was led by a commander known as Sau-Chuk-Si 守捉使 belonging to the Annam Military Zone 安南都護府. Its headquarters were at Nam Tau, later the district city of San On. The area of present day Hong Kong, including the islands, the Kowloon Peninsula and the New Territories, was under the protection of this garrison. In the Sung Dynasty, the Tuen Mun Military Zone was turned into the Tuen Mun Ngam19. However, the number of soldiers and the rank of the officer in charge are not certain. During the early Ming Dynasty, the Tuen Mun Ngam was turned into the Nam Tau Walled City, and the garrison was commanded by a Cham-Cheung or Brigadier. Later, in the 17th year of the Hung Wu Reign (1384), Fa Mau✯✯, Commander of the Nam Tau Walled City, asked the Imperial Court to strengthen the garrison of the coastal area. Tuen Mun lay between the areas protected by the Tung Kwun Battalion and the Tai Pang Battalion. Thus, a watch-post was built, and a guard-station under a Pa-Tsung(4) was established. In the 9th year of the Chia Ching reign (1514), the Portuguese entered the Tuen Mun Bay. They took over the adjacent lands and built forts. They even established a monument. However, in the 16th year of Chia Ching, Wong Wang, Commander-in-chief of the Kwangtung naval forces, defeated the Portuguese at Sai Tso Wan8. After that, no Portuguese was found in the Tuen Mun area.9 At that time, there were villages like Lung Kwu Tsuen, Lang Shui Tsuen✯k††, Tuen Mun Tsuen19#, So Kwun Wat Tsuen 掃桿笏村, and Siu Lam Chung Tsuen 小欖涌村.10 During the early Ch'ing Dynasty, the Coastal Evacuation✯✯ caused the abandonment of the area close to the sea. Tuen Mun thus lay barren until, in the 7th year of the K'ang Hsi reign (1668), people were permitted to return to the coastal strip. The Tuen Mun Watch-post was re-established with a garrison of fifty men under a Tsin-Tsung. In the 21st year of K'ang Hsi (1682), the Tuen Mun Watch-post was turned into the Tuen Mun Walled City19 with a garrison of thirty men under a Tsin-tsung11. During ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 NOTES AND QUERIES the Chien Lung period, it was turned into a guard-station 143 Villages rebuilt at that time were Tze Tuen Tsuen, Tuen Mun Tsuen, Siu Hang Tsuen, Po Tong Ha Tsuen, So Kwun Wat Tsuen and San Tsuen Wai.12 In the 16th year of the Chia Ching reign (1811), the Tuen Mun guard-station was strengthened. Besides the original garrison, a Pa-Tsung was posted to be the assistant. Five guard-stations, each under a Ngai-Wai with four men, were erected at Shing Mun, Wang Chau, Kwun Chung, Tsiu Keng and Ma Tseuk Leng. They were all under the command of the Tsin-Tsung of the Tuen Mun Guard Station. At that time, villages in that area were all under the charge of the Kwun-Fu-Shi TO: namely: Tuen Mun Tsuen, Tsing Chuen Wai, Tsz Tuen Wai, Siu Hang Tsuen, Po Tong Ha Tsuen, Sun Fung Wai, Chung Uk Tsuen, Nai Wai Tsz Tsuen, San Tsuen, So Kwun Wat Tsuen, Tai Lam Tsuen, Tin Fu Tsai Tsuen and Un Tan Tau Tsuen.4 During the early years of the Tao Kuang reign, a Pa-Tsung and a Ngai-Wai with sixteen men were posted at the Tuen Mun Guard-station, sixty men were placed in the following six guard-stations which were all under the command of the Tuen Mun Guard Station. These guard stations were at Mong Tseng, Wang Chau (ten men), Kwun Chung (five men), Tai Po Tau (fifteen men), Shing Mun Au (fifteen men) and Tsiu Keng (five men).15 This continued until the 24th year of the Kuang Hsü reign (1898), when the Ch'ing Government leased the New Territories and the adjacent islands to the British, after which these guard-stations were abandoned.16 In 1899, the area was divided into the three sub-districts of Tuen Mun, Tai Lam Chung and Lung Ku Tan belonging to the Un Long District. Villages in these sub-districts were as follows:17 Tuen Mun Sub-district:- Chung Uk Tsun, Shun Fung Wai, Tsing Chun Wai, Tsz Tin Wai, Nai Wai, Tun Tsz Wai, Po Tong Ha, Siu Hang, Lam Ti and San Tsuen. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 144 NOTES AND QUERIES Tai Lam Chung Sub-district:- Tai Lam Chung, So Kun Fat, Tai Lam, Tsing Fai Tong, Un Tan and Tin Po Tsai 田箭仔、 Lung Ku Tan Sub-district:- Nim Wan, Tai Shui Hang 大水坑, Pak Long 北朗, Ha Nam Long 下南朗, Sheung Nam Long 上南朗 and Tuk Mi Chung 篤尾涌. 18 At present, Tuen Mun consists of thirty-two villages; namely: Chi Tin Tsuen, Ching Chuen Wai † (mainly surnamed To 陶), Ching Shan Keuk 青山脚, Ching Shan Tsuen 青山村, Chung Uk Tsuen (mainly surnamed Chung), Fu Ti Tsuen 虎地村, Fu Hang Tsuen 福亨村, Ho Tin Tsuen 河田村, Ki Lun Wai 麒麟圍 (mainly surnamed Chan 陳), Kwong Shan Tsuen 礦山村, Lam Tei 藍地 (mainly surnamed To 陶 and Kwan 關), Lam Tei San Tsuen (mainly surnamed To), Leung Tin Tsuen 良田村 (mainly surnamed Ho 何), Lung Ku Taan 龍鼓灘 (mainly surnamed Lau), Nai Wai (mainly surnamed To 陶), Nim Wan 稔灣, Po Tong Ha 寶塘下 (mainly surnamed Tsui 徐), Sam Shing Hui 三聖墟, San Hing Tsuen 新慶村 (mainly surnamed Siu 蕭), San Hui 新墟, San Wai Chei 新圍仔, Shun Fung Wai »§ £, ♬ (mainly surnamed Cheung 張 and Leung 梁), Siu Hang Tsuen 小坑村 (mainly surnamed Tse 謝), So Kwun Wat 掃管笏 (mainly surnamed Lee 李), Tai Lam Chung (mainly surnamed Wu 吳 and Wong 黃), Tin Fu Chai (mainly surnamed To and Choi), To Yuen Wai (mainly surnamed Lee 李), Tseng Tau Tsuen 井頭村, Tuen Chi Wai 屯子圍 (mainly surnamed To 陶), Wo Ping San Tsuen 和平新村, Yeung Siu Hang 楊小坑 and Luen On San Tsuen 聯安新村. Tuen Mun has now been developed into a large new satellite town. A major road, the Tuen Mun Highway, has been built, joining it with Tsuen Wan, and a light rail system within the town area will be developed in the near future. NOTES 1 The name 'Tuen Mun' appeared first in Chapter 43 of the New History of T'ang. 2 Tuen Mun Shan was also known as 'Pui To Shan'. Nowadays, it is also called 'Castle Peak'. The Bay was also known as Tuen Mun O. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 NOTES AND QUERIES 147 2 On the map, the location of Hong Kong Island should be that of Aberdeen today. There is another large island showing the names of Chung Hum春暟, Chik Chu赤柱, Tai Tam大潭 and Wong Nai Chung黄泥涌. * These two islands should be joined as one, since all these places are located on present day Hong Kong Island. It is probably so drawn because the author drew the map while he was standing on the mainland side, facing the water. * Chin Wan is today's Tsuen Wan. Island. The English name for Yeung Shun Chau is Stonecutters. * See, Map 72 of Volume 2 of Hong Kong Streets and Places published by The Lands and Survey Department of the Hong Kong Government. Also p. 154, Zone 30: Tsing Yi and Ma Wan Islands of A Gazetteer of Place Names in Hong Kong, Kowloon and the New Territories, 1978 edition. 7 ? See Chapter 13 of the San On Yuen Chi, 1819 edition.✩✩✩✩縣志卷十三、 * See Kwangtung To Shuet✯✯✯x, 1889 edition, and Kwangtung Yu Ti Chuen To (ARж#'), 1909 edition. A TUN FU (£) CEREMONY IN TAI PO DISTRICT, 1981: RITUAL AS A DEMARCATOR OF COMMUNITY I recently had the opportunity to witness a tun fu ceremony in Fung Yuen, a small multilineage village in a coastal valley to the east of Tai Po. Since I found Notes on earlier ceremonies published in this journal by James Hayes to be very valuable as I prepared to observe the Fung Yuen ritual, it occurred to me that other field workers might similarly find my notes on this subject useful. The ceremony aims to protect villagers from the wrath of various spirits that might be disturbed when engineering or construction works affect local fung seui in some way. If indigenous villagers feel that the health and well-being of their community might thus be threatened by government works, they may request such a ceremony. The expenses incurred in the hiring of a specialist to conduct the rituals and the purchase of various items of ritual paraphernalia and sacrificial objects are covered by the district office. Given the pace of development in Hong Kong today, we can expect that such ceremonies will continue to be held frequently. Thus there is considerable value in examining the meanings they hold for the people in whose interests they are performed. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 154 NOTES AND QUERIES numerous minor grades excel those of other places in their colour, fragrance and taste. Chu Yi-chuen of Sau Shui remarks, "There is no fixed standard as to which place in Fukien and Kwangtung produces the best quality of lychee, but in my opinion “Kwa Luk” from Kwangtung tops all." The three most outstanding selections of "Kwa Luk” are "Siu Fa Shan”, “Luk Law Yi” and "Kau Kei Wan”. A species named "Sheung Shu Wai", literally "being carried (wai) by the Minister (Sheung Shu)", originated from a minister Cham Man-kang who brought back a pip of lychee from Windy Pavilion. Most lychees fall into this category. The most valuable lychee tree whose fruit is priced scores of times more than others is the one growing in the West Garden located outside West Gate of the County Seat. In fact, there were other lychee trees which were as good as, or even better than, that tree. Another species called “Crystal Ball" of Cha Kong is of the same grade as "Kwa Luk”, and also on the list of the delicious lychees are "Sai Kok" (rhino's horn), "Kwai Mei” (taste of osmanthus), "Nor Mai Chee" (like glutinous rice), "Sung Ka Heung" (fragrance of Sung Family), "Chun Fung Yuk” (jade offered to emperor) and Ho Pau (wallet). (translation by District Office, Tsuen Wan) 3. By chance, I heard recently of the existence of at least one tree of the special type of “Kwa Luk” mentioned in the opening paragraph from the father of a friend. This gentleman, a Hakka from Ng Wah District, served pre-war in the provincial administration of Kwangtung at Canton. He had a friend Mr. Wong Ping-kwan (*A), who was the district magistrate (*) of Tsang Shing at that time (about 1937-38). This official used to send a parcel of this special lychee to his superiors in Canton. The fruit came from trees in the courtyard and gardens of his office in Tsang Shing. It was not for sale, and although my friend said he had heard of some being available on the market in recent times, he was sure they were not the genuine article. Hong Kong. December, 1979. JAMES HAYES ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 NOTES AND QUERIES LOCAL REACTIONS TO THE DISTURBANCE OF 'FUNG SHUI ON TSINGYI ISLAND, HONG KONG, MARCH 1978 — DECEMBER 1980* 155 The Chung Mei and Lo Uk villagers moved to their new houses in April/May 1979. Preparations were then made for a start to the engineering works and excavations in the sensitive hill area. We then discovered that the opposition to interference with this area came also from the four old villages located round the lagoon. These face directly (in some cases indirectly) on to the fung shui hill. They had requested and been granted payments for periodic tun fu (**) ceremonies at the same time as the villages of Chung Mei and Lo Uk. Also, in connection with their temporary removal to public housing pending completion of their new resite villages in three to four years' time, a temporary resiting for ancestral halls for all these villages had been agreed and was being effected. Notwithstanding these considerations, village objections continued to be received. It was becoming clear that though work might start on excavations, it was likely to cause incidents and to lead to interference with the contractors and further delay: in turn incurring claims from the companies engaged in the work. We were virtually back in the same situation that had led to the 1974 decision to resite Chung Mei and Lo Uk. Thus, when it was learned that the new public housing blocks into which the villagers were to be temporarily cleared would not be available for another year owing to heavy commitments to house large numbers of people from ongoing clearances for major public works in other parts of the Town and District, we decided to face facts. It was agreed to leave the Four Villages on their old sites until mid-1980 when new public housing blocks would be available, and not to start excavations till then. Fortunately this decision was also made necessary on other grounds. Owing to financial stringency, tightened controls and the need to continue financing for engineering and building works already in progress, it was not possible to commence the Tsing Yi contracts scheduled for 1979-80. However, all the necessary arrangements were made, including the detailed planning for the villagers' *This is a sequel to the note at pp. 213-216 of the 1979 issue of the Journal. It details the difficulties faced by the District Office Tsuen Wan in arranging for development works to proceed smoothly. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1980 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/kh04md207 BOOK LISTS 169 ference on Records, Salt Lake City, Utah, 12-15 August 1980 "Chinese Clan Genealogies and Family Histories: Chinese Genealogies as Local and Family Histories", published in Volume 11 of its Proceedings, "Asian and African Family and Local History". These are from the Tsuen Wan sub-district of the N.T., mostly in manuscript. I have also collected on Lantau Island. In all cases a xerox copy has been taken and the original has been returned to its owner. (b) Handbooks of family and social practice These are available in printed and manuscript form. Those purchased and included in this list are a sample of the types that come onto the local book market. (c) Almanacs I have collected modern editions of various Hong Kong publishers from 1949 on, by the following firms: 聚寶樓, 廣經堂, 永經堂, 福安堂 and 明記. Besides these, I have also purchased the listed earlier works, variously from Hong Kong, Canton-Fatshan, and Shanghai. (d) Collections of couplets for every occasion This was a popular field, judged by the numbers seen.* The attached list shows how Shanghai publishers took over collections earlier published in Canton. (dd) Riddles and Proverbs I attach a few titles from this interesting sub-group. "Proverbs are not devoid of attractiveness and charm, especially as they often appear as couplets, sometimes rhymed", writes Patrick Pichi Sun in his foreword to Seven Hundred Chinese Proverbs translated by Henry H. Hart (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1937). Riddles were * They abounded in the towns and countryside. An interesting collection of couplets from buildings of the Ch'ing period in the Sha Tou Chen sub-district of Nan Hai county of Kwangtung is given at pp. 101-110 of the 36th anniversary bulletin of the Nam Hoi Sha Tau Association, Hong Kong, published by the Association in 1964. Couplets by famous Cantonese are featured in two articles by Chin Yung (A) entitled TSLA LO in Vol. 12, Nos. 1 and 2 of a Taiwan publication ✯✯ A, 71st Year of Chinese Republic, 31st March and 30th June (1982). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p Chinese University's History Department and editor of our 1981 Journal, spoke on Saikung district during World War II: the district being a regular escape route for prisoners of war from Kowloon. After a summer break we began again in October with Professor Shih Hsio-yen, Head of Department of Fine Arts at Hong Kong University, talking on recent Chinese archeological finds and how the Chinese on the mainland look at their origins. In December Dr. James Hayes led a tour of the New Territories, which included Sam Tung Uk village built in the eighteenth century and scheduled as a museum and cultural centre, and Tsuen Wan, with a vegetarian lunch at the Yuen Yuen Hok Yuen, Tsuen Wan, a temple complex belonging to a Chinese syncretic religious group. Also in December, Professor Rulan Chao Pian, Professor of East Asian Languages and Civilizations and of Music at Harvard, and currently visiting Professor of Music at the Chinese University, spoke on traditional forms of dance narrative in North China. Her talk was illustrated with video tape material. Finally, in January Dr. Graham Johnson, Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of British Columbia, talked on the Chinese in Canada, discussing their history from the early rural migrants who worked in the goldfields and on the railway, to the more sophisticated urban migrants going to Canada after 1967, many from Hong Kong. There was very poor response to the two overseas tours offered through, or by, the Society during the year. The tour to India had to be cancelled through lack of sufficient numbers, and the tour of the Pearl River Delta consisted of six persons only, including the leader, Dr. Michael Lau, to whom I express my thanks. This year about seven members will be joining a tour arranged by Dr. Brian Shaw for late March-early April. The group will witness the annual sacred masked dance festival at Paro in Bhutan and also visit other places in Bhutan, and Darjeeling and Kalimpong. Other tours may be arranged by Dr. Shaw during the coming year, and Mrs. Craig will also be offering tours to members, who will be kept informed. As the year progressed we found it increasingly difficult to obtain bookings at the Volunteer Officers' Mess due to heavy ix ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 26 JANET LEE SCOTT NOTES It might be mentioned that the adult population of Hong Kong was, at the time of Mutual Aid Committee formation, already well acquainted with the idea and work of urban organizations. While the Mutual Aid Committees had (and still retain) their own unique design, their structure (and their functions) were not unfamiliar and they were not viewed as mysterious committees having no resemblances to other, more traditional, Chinese organizations. * The other five subdivisions are: Kam Kwok Mansion, Luen Hop Building, Mei Tung Estate, Pui Man Tsuen Cottage Area, and Pok Oi Village (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:271). * The exact total, provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate, was 21,221 at the end of February, 1983. • At the end of 1982, the exact figure was 523,927. * The Mark I blocks include Blocks #1-5, #9, #10, and #12, and the Mark II group is made up of Blocks #13-20 and Blocks #22 and #23. The remaining blocks (#6-8, #11, and #21), already rebuilt, are now referred to as Converted Buildings (Wong Tai Sin District Report 1982:272). • This information was provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate. * At the end of February, 1983, there were 26 Mutual Aid Committees in the Lok Fu Area and 286 Mutual Aid Committees for the entire Wong Tai Sin District. * The selection of male members is because all but one of the chairmen of the Lok Fu Estate Mutual Aid Committees interviewed were male. In addition, the opinions of female members towards participation were investigated during the research period of 1976-1978. * Block #23 of Tung Tau Estate is still divided into floors for the purpose of MAC formation. In early 1983, it had five MACs, one for each three floors. 10 In 1982 the old titles of City District Commissioner and City District Officer were changed to District Officer and Assistant District Officer respectively. At the same time the old Home Affairs Department and New Territories Administration were amalgamated into a new department known as the City and New Territories Administration. 11 The official certificates of registration are framed and prominently displayed in the committee's office, or if the committee lacks an office, are kept by an officer, most often the chairman. 19 However, given the apathy of many residents and the low attendance at many MAC meetings, one might wonder if any committee has been dissolved by popular action, the second alternative. 10 This is the schedule as described by the Wong Tai Sin District Office, Tung Tau Sub-office. The office of the Housing Manager, Lok Fu Estate, explained that the conversion has already been completed and that 114 families (the figure as of March, 1983) had already moved in. "These figures have been provided by the office of the Housing Manager of Lok Fu Estate, and are accurate as to the end of March, 1983. 16 The C.C.C. number is a code number found on the Hong Kong Identification Card and is written under the Chinese characters of the individual's name. 10 According to the Tung Tau Sub-office of the Wong Tai Sin District Office, there are no instances of the mishandling of MAC funds known in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1982 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mk61z420p 298 NOTES AND QUERIES substantial amount, outside the offended party's door or, in the case of a whole lineage, its ancestral hall, and at the expense of the other. Justice was not only to be done but was to be seen (and heard!) to be done. As one informant has said, "The act was intended to give back face, and so was done at the home of the wronged party but paid for by the other". It thereby entailed an acknowledgement of guilt by the offender, and since houses and ancestral halls were set in the midst of each village, and the dispute was of course common knowledge, the shame and vexation of the party having to make such an atonement was complete. I suspect that this made settlements much more difficult where the aggrieved party insisted on his rights to fire-crackers perhaps to such an extent that sensible people would not insist on it, and the mediating elders would do their best to persuade parties to forego the provision, wherever possible. This practice first came to my attention in 1957, when I was District Officer South. Two lineages in the villages of Tseng Lan Shue and Ho Chung were in dispute over damage to or interference with a grave belonging to the former, and its village representative (who was also an elder of the lineage in question) was demanding that the Ho Chung people should make due payment and, in addition, pay for ten thousand strings of fire-crackers to be let off at his clan's ancestral hall to show atonement and satisfactorily (for him) conclude the case. He was a difficult and determined person, and I was inexperienced and thought his claim extravagant. As the case was somehow settled or at any rate did not come up to me again, I thought no more about it, not realizing that the demand for firecrackers as part of the settlement was in line with old custom in the area. Since that time, the old rural society and its economic base have been changed out of all recognition, but my discussions with elders in different parts of the old Southern District, comprising the present Islands, Sai Kung and Tsuen Wan administrative districts, at various times over the past twenty-five years have confirmed the practice in their areas in former days, and its time-honoured place in the settlement of disputes. Finding this practice to be an interesting, not to say intriguing, part of local custom, but being unable to spend time in gathering ================================================================================ 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 139 58 Petition dated 23rd day of 4th lunar month, Tao Kuang 24th year i.e. 8th June 1844. 59 60 See notes 19-20 above and relevant text. Response or comment, presumably again by the District Magistrate, following the petition of 8th June 1844. 61 Instruction dated sometime in Tao Kuang 24th year, but date and originator not clear to me. 62 Communication dated 15th day of 11th month, Tao Kuang 24th Year, i.e. 24th December 1844 (from Series CO129/7/9807, p. 326). See also Mayers, Dennys and King, op cit., p. 57. 64 Public Records Series CO129 and FO233. Copies of this deed, together with a few other papers from Chai Wan, belonging to Mr Law Wan-yeung(c) of Chai Wan, are available in the Public Records Office of Hong Kong. 65 See note 26 for the Wong holdings. The Tangs leased out similar properties on Tsing Yi Island in the present New Territories, where they apparently did hold the sole rights to the sub-soil up to 1899. 66 See the account given in J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region op cit, p 32 and in J.W. Hayes The Rural Communities of Hong Kong op. cit., pp. 34-37 and 244-246. 67 For accounts of these places see chapters 2 and 3 of J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region, op. cit. 6. See J.W. Hayes The Rural Communities of Hong Kong, op. cit., pp 68-9 and relevant notes on p. 254. 69 See the information on settlement in north-west Kowloon and Tsuen Wan in J.W. Hayes The Rural Communities of Hong Kong, op. cit., chapters 5 and 7. 70 Kuo Fei(部) Yueh Ta Chi 與天記三十三政事類渗防廣東沿潮閣 71 This is perhaps misleading and more information is required. The list of places where land was claimed to be in the private ownership of the Tangs, with dates of purchases and names of sellers is given in a petition to the Hsin-an District Magistrate dated 18th day of the 10th moon in Tao Kuang 24th year, i.e. 25 November 1844. This shows that part of those Hong Kong lands registered in the Tung-kwun district yamen, presumably before 1573, had been purchased by the Tangs from another family in the Ch'ien-lung reign, and therefore cannot be used to show Tang ownership in or before the Ming dynasty, although they do suggest that the lands were cultivated and of value in the Ming. Nor do we know whether land registered in what later became Hsin-an had earlier been registered in the Tung-kwun yamen but with the relevant registers transferred to the new district yamen in 1573. 72 For the dates of these temples, and especially for the items mentioned in the Table, see 陸鴻基, 吳偏霞霞, 合编, “香港伸銘彝術 op. cit. (D. Faure, B. Luk, A. Ng, The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong), passim. I 71 See J.W. Hayes The Hong Kong Region op. cit. chapter 7. 74 ** A.R. Johnston “Note on the Island of Hong Kong” in London Geographical Journal, XIV, reprinted in the Hong Kong Almanack and Directory, 1846, 75 Endacott, op cit., p. 59 76 E.J. Eitel, Europe in China op. cit. p. 215. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 270 P.H. HASE, J.W. HAYES AND K.C. IU In the 1970s when District Officer and Town Manager, Tsuen Wan, my contacts with local village people established that there were families in Lo Wai which had tea bushes on the mountain slopes of Tai Mo Shan. The Hui (4) family of Lo Wai village collected tea from wild bushes near the present radar station at the very top of Tai Mo Shan. One old man, born in 1896, used to collect ten catties a week during the season, commenting that the best time for plucking the leaves was in the third lunar month: the leaves become older and coarser thereafter. This type of tea was described as wan mo (雲霧) ("cloud mist"). He began doing this when he was about 10 years old, selling to other villagers and not to shops or teahouses. He also collected medicinal herbs on the mountain. Another favourable location for wild tea trees on this mountain, he said, was Nam Tong To (南塘肚) where the Shing Mun villagers collected leaves from wild tea bushes there of the same type. Such trees could not be replanted and grown elsewhere, he stated. Separately, old Shing Mun villagers living in Kam Tin since their removal there in 1928 for construction of the Jubilee Reservoir, themselves confirmed their taking of leaves from trees in this locality. In the foothills west of Tsuen Wan, villagers of Yau Kam Tau also collected leaves from wild tea bushes.12 Lantau island possessed a rather special type of red "tea", with a brilliant red infusion, known as tsz pooi tin kwai (紫背天葵). Tsz pooi tin kwai was described to me as being “half herb half tea”. It was used as a kind of cooling tea (清熱茶) for “over-heating” from food or drink, sore throats and the like. The leaves came from a plant growing between cracks in rocks and stones in high gulleys where there was much moisture. The people of Tong Fuk village on south Lantau, at the foot of the Fung Wong mountain, used to collect these from upper slopes. It was also collected by the women inmates of the religious houses of Ngong Ping and others living at the Po Lin monastery there. Some of the produce found its way to shops in Tai O market where one of the leading shopkeepers, chairman of the Rural Committee, gave me some at intervals. According to Shiu-ying's Hu's An Enumeration of Chinese Materia Medica (Hong Kong, Chinese University Press, 1980) page 153, it is to be described in English as the Tea Begonia (Begonia fimbristipula) and in Chinese as (紅天葵/紫背天葵).13 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1984 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/5h73wh572 275 A large clump of such "public" trees (HAB) exists, for instance, on the north-east slope of Kowloon Peak. 10 See, however, section 2 of this Note. The late Mr. T. S. Woo, MBE (formerly of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department and the Kadoorie Agricultural Aid Association) stated that local “Hill Tea” was once dealt in by Gibb, Livingston, but that this later died away, probably as a consequence of the great growth in Indian and Ceylonese tea exports in the late nineteenth century (Note by K. C. Iu). Plate 39. 12 Elsewhere in this journal, D. Faure in "Notes on the History of Tsuen Wan" mentions tea growing on Tsing Yi and at Chuen Lung in the earlier part of this century. 11 Section 3 of this Note discusses this "tea" more fully. 14 Plate 40. 15 Sessional Papers 1907, p. 221. 16 "A Notice of the Sanon District" reprinted JHKRRAS, Vol. 7, 1967, p. 122. 17 The Mau Tso Ngam Village Representative, Mr. Cheng Kau-hung, has also spoken to me (PHH) about herb collection. He stressed that knowledge of herb collection was kept as a secret and handed down from father to son, the father going to remote spots on the hillside to point out herbs to his son where prying eyes could not see what was done. Only some of the Mau Tso Ngam village families knew how to collect herbs, and this information was kept even more carefully from villagers from other villages. The prepared herbs were sold to shops in Kowloon City, a few cents being paid before the War for a well-prepared catty of the less frequently found herbs. The herbs were usually not those found in the Standard Pharmacoepia but "Mountain Drugs" (山藥), representing local folk remedies. Sellers of “Mountain Drugs" can still be found in the New Territories Market towns. Mr. Cheng stressed the difference between medicinal herbs the identification and preparation of which was kept secret, and those herbs usable as food in famines, which it was the duty of the elders to ensure every villager could recognise, and know how to prepare, in case the need ever arose (Note PHH). Dr. Chong Siu-cheung, with a group of local herbalists, has prepared a 5 volume book in English and Chinese “Chinese Medicinal Herbs of Hong Kong" (Commercial Press, Hong Kong, 1978-84) describing and discussing the uses of about 1,100 species of plant with medicinal properties found in Hong Kong. This book, however, does not cover the place collection or preparation played in the village society or economy (Note KCI). Plate 41. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1985 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/gt54s866x 206 Rolls 9 to 10 Roll 11 Roll 12 Roll 13 Roll 14 Roll 15 PETER YEUNG Historical Literature of North District vols. 1 to 7 北區文獻第一至七册 Historical Literature of Tsuen Wan, vols. 4 and 5 荃灣文獻第四、五册 Historical Literature of Tai Po, vols. 1 to 4 大埔文獻第一至四册 Historical Literature of Sha Tin, vols. 10, 13 to 17 沙田文獻第十、十三至十七册 Religious Literature of the New Territories, vols. 1 to 4 新界宗教文獻第一至四册 Historical Literature of Sham Chun, vols. 1 to 2 深圳文獻第一、二册, and Historical Literature of Kowloon vols. 1 to 2 九龍文獻第一、二册 Historical Literature of Sheung Shui, vols. 2 to 6 上水文獻第二至六册 and Historical Literature of Kam Tin, vols. 2 and 3 錦田文獻第二、三册 Supplementary Supplement to New Territories Historical Literature 新界文獻補編 roll Page 225 Page 226 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 June 24 July 15 Prof. Alan Griffiths "Victorian Flower Power' Mr. Phillip Bruce "The Bogue Forts' September 29 Dr. Elizabeth Sinn 'Kowloon Walled City' (repeat) October 17 Rev. Carl Smith "History of the Wanchai District' October 28 Mr. Mitya New 'Expatriates in Pre-Revolutionary China' November 27 Dr. Betty Wei Peh-T'i 'Shanghai: Crucible of Modern China' February 8 Ms. Veronica Pearson 'Health and Welfare in Modern China' February 27 Prof. Jean Chesneaux 'China in the eyes of French intellectuals' Local tours were made to the following places of interest: Wanchai and the Ruttonjee Sanitorium (7 November, led by Rev. Carl Smith and Dr. Elizabeth Sinn), Stonecutters Island (3 December, led by Phillip Bruce), the Hong Kong Bank Picture Collection (18 December, led by Mrs. Anita Wilson), Tai Po and Island House (9 January, led by Dr. Patrick Hase) and Sam Tung Uk Museum and Tin Hau Temple in Tsuen Wan (10 February, led by Dr. James Hayes). Tours outside Hong Kong included two visits to Shekou, Humen and the Bogue Forts on 18/19 and 25/26 July organised and led by Phillip Bruce, and an eight-day visit to the Yangtse River Gorges starting 29 August led by Dr. Michael Lau. You will, I am sure, agree that these activities have given a great deal of pleasure to members of the Society. Our thanks and appre- viii ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 269 fortunate to get back to the New Territories, to the Tsuen Wan District, in 1975 and I stayed there until 1982. This was the time of the most tremendous, fast-paced, redevelopment programme I ever wish to be involved in. At the same time, it produced good opportunities for collecting documentary material, if it existed, because (again) we were moving old villages out of the way of development. When I was in the Southern District in the late 1950's, I was rather down-hearted, despite what is now being said about the exciting and encouraging documentary side of the Oral History Project, at the absence of certain types of material, especially land deeds. There really were not a lot of land deeds around from the late Ch'ing period, and I found it was just the same in Tsuen Wan 20 years later; not because of those 20 years of ongoing development but because there really were not many available. The reason for this was that the British Administration, having surveyed the land and set up its land courts, naturally requested villagers to bring in their evidence of title to their holdings. Thereafter it did not seem to have given them back. I have met old villagers who have been very vehement on the subject, and have also come across a few hints in official documents that indicate that at some time between 1905 and, say, the end of the Second World War, these retained documents disappeared. It is conceivable they may still turn up one day. When and if they do, they will be the most magnificent source of information on the economic and social background of the New Territories when set beside other documents. That was one thing I wanted to mention, and reaffirm, from my Tsuen Wan days. Another point is that I have always been very interested in genealogies; in other words, family records. Again, and until fairly recently, the "mythology" of scholarship—and I call it that deliberately—was that it was only gentry families and very large clans which kept such records, that these were usually kept in the form of printed books, that manuscript ones were not found very frequently, and that small families and small clans did not have any. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1987 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/rx919b522 270 Well, I found that this was just not so in Tsuen Wan. Practically all the lineages there had had a genealogy at one time, and about two-thirds of them still have. Moreover, if you consult the 1905 Block Crown Leases for land in Tsuen Wan, and look at the descriptions of house lots in the villages of the sub-district, you will get the impression that there were not any ancestral halls in places like Tsuen Wan. This again turned out to be quite wrong. Going through the villages, old people would say "This is our ancestral hall" or more often "That was the site of our ancestral hall”. Even a small clan with, say, only 5 or 10 houses at the turn of the century had its own ancestral hall. Also, there were old schoolrooms and other institutions which indicated that the infrastructure of local village society was greater than the written records would show. My third point and I am just over my time concerns another clue to the nature of local society. I had done collecting in "Town", i.e. Hong Kong's central areas, at second-hand bookshops, stalls and so on and I had found quite a lot of printed guides to letter writing, social etiquette, and how to carry out a wide range of family, village and business affairs. I thought "Surely these must have existed in the villages too, and it would be interesting to find if they have the printed versions or the manuscript versions of them, or both". To cut a long story short, there were such guides to be found in the Tsuen Wan villages. They were practically all of the hand-written type, copied no doubt from generation to generation. They were often kept by the school teachers, and (I was told) dictated to promising pupils or passed on to them. Some elders also possessed them. So these were the sort of things I found in Tsuen Wan over my seven year stay. The only other thing worth noting in this connection is that we were in the business of trying to preserve a few old villages, and that in fact we managed to preserve two. One of them, Sam Tung Uk, was located in the middle of Tsuen Wan, right next to the new Mass Transit Railway. Another was up in the hills at a place called Yuen Tun where the main block has been preserved. It is inside the Civil Aid Services camp site, and is a magnificent building to go and look at. I say that with enthusiasm. It is a perfectly ordinary village building, but is a fine example of its kind. These initiatives came mainly from a few officials. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h and a treadmill was in operation for punishment up until the early 1900s. Prisoners were escorted to Court, so it is believed, by a tunnel. Although the author went to Victoria Prison in the 1970s, on Justice of the Peace visits, he is unable to substantiate this. A few colonial-style buildings, such as the Helena May Institute (completed 1916) on Garden Road, and the old Supreme Court building (foundations laid 1903, completed 1912) in Central District, are still in use. The latter is now the Legislative Council Chambers, and has been described as "Lutyens classical revival style adapted for the tropics". In spite of forceful protests by the Heritage Society which was wound up, despondently, in 1983 — and the Conservancy Association, the Repulse Bay Hotel, the previous Hong Kong Club building, and the old Kowloon Railway terminus (except for the tower2) have all succumbed to the wrecker's hammer. The average Hong Kong citizen, it seems, has limited interest in conservation. He or she believes that a building has an economic life span, and, after that, it should go. To be fair, the Government, advised by the Antiquities and Monuments Office and the Antiquities Advisory Board, has declared a number of structures, for instance the Stanley Police Station (1859)13 as Monuments under the Antiquities Ordinance. Other Monuments include the steps and gas lamps in Duddell Street, Central District; rock carvings and inscriptions; old villages, for example Sam Tung Uk in Tsuen Wan; and the District Office, North, building at Tai Po in the New Territories. The Territory also possesses a variety of other old structures, such as the fort and battery at Tung Chung and the fort at Tung Lung. There are also ancestral halls and study halls, like Shut Hing Shue Shan, at Ping Shan, and Chou Wong Yi Kung Shue Yuen, in Kam Tin. Among other declared historical Monuments are Wan Chai Post Office (1915)1* in Queen's Road East, Western Market in Sheung Wan, and the Pathological Institute,1 in Caine Lane. As of 1990, such Monuments totalled 43. One of the most famous of Hong Kong's old buildings was Murray House (circa 1843).1 It was demolished carefully in 1982, and the parts were labelled, numbered and stored. The intention is to re-erect it on another site. In 1935, the then new 66-metre high Hong Kong Bank (the third bank on that site) was fully air-conditioned (the first large building in Hong Kong). ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 99 Kong dates back only to 1898 when the New Territories were leased to Britain. At that date, there were at least six of these wheels operating in Tsuen Wan, as recorded by Lockhart on his tour of Britain's latest territorial acquisition, A large establishment exists near Tsun Wan for the manufacture of incense powder, out of which joss sticks, used in the worship of idols, are made. The powder is made from fragrant wood, which is pounded into dust by means of water wheels, six of which were seen at work,18 These six water-wheels were owned by a clan surnamed Cheung. Today, four sets of the hammer components are left in Lo Wai (E), Tsuen Wan. Two of them are mortars; one is larger, with an inner diameter measuring 33 cm, with a depth of 28 cm; the other being smaller with measurements of 28.5 cm and 21 cm. The other two pieces are granite supports for the cross beams. From the turn of the century to 1930, sandalwood continued to be one of the major commodities produced in the Tsuen Wan area. In 1905, Governor Sir Mathew Nathan noted that, Tsun Wan two passenger boats ply daily between Hong Kong and Tsun Wan; the number of passengers carried each way averages over 60. The principal goods carried are rice, pineapples when in season, grass, and wood in connection with the 24 sandalwood mills, worked by water power and situated in the various valleys of the Tsun Wan district.19 After the 1920s, the number of sandalwood mills in Tsuen Wan began to decline as water-wheels were replaced by electrically driven grinders. During this transitional period, the total output of incense powder fell. In 1925, the District Officer, South, Walter Schofield noted in the annual Administrative Reports that sandalwood powder showed “a slight decline in output though prices were maintained at last year's level”29 Following a general decline in business of the sandalwood mills in Tsuen Wan in 1931, “Hawkins reported “a further decline in the business done by the sandalwood mills” in 1932.22 Despite this, incense wood milling continued to be a prominent feature of Tsuen Wan in the 1950s. Heywood observes that, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1989 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/8336pm92h 114 of a large piece of cheap land for the drying of the joss sticks. Thirty-nine out of the 60 factories interviewed in 1987 explicitly declared that the availability of a drying place was of prime importance as a determinant of factory location. In general, the space needed for drying is twice the size of the workshed. Space is essential for drying as joss sticks have to be spread widely apart to allow an even drying speed. An outstanding example can be provided by a factory which is operated by a single man. The total area consumed is only around 70 m2 and two-thirds of the land has to be devoted for drying purposes. The remaining one-third of the land has to accommodate the use of working place and storage shed as well as the residence of the man. However, for a typical factory employing 1-3 workers, 200-300 m2 of land is the norm. To quote the other extreme, 3 factories which produce a variety of incense products extend to well over 3,000 m2 in area, the largest being approximately 3,782 m2. As a result of this space requirement, the joss stick industry tends to be on the outskirts of the urbanized area, where the rent is lower. As a result of the high land price in Hong Kong, factories of the joss stick industry make use of every possible location in the territory. Joss stick factories can be found in Shaukiwan, Wanchai and Western District. They can also be found in Yaumati, Mongkok, Taikoktsui, Sham Shui Po, Ngau Chi Wan, Diamond Hill and Tsz Wan Shan. But the majority of the factories are located in the New Territories, in Tsuen Wan, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, Kam Tin, Shek Kong, Sha Tin, Tai Po, Fanling, Sheung Shui and even Ta Kwu Ling. Generally speaking, a pattern can be discerned on the basis of the method of operation. The majority (61.4%) of the factories in the New Territories are devoted to the Lin-hsiang Method and the Winding Method, though a number of them are also engaged in the production by Nuo-hsiang Method or Winding Method at the same time. This is usually the case as the mass production strategy in Lin-hsiang Method produces joss sticks bucket by bucket, so a proportionately larger piece of drying area, available only in the New Territories, is needed. In contrast, most of the Nuo-hsiang and Moulding processes are done within residential districts. In the interview, all the 13 factories specializing in Nuo-hsiang Method are located in residential tenements. They are tolerated in domestic premises as Nuo-hsiang, unlike Lin-hsiang which produces a very dusty atmosphere, is much neater and tidier, and demands a small drying area. However, similar to the marginal situation of the other factories, these Nuo-hsiang factories have tended to move to the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 THE OLD POPULAR CULTURE OF CHINA AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO STABILITY IN TSUEN WAN James W. HAYES* Introduction This article is aimed at investigating the very marked social stability which was so clear a feature of Tsuen Wan society in the early post-War years. What were the factors which, in the virtual absence of external controls, enabled so many people to live for so long in an orderly and peaceful manner in unhygienic and sometimes unsafe conditions in hillside squatter huts and urban hovels, or in the over-crowded conditions of the early resettlement estates? What was it that the incoming squatters shared with the indigenous villagers which allowed both groups to run their affairs so peacefully and effectively, and with so little external pressure or assistance? Finally, what were the roots of the generally co-operative attitude towards removal and relocation upheavals which were essential for development of the Tsuen Wan New Town, and a prerequisite of steady progress with construction and modernisation, but nonetheless always traumatic for those affected? PART ONE: The Influence of the Past As I see them, the answers to the questions posed above lie in the Chinese character; but more specifically in some leading features of the traditional upbringing and education. That traditional upbringing and education was deeply rooted in a reverence for the past, and for the moral standards which the heroes of the past were believed to exemplify. This reverence was invariably noted by those Westerners with a familiarity with the Chinese countryside and a rapport with its inhabitants, as the following statements from the 1940s show: * The author was District Officer and Town Manager, Tsuen Wan from 1975 to 1982. He has recently completed a book about the growth and development of this, Hong Kong's first New Town, which is expected to be published by Oxford University Press, Hong Kong, in mid-1993, under the title Transformation: a Century of Tsuen Wan and its People. (Editor), 1 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 early post-War generation of Tsuen Wan folk to their mostly very exiguous circumstances." Among the more positive attributes to be seen at that time there were, firstly, their pragmatic, realistic attitudes towards their living conditions and livelihood, and the invariable availability of leaders from among their own ranks, and, secondly, their generally co-operative and accommodating response to the Government's various demands upon them, especially with regard to clearances for development. At the same time, the limits of this co-operation were occasionally reached, and these cases I also had to deal with at first hand. 1. The Legacy of Self-Management and Local Leadership One of these legacies from the past relates to the practice and acceptance of self-management. As Lin Yutang has said, "The Chinese people can always govern themselves, have always governed themselves". Local self-management characterized life in town and countryside, both under imperial rule and after. It did not amount to democracy, for much was left to a practically self-appointed group of local people: but the important thing to keep in mind is that they exercised their authority with the consent of the remainder. Every town ward, every lineage, each village and sub-district had its local leaders. These men would control the people within their own circles in accordance with accepted norms, combining their wisdom whenever weightier matters demanded consultation and concerted action. In political science terms, such men constituted a genuinely local, lower-level management structure. It was a vital under-pinning of the usual and almost too well-known alliance of gentry and officials, though strange to say this fact has still not been sufficiently grasped by many of the leading historians of China. This buttressing from below, and the managerial skills that were available at the ordinary levels of society, was undoubtedly one of the most remarkable features of traditional Chinese society. These self-management, managerial, skills were to be found wherever Chinese were to be found, inside and outside China. Even though Chinese communities on foreign soil mostly comprised former coolies and erstwhile peasants, they nonetheless exhibited these skills to a marked degree. It is, to a large extent, precisely because these traditional communities enjoyed these skills that their subsequent transition to ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 4 modernity has been, on the whole, so successful. 2. Traditional Self-Management in the New Territories The large, indigenous, long-settled population of the New Territories possessed managerial talents in abundance, and, after 1898, the new British officials were willing to let their leaders continue to exercise them, though within a more effective framework of law and order than had been possible under Chinese rule. In the 1920s, an experienced District Officer South, Walter Schofield, saw this self-management in action among the larger communities in his District (it included Tsuen Wan) and commented on local leadership and the prevailing official attitude to it as follows: "We never went closely into details of how or why so and so acquired the status and duties of village elder; we just accepted the natural leaders we found."7 Decades later, in the mid 1950s, the same capabilities were still to be found among the people of Tsuen Wan. This was indeed very fortunate. Although the town's population had risen to around 80,000, it was yet without a local management office. The District Office Tsuen Wan was not established until 1959, and, in the interim, the local people had had to cope with many problems, initially at least by themselves and largely unaided. Austin Coates, the District Officer responsible for the area a few years earlier, has given a vivid account of the burden carried by the Tsuen Wan Rural Committee, the only local body that was able to fill the yawning gap between the Hong Kong government's responsibilities and its then capabilities: "As can be seen, their [Rural Committee's] duties are varied and, if done properly, heavy. In Tsuen Wan, these duties have become overwhelming, and the same may happen elsewhere. The Chairman of Tsuen Wan Rural Committee is in effect a sort of magistrate and mayor rolled into one. All day long he has a stream of problems to attend to. He is obliged to work a full day from nine to five and maintain his own clerical staff in addition to what is paid for by the Committee. ... There is no time whatever for the running of his own business, so great are the demands made on his public services."8 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 10 The people could be stirred up by incomplete information about Government's intentions and provisions, or by their own preconceptions. When this sort of thing happened in the course of the Tsuen Wan village removals and clearances, as it invariably did now and then, exasperation had to be eschewed and an effort made to coax the people back into a more reasonable frame of mind. The first step in the process was to check if there was anything wrong or lacking on the Government's side. It was also necessary to listen very carefully to what the people were saying; though besides checking for misunderstandings or misconceptions, there was what I called the “operatic” element to be taken into account. A talent for dramatisation and exaggeration was evident in many of the harangues one received. Also, squeezing more money out of Government was often the aim in over-reacting and making a big fuss. In short, a range of factors had to be taken into account in assessing whether a situation was serious or not. It was this intriguing combination of complex factors that made life in a District Office so interesting, no matter what the trials and stresses of the moment. 6. Villagers Even More Subject to the Legacy The attributes and outlook described above were to be found generally in both villages and squatter areas, but were particularly deeply embedded in the village character. This could be attributed to their residents' long-settled and established way of life in one place, and their attachment to their homes and fields. Villagers were also well aware that their cohesion and numbers made them an element to be reckoned with. Combination could be expected when there were reasons for dissatisfaction, or where there had been attempts by some parties to present a misleading or incomplete version of government's intentions. Delay to the work schedules could be expected in these circumstances, and immediate action was needed to clear obstacles out of the way. Where there was still no meeting of minds, some compromise and mutual accommodation was required, wherever possible, to resolve what could otherwise be an intractable situation. Another facet of village character that is worth noting, because it was consistently encountered in my dealings with them, was that any appeal for local cooperation on account of the need of some other segment of the population, or even a general need like water for the urban masses, invariably fell on deaf ears. Once the villagers' initial ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 15 deities worshipped in the local temples, a Chinese author touches on one important aspect of these events: **In raising the funds they [the organizers] talk about their god, what he did in the past and what he still means to the people. The theatricals dramatize the divine history. The idol in the temple characterizes him. The tablets and the scrolls in the temple and the opera matshed] call to mind his traits and his relation to the people.**25 It was the practice on these occasions to prepare and distribute festival brochures which contain such information. This was a tradition that was followed in some of the more popular Tsuen Wan temples. (c) The Surroundings As if the process of indoctrination was not already thorough, the decoration of the temples and the better class of houses, shops and ancestral halls provided a milieu in which cultural influences were strong and could make an impression on youthful minds. Although a small place, Tsuen Wan District had its share of old buildings (and some not so old, dating from as late as the 1920s and 1930s) whose walls were decorated with eaves-paintings in the traditional style. Besides depicting the usual auspicious symbols for long life, good fortune, advancement, wealth and posterity, and the flowers and animals with similar associations, they also carried paintings of well-known stories and persons known to history or from the opera. Verses from T'ang poetry were also commonly included.29 Obviously, the better class of local buildings were not to be regarded as complete without this impressive cultural array. (d) The Lion and Unicorn Dance Teams 30 Besides what was taught in the rural schoolroom and learned outside its doors, one of the most powerful influences upon young village males was undoubtedly exercised through their training in the village lion or unicorn dance team. In Tsuen Wan and the other settlements of the Hong Kong region, these teams were at the heart of village ceremony. On social, political or religious occasions, they were the personification of the village's collective respect for important visitors and the means of marking the main events in the social life of the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 17 with its inculcation of “right thinking", the complete process has been summed up in a few well-chosen words by Dr. Monlin Chiang, one of the most prominent educationalists of the early Republican period: “These moral precepts came from the Confucian classics. Moral ideas were driven into the people by every possible means — temples, theatres, houses, toys, proverbs, schools, history and stories until they became habits in daily life, 233 The effect of both the legacy and the drilling was not lost on competent Western observers. Writing over 150 years ago, in his standard work on China first published in the 1830s, a future governor of Hong Kong, Sir John Davis, then only lately returned to England from many years' membership of the Honourable East India Company's Select Committee at Canton, had this to say: "The Chinese lower classes are better educated or at least better trained than in most other countries”. PART THREE: “Right Thinking" in Action in Tsuen Wan 134 + Tsuen Wan District (like all the rest) provides plenty of evidence for the effectiveness of the indoctrination, as well as occasional examples of emulation and performance. People knew what to think and what to do, and recognized the attainment of the prescribed high standards of conduct and behaviour even if they themselves did not measure up. Men who did so were greatly respected, to the point of veneration. It is the general opinion among Tsuen Wan natives, then and now, that such a one was the late Mr. Chan Wing-on, a former Tsuen Wan Rural Committee leader and also Chairman of the New Territories Heung Yee Kuk. Mr. Chan, who unfortunately died comparatively young, left a fine reputation behind him. He is commemorated by a tablet in a traditional-style pavilion, named for him, which was erected the year after his death near the entrance to the Chuk Lam Sim Yuen, one of the large religious houses located above the town. The memorial tablet records his life and achievements as a teacher and as a public figure; with an emphasis on his virtuous conduct and character and how it had influenced others for good: "Entering the teaching profession, he taught the village ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 18 children with skill and patience. Being a teacher, he was dutiful to his parents and respectful to the elders, thereby setting a good example to his fellow villagers. Thus, being virtuous himself he caused others to establish their virtue also. **35 The inscription ends on this note: "It was little expected that Mr. Chan should die from an illness last year. Upon hearing the news of his death, many persons expressed their condolences. Being sincere and virtuous, he should have enjoyed a long life. It is deeply regretted that we have lost such an honourable leader. In order to sustain the traditional morals, and to commemorate his virtuous acts, I have composed this elegy." Notice here how the traditional morals are to be maintained through recording the virtuous conduct and attainments of a revered public figure. The only other public memorial of such a character seen to date in Tsuen Wan is that to Yeung Kwok-shui of Yeung Uk Village (1871-1940), Ch'ing dynasty scholar of the hsiu tsai degree, graduate of the Kwangtung Senior Teacher's Training College, village teacher, leading prewar elder and a founder member of the Heung Yee Kuk. His photo-memorial, which hangs in the office of the Tsuen Wan Rural Committee, was composed and written by another surviving hsiu tsai and senior rural leader of his day, the late Li Chung-chong of Kuk Po, North District. It is recorded that one of his funeral elegies contained the phrase, "He deserved to be called The Perfect Man of the New Territories" **36 Other reminders of how deeply the Confucian virtues were esteemed and honoured, illustrating how obligations to the family and the community were keenly felt and sometimes fully honoured, are to be found in a few of the inscribed tablets at the older ancestral graves of the District. One of these, located in the Shing Mun area on the slopes of Tai Mo Shan, is of special interest in the context of virtuous reputation and its ongoing influence among descendants. The person buried there had been born about 1710 and the reburial in 1884 was carried out by all three branches of the family then living. However, retained on the new tablet, were the names of the elder brothers of the deceased who had been responsible for the initial burial at this site 37 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 20 enough, it was to be remembered and duly acknowledged long after. A contemporary example from the Tsuen Wan villages may be used to exemplify these continuing obligations. The endeavours of one of my Tsuen Wan village friends to recognize and continue to honour help given to his family in the distant past is a striking example of the kind. The founding ancestor of his clan had settled in a small village outside Tsuen Wan in 1724; but as sometimes happened in the local settlements the family did not prosper, and for three or four generations just managed to produce enough adult males to survive. A crisis ensued when the only adult male in one of the later generations died when still a young man, leaving behind a pregnant wife. By great good fortune, a family from another of the clans living in the village took pity on her; and after she gave birth to a boy who was reared to adulthood the future of my friend's family was again secured. This happened around 150 years ago. The descendants of this other family died out or went away pre-war never to return. When part of the village burial area was needed for development in the 1970s, my friend approached the District Office for a resiting of one of the old graves of the other clan. He was not applying for cash compensation as he was willing to pay all the expenses, but he did want another site in order to express, in tangible form, his family's continuing gratitude for the kindness done to the young widow so long ago. This was provided. Another instance of a similar kind involved the old grave of a husband and wife, dated to 1813, which had to be removed for development at Sam Pak Tsin, Texaco Road, Tsuen Wan about 1975. Elders from another lineage belonging to Hoi Pa Village had responded to our notices posted on site, stating their obligation to arrange for removal and reburial of the remains. They said that the link with the persons buried in the grave was through the female side of their family but was no longer known clearly to even its oldest living members.40 In another, even older expression of gratitude for past assistance, the Ho clan of Muk Min Ha Old Village (settled in 1712) had built a special hall next to their main ancestral temple to honour a man of another surname who had helped their founding ancestor. One of this man's daughters had married the newcomer, and land had been given which enabled him to make a good start in a new place. The donor's clan still lives in one of the hill villages of the District. When Muk ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 G. Knapp, The Chinese House: Craft Symbol, and the Folk Tradition (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1990). Knapp does not cover the paintings and stucco work that were a marked feature of the Kwangtung architectural style. For examples of this fine traditional decorative work, see Rural Architecture in Hong Kong (Hong Kong, Government Information Services Department, 1979). In the Hakka villages of the Tsuen Wan district, this "animal" was always a unicorn. In Cantonese villages the lion was usual. However, their purpose and motivation was clearly the same. Informants said there were differences in the dance performances of lions and unicorns; unicorns "crept, bobbed and weaved", whereas lions would "stand up and prance". The musical accompaniment, drums and gongs, was the same, and previously firecrackers had been an indispensable part of any performance by lions or unicorns. Hugh Baker mentions that the Liaos of Sheung Shui were known throughout the New Territories for their unicorn dance team. See the interesting information given in his Sheung Shui, A Chinese Lineage Village (London, Frank Cass & Co., Ltd., 1968), p. 193. See my "Notes on Temples and Shrines on Hong Kong Island" in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 27 (1987), p. 287. Monlin Chiang, Tides from the West (New Haven, Yale University Press, 1947), p. 9. John Francis Davis, The Chinese, A General Description of the Empire of China and its Inhabitants (London, Charles Knight, 1836) Vol. 2, pp. 29-30. From the memorial tablet to Mr. Chan Wing-on, Chairman of the Tsuen Wan Rural Committee and Chairman of the 18th Term, New Territories Heung Yee Kuk 1950-52, at the Wing On Pavilion, Fu Yung Shan, Tsuen Wan. Mr. Chan died on 15 October 1956; see Annual Departmental Reports, District Commissioner, New Territories, (1953-54 para. 56, and 1956-57 para. 119). From a “Short History of Yeung Uk Village" (in Chinese), published at the time of the village resiting in 1965 and written by Yeung's eldest grandson, Mr Yeung Cho-ling. According to the commemorative tablet, the grave was repaired on a lucky day in the middle month of the autumn season in the 10th year of Kuang Hsu, that is in September-October 1884. 1736; but in fact the ping-san year is the 1st year of Ch'ien Lung's long reign. There was probably another, less altruistic factor at work here too: since it was believed that the graves of good people have a beneficial effect on the fortunes of their family for generations to come. It is implicit in this case that the good influences of the grave were not yet spent. For a more recent example from Tsing Yi Island, see my Rural Communities, op. cit., p. 143. Contents more than values, I suggest? Wolfram Eberhard, Cantonese Ballads (Munich State Library Collection) (Taipei, The Orient Cultural Service, 1972), p.2. R. David Arkush, "Orthodoxy and heterodoxy in Twentieth-Century Chinese Peasant Proverbs" at pp. 310-335 of Kwang-Ching Liu (ed.) Orthodoxy in Late Imperial China (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1990). Helen Kwok and Mini Chan, Fossils From a Rural Past, A Study of Extant Cantonese Children's Songs (Hong Kong, Hong Kong University Press, 1990), pp. 17, 29. Lucien Bianco, Origins of the Chinese Revolution, 1915-1949, (Stanford, Stanford University Press, 1971), successively pp.126, 94-95. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 no Kankyo [Village Festival in China: Background of Local Theatres] (1989). The Jiao festivals studied by Tanaka are as follows: Communities Year Cheung Chau 1979 1979, 1983 Recorded in 1981:74-99 1985:227-302 Ha Tsuen 1981 1985:199-226 Hung Hom, Kowloon *1 1978-80 1981:771-780 Kam Tin 1985 1989:915-996 Lam Tsuen 1981 1985:359-528 Leung Shuen Wan, Sai Kung 1980 1981:99-113 Lin Fa Tei *2 1967 1985:558-572 Lung Yeuk Tau 1983 1985:609-720 Sha Tin, Kau Yeuk 1985 1989:1041-1112 Sha Tin, Tai Wai 1987 1989:977-1040 Sha Tin, Tin Sam 1986 1989:1040 Tai Po Tau 1985 1985:121.131-138 Tuen Tsz Wai 1986 1989:817-913 Yuen Long 1983 1985:139-198 43 *1: From the context, this festival, held on the 14th of the seventh moon, can be best seen as a ghost festival organized by the Hoklo dialect group. *2: Tanaka did not attend this festival. Analysis of the festival was mostly based on the 1967 account collected by H. Baker. See map for the location of places. JH Tanaka, Ritual Theatres, 5. 班 Tanaka, Lineage and Theatre, 11. 40 fbid., i-ii. 41 Tanaka, Village Festival, i-iij. 42 Faure, David, The Structure of Chinese Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories, Hong Kong (Hong Kong: Oxford Univ. Press, 1986), 81. 4.3 Segawa, Masahisa, "Daa Chiu: matsuri ni arawareru Hon Kon no mura no sugao” [Da Jiao: facets of villages in Hong Kong as shown in the festivals] Kikan Minzoku Gaku Ethnography Quarterly 33 (1985): 21-35. 14 Segawa, Masahisa "Ta-tsiu [Da-Jiao], feuds, and village alliances: the case of Pat Heung" (unpublished manuscript, 1991). 45 Choi, Chi-cheung, “Chi o urai ekibyo o harau taihei shinsho" [Jiao festival: to wash: the land and remove illness] Kikan Minzoku Gaku 40 (1987): 90-105. 4 40 Choi, Jiao festival", 1046. 47 Choi, "Kinship", 147-149. 4# Though Tanaka wrote that only a few communities in the New Territories celebrated the festival during his seven and a half years' observation (Tanaka, Lineage and Theatre, 608), we are still unclear as to how many communities continue to celebrate it. For instance, the Cheung Long Wai case was not mentioned by any informants. It was known only by an occasional visit to the village. A likely source is the Police since theoretically every festival celebrated in Hong Kong has to receive permission from the police for security measures. The district offices in the New Territories are another source of information. Certainly there were in the past other celebrations which have now ceased for one reason or another (e.g. at Sha Tau Kok, Shuen Wan and Ta Kwu Leng). 49 Segawa, "Daa Chiu', 35. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1990 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/d79206299 Kwu Ling, for instance," and official action is not remembered in the fighting between Tsuen Wan and Shing Mun, or in that between Tai Wai and Cheung Sha Wan, at about the same dates. Between 1850 and 1880 it would seem that the policy of the District Magistrate was to turn a blind eye to inter-village disputes unless this was impossible. Krone, in his 1858 "Notice of the Sanon District"2 speaks at some length on inter-village warfare in the area and the ineffectiveness of the District Magistrate in responding to it. The District was "troubled and insecure... internecine wars are almost always raging between some or other of the villages, and these wars ... are often long-continued and sanguinary. The people are of a quarrelsome nature, and fond of rapine [and, in the sub-mandarin's view,] depraved and so drowned in all manner of wickedness as to have lost their human nature. ... The Mandarins have very little power. The people do not allow the Mandarins to interfere with their own local government. Law suits, differences and offences are seldom brought before the Mandarins. The disputes between villages and clans are settled by the gentry. If they cannot come to an agreement, all connection is broken off, and without any declaration of hostilities, the disputants commence a predatory war on each other; in these quarrels, many a bloody battle is fought, hundreds of men perish, and whole villages are destroyed. Men of neutral villages or clans are generally well distinguished, and their rights respected.... etc'. Krone notes particularly a long-fought inter-village war at Sha Tsing (7 JP, Shajing). Here, the District Magistrate eventually came with 1,000 soldiers to make peace (this was probably in 1852 or 1853), and was not only ignored, but threatened by both combatants; intervention by neutral clans allowed the Magistrate to retreat with his "face" intact, but his intervention had no effect on the course of the dispute. The Basel Missionaries also had a low opinion of the District Magistrate in this period. One said, in 1861, “The San On Magistrate is a miserable, dirty fraud and hypocrite. He demands outward respect, but does no justice. Hence differences, by being denied a hearing, grow to quarrels, then to blows, then to war, while he sits at home and does nothing”.13 This ineffectiveness may not have been the normal situation of the district. The military posts which Krone found empty and ruinous Page 300 Page 301 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x CONTENTS PRESIDENT'S REPORT. ARTICLES: 1 Keith Stevens A Jersey Adventurer in China: Gun Runner, Customs Officer, and Business Entrepreneur and General in the Chinese Imperial Army, 1842-1919 ... Vii P.H. Munro-Faure - Behind the Front Lines in Burma, The Marches of the Salween Border, 1942-1944... 113 Wei Peh Ti A Peek Backwards into the Jewish Community of Shanghai. 149 James Hayes - Old Chinese Graves from the Tsuen Wan District of Hong Kong's New Territories ... 164 David Faure An Exploratory Study of Pingshan, a Hakka Village Cluster to the East of Shenzhen ... 180 NOTES AND QUERIES: David Faure - China Resurgence of Folk Religion in Western ... 193 Denis Bray - Growing up in China: Lecture to the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch, 14 May, 1993 ... 199 P.H. Hase Bandits in the Siu Lek Yuen Yeuk ... 214 Alvin P. Cohen First Meeting of the Warring States Working Group, University of Massachusetts ... 216 BOOK REVIEWS ... 218 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 164 OLD CHINESE GRAVES FROM THE TSUEN WAN DISTRICT OF HONG KONG'S NEW TERRITORIES JAMES HAYES 'The geomantic name for the location of my ancestral grave is 'Fish Land. It is a good fung-shui as it made my father into a rich man.' Introduction 'How very evocative these old things are!', my wife's mother observed one day, after we had gone over together the Chinese texts of some of the letters and inscriptions pertaining to old graves retrieved from my service in the Tsuen Wan District of the New Territories between 1975-1982. I was glad that she shared my delight with these materials which, together with much else from the period, have been the mainstay of my interest in Chinese cultural life as it used to be in country districts. In the course of researching the popular culture of traditional China, it would not be possible to ignore one particularly important element: the beliefs and way of thinking regarding ancestral graves. These comprise, in particular, the filial responsibilities of descendants towards the grave and the ancestor buried in it, the belief that neglect of these services would bring harm to the living family members; and the ever-present fear that the fung-shui of the grave could change for the worse, and damage fortunes of the descendants. The local hillsides on the mainland and islands parts of the district still contain thousands of traditional, horseshoe-shaped Chinese graves. Each possesses an inscribed tablet with texts of varying length, all giving basic details of the deceased such as name, sex, and date of burial. The graves of members of wealthier families sometimes give a good deal more information. The graves are not found everywhere, however, since geomancy has dictated their siting in practically every case and obviously the configuration of some places is considered to be more auspicious than others. Consequently, though the graves are generally scattered, many are to be found crowded together in favoured locations where the fung-shui was considered to be especially auspicious. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 165 There is available to me a wealth of material bearing on this important subject: and that without so much as stirring a foot outside the confines of Tsuen Wan District. The District Office was itself a repository of information, since public works in and around the New Town had long involved its land staff in the removal of many local graves. Where the age and importance of a grave warranted, compensation was paid both for removal and resiting (where this was approved) and there was much detailed information in the files dealing with these matters. Also, in 1980-81, the junior land staff had tramped over the hillsides, in a systematic attempt to record the many old graves located in what are now country parks. This was in connection with new public health regulations. All hill burials were by now technically illegal, and new ones were prohibited. Development needs and these other official preoccupations apart, many local villagers had sent letters to the Office over the years. These usually contained requests for permission to repair old graves or to resite them in new locations when it was felt that their good fung-shui qualities had been spent or been rendered malevolent by changes in the landscape. The letters, documents and minutes in the files are thus a rich source of information on villagers' beliefs and practice in regard to graves and the family. They can also be important adjuncts to local history, through providing information on family and settlement, especially in regard to families no longer in existence. Copies of the texts of the grave tablets were often included on file, and the longer inscriptions on some of the older graves are particularly useful in giving us the "feel" of the rural communities to which they belonged. A few instances from this particular source of information are given below. Local Burial Practices But first it may be useful to explain that the formal graves were not the first stage in a traditional burial. It was the practice first to bury the deceased in a coffin on the hillside for a number of years, usually about seven, this being the average time for the fleshy parts of the body to disintegrate, leaving the bones behind. At this point, the grave was opened, the remains exhumed and cleaned, and an expert was called in to arrange them in proper order inside a burial urn. This was the second stage in a burial. The urn could then be placed on a hillside in what was considered to be a favourable location, and might perhaps never be moved again. Other urns would be moved from place to place, the responsible Page 180 Page 181 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 166 descendents experimenting with the locations in the light of family events over that time, since anything untoward would be attributed to bad siting of the urn.* If, however, good fortune smiled on the family, it might then be decided to prepare a formal, horseshoe grave on that site, or perhaps on another equally auspicious or even better location. The services of a geomancer were obligatory on such occasions as few families would possess a member with the necessary skills. Thus, by the time a new grave appeared on a hillside, there had been a great amount of prior thought and activity among the responsible persons in the family, as well as considerable expenditure. Sometimes, this included paying those villagers living in the vicinity of the grave, persons with customary rights of grazing, and somebody to cut the grass around the grave occasionally. Some Typical Grave Inscriptions The following inscriptions on two old graves recorded from the Tsuen Wan District, with translations and comments, will indicate the care taken with burials, and the obvious importance attached to the process. The first is from a grave belonging to the Tang family of Kam Tin, New Territories. This inscription, dated 1853, has been chosen from among many others of the kind, because it exemplifies the strong family feeling that motivates descendents in regard to ancestral worship and their duties toward the living and the dead: Ancestor Wing-shing, alias ...-yue, alias Shan-fung, was the second son of Ancestor Kwan-leung. He was born in Chien Lung ping-san year (1736) and died in Chia Ch'ing kap-shut year (1814). By his wife, who was from the Man family, he had one son, Ying-yuen, a kui-yan of 1789. Ancestor Hin-sing, alias Kwing-yue, alias Kang-sham, was the only son of Ancestor Kwan-chak. These two gentlemen were grandsons of Ancestor Kwok-yın. [Hin-sing] was born in Chien Lung mou-san year 1748, and died in Chia Ch'ing san-mei year 1811. By his wife, who came from the Liu family, he had two sons. One, Ying-..., who held fu kung-sang degree had a [second] wife from the Man family, by whom he had two ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 168 generation. However, retained on the new tablet were the names of the elder brothers of the deceased who had been responsible for the initial burial at this site and also, it would seem, much of the wording of the original record. The inscription reads: The deceased was the fourth son of Ancestor Kau-yuen. He died early. Afterwards [we] his three elder brothers [only the names of two are given] took up the bones [from a coffin burial] and on an auspicious day in an autumn month in Chien Lung 4th or ping-san year [1736: but in fact the ping-san year is the 1st year of Chien Lung's long reign] buried them above the cross roads at Pak Kung Au on Tai Mo Shan (the geomantic details follow]. During his life, the deceased was polite and ceremonious, he managed his family frugally and industriously, and he was straightforward and upright in his dealings with others. We his brothers and descendants flourish [on account of his exemplary conduct and character]. We had hoped that he would have a long life, but his virtue is ever fragrant and he is deserving of his descendant's offerings for ever. For ten thousand years his memory will not be forgotten. Confucian hyperbole, one might ask? Perhaps it was, though I have not come across too much of the kind in the local grave tablets. Certainly, the memory of this good man must have remained alive in the Chung family for generations after his death and burial in 1738; for it was nearly 150 years after that the repair commemorated by this tablet took place. There was probably another factor at work here, since it was believed that the graves of good people would have a beneficial effect on the fortunes of the family for generations to come. Clearly, it was considered that the good influences from this grave were not yet spent. Ancestral Graves and Lineage Prosperity One cannot stress too strongly this particular aspect of ancestral burial, and the great importance attached to ancestral graves by descendants for this reason. One short letter sent to the District Office in 1975 by two village representatives of the same village and lineage (Yeungs of Yeung Uk, Tsuen Wan) states outright the strong connection traced between ancestral graves in good locations and the continuing flourishing of the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 169 family in the present generation and after: Our ancestors first came to live in Tsuen Wan about 235 years ago [1740]. Two brothers came from Chik Sek Market of Shi Kwan Tong sub-district (heung) of Hoi-fung County to Lai Chi Kok in Kowloon. Later, one brother moved to Sha Tsui (Yeung Uk Village), Tsuen Wan. Our founding ancestor was first buried on Tsing Yi Island, but because the authorities wished to develop that part of the island into a dockyard his remains were reburied in a formal grave at Fa Shan, Tsuen Wan. His wife was, and still is, buried at Hau Tei of Chai Wan Kok, Tsuen Wan. It has been found that both these ancestral graves have ever brought good fortune to our clansmen.” This letter was sent in response to my enquiry about the settlement of the lineage in Tsuen Wan. I had not realized it would be a catalogue of information on founding ancestors and their graves, ending in the statement that the graves were responsible for the flourishing condition of the lineage today! Alarm and Indignation at Official Notices Sometimes, there were more direct examples of the kind, originating in the posting of official notices on site. When old graves on Tai Mo Shan were being inspected and registered by our land staff in 1980, notices were posted which were guaranteed to upset their owners. One of the many affected parties, the Tang clan of Wang Toi Shan Village in the Pat Heung, sent in a very strongly worded letter to the Office: We refer to your notice posted at the ancestral graves of our Tang clan at Sze Fong Shan, Tai Mo Shan summit, stating that the burials were in violation of public health regulations. Descendants of the clan called an urgent meeting at which it was resolved to make strong objections. The Tang clan are indigenous villagers of Wang Toi Shan in the Pat Heung, and have a history [of settlement there] which is older than the Hong Kong Government. The ancestral graves in question date back to more than a century ago, and were repaired in the 31st year of Kuang-hsu [1905], as shown by the tomb inscriptions. The prosperity of our clan is attributed ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 170 to the [good] fung-shui of these graves. Members of the clan are upset by your notice. Please be considerate, and do not cause damage to the fung-shui graves of our family. [Followed by 56 names of descendants]* In an equally strong response, a Wong lineage long resident in Yuen Long, was greatly perturbed by an official notice posted in 1988 at their grave at Tsing Lung Tau, Tsuen Wan. This time, the government required them to remove it for development, in connection with a large private residential project being undertaken by a realty company which had acquired the site from the Crown. The clan concerned had this to say in their letter to the District Office: Concerning damage to fung-shui and harm to an ancestral grave: please have regard to our situation and cancel the order, so as to preserve the fung-shui and calm the people's minds. We have lived in Shui Pin Village for several hundred years, engaging in agriculture and always being law-abiding people with nothing untoward in our history. The founding ancestor of our Wong clan was first buried at Tsing Lung Tau in the 3rd year of Chien Lung [1738], and the grave was repaired in the winter season of the first year of Tung Chih [1862]. Several hundred years and seven generations have now passed since the original burial. This site was previously Chinese territory, now loaned to the English under the Sino-British Convention [of 1898]. If the [English] government wishes to use the people's land, the people's agreement is necessary. Through all these years our Wong clan's founding ancestor's grave has produced many descendents. Who would have thought that we would now hear that the government wished to use the site? After hearing this news we were extremely concerned [for our future prosperity]. If you investigate the fung-shui [you will find that it had produced many] persons who attained great age in the past. ================================================================================ 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-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 176 from other places [to Shek Lei Tau]. It is now clear that we have come to the end of [the available] burial ground and that there is nowhere to which we can effect removal [of the graves]. We therefore appeal to you in grief and resentment for your understanding and support in this matter. We shall be most grateful if you will advise the concerned authority to rescind the order and cease development in the area. 15 No further action was taken by the Lands Department at the time, and during my three years as Regional Secretary, New Territories, I was concerned to retain the grave area and wrote to the department on their behalf. So far as I am aware, the rights of the Kau Wah Keng people to this remaining part of their traditional burial area are still being respected. Charitable Graves Another kind of grave should also be mentioned. This is the yi chung or 'charitable grave' which was built to contain the remains of persons without descendants. Sometimes it was provided by a charitable society or a conscientious local organization, or at times by worthy individuals, after or during an epidemic which had killed numbers of people. This action was taken by the Tung Wah Hospital of Hong Kong and by the Lok Sin Tong of New Kowloon after the Plague of 1894. It has also been taken by rural committees in the postwar New Territories, and by temples and other religious bodies, for the remains of persons who were killed or died during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong between 1941-1945. Several such graves were provisioned by the Tsuen Wan Rural Committee. A grave of this kind had to be moved and reprovisioned at Sai Cho Wan on Tsing Yi Island when that part of the Island was being developed for industry in 1977. The Tsing Yi Rural Committee took up this responsibility, writing to the District Office to explain the position and ask for money to effect the removal and reconstruction in another place. The letter is not without charm and interest: Before the War, Tsing Yi Island was a well-wooded spot, with lots of birds and wild-life. Magpies, partridges, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x porcupines and barking deer flourished there. During holiday times, many persons visited the island for shooting excursions. In 1923, a Mr. Chan came to hunt. He noticed that there were human remains on the hills, lying on the surface. Moved by compassion, he contacted our local headman, Mr. Tang Yuen-kwun. It was then established that these bones were the remains of former villagers of this island. However, it seemed either that no one looked after them, or else the persons concerned were miserably poor. Willingly, Mr. Chan raised the necessary funds and entrusted Mr. Tang Yuen-kwun to construct a charitable grave to re-bury the remains, so that local villagers could worship there. This happened over 50 years ago. Women's Graves 177 Females' graves should not be excluded from this survey. From the evidence available from the Tsuen Wan district, there can be no doubt that some women were greatly honoured. This was particularly the case with the wives of founding ancestors. Many old graves containing the remains of such persons have been buried and reburied over the centuries by their descendants. Single burials of married, and often elderly women are also common, again in formal graves and often repaired many years later. Sometimes these women are not first but tin fong wives, married after the death of a first wife. Also when, as sometimes happened, it was decided to erect a clan grave, the remains exhumed and brought from elsewhere included just as many women's as men's. In recent times, when development required the removal of many old graves, those of women as well as men's or married couples' were reprovisioned by descendants. It is difficult to establish why women were so well favoured in this respect. Some women were revered by husbands and family because of their noble character and capabilities at home and in the family, and this is sometimes stated on the inscribed tablet at the grave. Others may have been buried in style because of the general respect shown for age and the high status of a wife and mother who had become head of the family on her husband's death. Some inscriptions would reflect truth, others would be more eulogistic than factual, reflecting the family's desire to gain face from giving the deceased formal burial. Whatever the reasons, the fact remains that the hillsides contain many formal graves where the sole occupant is a female. 18 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 178 NOTES 1 Said by one of the Tangs of Ha Pa. The father had won a Jockey Club lottery ticket Mrs Wong Chau Yuk-bing, 10 July 1991 I once became concerned with a grave on a hill above Tsuen Wan. There had been a mistake and confusion when exhuming illegal graves and removing the remains to an authorized cemetery. My subsequent enquiry showed that this slope contained a number of graves of Chans of Sam Tung Uk, repaired in 1919, and another old grave belonging to their cousins from Kwan Mun Hau, a recent reburial of another of their graves whose old site had been required for development; the earth grave with stone tablet dated 1954 belonging to another local lineage recently taken up and remains placed in an urn (whose removal caused all the trouble); and a Tsang grave dated 1909 but removed at some time previously. The enquiry showed that the hill was a favoured burial site, that it was mostly monopolized by the Chans of Sam Tung Uk; that they had received objections from Kwan Mun Hau to a new grave and had not used it but found another site. 4 The exercise was prompted by what I personally felt was the misguided notion that all the owners of old graves could, and should, one fine day be asked to exhume them. 4 This was still felt to be the case, even though some leading members of the clan were Christians, with forebears who had also been members of the local protestant Chuen Yuen Church, established in Tsuen Wan about 1905. + Addressed to DOTW but sent to NTA HQ. See Secretary for the NT's NT L/M No.(172) in E/948/78 to TM&DO TW dated 11 December 1980, enclosing Chinese letter dated November 1980. + Chinese letter from Mr. Wong Kit-hung, Village Representative of Shui Pin Village, Yuen Long, dated 14 January 1980. "Wong Cho-yip and 22 other villagers of this place are the owners of the grave of Ancestor Shui-tai at Tsing Lung Tau. Ancestor Shui-tai was buried there in the tenth month of the first year of Tung Chih [1862], so that the grave has a history of 120 years. The villagers have recently learned that the government will resume the land there for development. They fear that great damage will be done to the fung-shui [of the clan] if the grave is destroyed. We entreat you to remedy the situation quickly [by cancelling the notice] or by compensating for this loss, so that they may choose a lucky day for the removal of their ancestral grave (and another auspicious burial ground for). M Chopped DOTW Inward. Serial No. 1861 of 17 August 1963. The District Commissioner gave an account of a ceremonial visit following damage to a grave. See Annual Departmental Report, District Commissioner, New Territories, 1955-56. 4 ADR, DCNT 1955-56, para. 87. Mr Wong Kwai-chi, Land Inspector, Class 1. He and I had been colleagues and friends since we first served together in the District Office South, twenty years before. || DOTW file TW6/WL/71, Chinese letter dated 4 May 1971. 1: See JHKBRAS, Vol. 17 (1977), p.189 for background. File TW130/983/77, for China Light and Power Company's electricity supply sub-station on NE Lantau. 14 This was partly their own fault, as owing to a particularly intense intra-lineage feud, all through the late 1970s and most of the 1980s they could not agree on removal terms, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1992 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/qf85tx75x 220 perceptive writings on the cultural history of the Territory, and in this instance he has been able to add to his long experience in this field his particular advantage of having worked personally in the new town for many years, first as a District Officer and then as Town manager; both as a government officer within the Hong Kong New Territories Administration. In the Preface to his book Hayes sets out his basic approach to the study succinctly: As a former career civil servant, my approach to writing has inevitably been coloured by the knowledge and experience gained as an official. However, this book is not a thinly disguised 'official version' of events in Tsuen Wan. The motivation has been wholly personal, and readers should view it as the work of an interested writer who was also the man doing the job'. This view is fully reflected by the text, and it is not an overstatement to suggest that at times the narrative comes across as a labour of love in which the author is very much expressing his personal involvement and feelings on the events that he is unfolding in the text. The result is a unique blend of academic scholarship and personal interpretation. This is not to say that the book is in any way polemical or less than fairly researched. It is a text packed with carefully reviewed and assessed detail, and put into that wider cultural context that only this author can provide. It is thus not only about Tsuen Wan's development itself, but also its place within the wider contexts of recent Hong Kong history over the twentieth century. The book is organised into eleven chapters, with very full notes, bibliography and index. All but two of the chapters are largely chronological: the remaining two (VIII and IX) concentrating rather more on the various processes and policies of government and management at the local level with which James Hayes was himself so intimately involved during the formative years of the town's development. The joy of the book is that its style is not at all the dry factorial text that some historians are apt to produce, but rather the author has been able to intersperse the chronology with intense personal reminiscence, both of his own and of the many other participants of the Tsuen Wan story that he has been able to interview over the many years of his involvement with the town. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1993 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/66833t302 200 not have been written at all 58 See the plan and cross-section of a typical 1853 Sha Tau Kok shop unit, taken from the drawings and descriptions of the Basel missionaries, in P.H. Hase, "The Alliance of Ten", in D. Faure and H. Siu, eds, Down to Earth, op. cit., and see also P.H. Hase, "Sha Tau Kok in 1853", op. cit. 59 D. Faure, A. Ng, B. Luk, eds, Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, op. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 262-280 60 The Hong Kong Museum of History has a set of Po Tau equipment 61 Julonghaiguan Barman Dashiji, op. cit., sub anno. 62 P.H. Hase, "Sha Tau Kok in 1853", op. cit. 63 The Tai Po to Sha Yue Chung Ferry was also deeply involved in this trade. In 1939, the Customs came to an agreement with Tsang Sang, the leader of the guerrillas controlling the eastern side of Mirs Bay, that the Customs would treat as duty-free goods anything imported through Sha Yue Chung for the guerrilla fight against the Japanese, but, while this trade was, therefore, not smuggling, it still faced major problems from Japanese attack. 64 Papers laid before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, 1899, printed by Noronha & Co, Government Printers, (Sessional Papers), "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" (No. 9 of 1899), p. 190, notes this boatyard as a significant business in 1898. 65 "Report by Mr. Stewart Lockhart" (Sessional Papers, 1899), op. cit., p. 189 66 For the Sha Tau Kok Branch Railway, see R.J. Phillips, Kowloon-Canton Railway (British Section). A History, Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1990, pp. 84-93 67 A. Macmillan, Seaports of the Far East, London, 1925. I am indebted to Mr. J. Lanham for drawing my attention to this description. 68 For the first two of these tablets see Faure, Ng, and Luk, Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, op. cit., Vol. 1, pp. 262-280, and Vol. 2, pp. 376-379. The third is unpublished, and is now at the Hong Kong Museum of History. 69 A further, small, boatyard was at Kat Om in 1912: see Oime Report, op. cit., para. 76, p. 55 70 See, for instance, details on shops in Sai Kung in D. Faure, "Saikung, the Making of the District and its Experience during World War II", in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 22, 1982, pp. 161-216, on Tsuen Wan in D. Faure, "Notes on the History of Tsuen Wan", in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 24, 1984, pp. 46-104, and on Cheung Chau in J.W. Hayes, The Hong Kong Region, ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 76 to the homing instinct of some birds, the salmon's sense of smell and the robin's sensitivity to stellar radiation. A trained person can walk across a field with a forked twig and he or she can say with certainty whether water is present below. The influence given off by the movement of water has been likened to an electric field (Pike, 1945:16 and 24). Similarly, horses during periods of drought will locate an exact spot where water is to be found below in an otherwise waterless district. Dead horses have been seen at such spots, with hoof-marks left on the ground, where the unfortunate animal tried to paw his way to water. As a leftover from our animal past, the skill of divining in which the 'human radio set' picks up cosmic waves, magnetic energy or radioactivity is possessed by different people with varying degrees of sensitivity. 'Listening to the earth' has been likened to developing the powers of clairvoyance. Such fields and lines of currents radiate patterns of energy. They vitalise the countryside. Some spots produce more life, in the form of trees, flowers, animals, birds and minerals, than others. Cows, for example, prefer to stay in parts of a meadow which are places of energy (Pennick, 1979:38). Dowsing, with its 'inner eye', has sometimes been used to trace leylines in Britain (Miller, 1989:26). The author, however, knows of no cases where dowsing has been employed to try to trace the 'dragon veins' of fung shui. Linking Chinese fung shui and dowsing; it is interesting that an old Hakka village in Tsuen Wan, in Hong Kong's New Territories, has a well which was sunk in the position advocated by a fung shui consultant. And even during bad droughts, like that of 1963 when water was on tap for only four hours once every four days, villagers maintain the well always remained 95 per cent full (Leung, 1986:19). Case Study One This paper now examines an actual case of fung shui, at Realty Gardens, 41 Conduit Road, Mid-Levels, on Hong Kong Island, where the author has lived since 1976. The flat in question is situated in the centre block of five blocks. A fung shui master visits the flat annually. It is said to be situated in a good geomantic spot. Many uninitiated Westerners would more likely phrase it as, 'the flat has good spatial orientation'. Both ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 137 Kowloon Walled City, February 1989 and After The Kowloon City tour was again very different. Some background is required. Excluded from the New Territories' lease in 1898, but in de facto British occupation since 1900, the "Walled City" had always presented problems for the Hong Kong Government, arising largely from its contentious legal status. No longer "walled" - its rectangular wall had been demolished by the Japanese during their wartime military occupation of the Colony - the enclave had soon after become a tightly-packed warren of unauthorized buildings without water supply, roads, or sewerage. In the 1970s - again without proper authorization - most of its four and five-storey structures had been replaced with high-rise buildings of twelve and fifteen storeys, greatly worsening its already unsatisfactory condition. The "Walled City" was notorious for drug-trafficking and other illegal or criminal activities. Most European residents of the Colony, and probably many middle-class Hong Kong Chinese too, kept well clear, and few of them had any real idea what it was like. 22 After signature of the Sino-British Joint Agreement in 1984, and with the agreement of the Mainland Chinese authorities, the Hong Kong Government had undertaken to remove, compensate, and re-house its population, and to demolish the buildings and replace them with a public park within the same boundaries. Here was a chance to show our members this rather infamous place that few had seen, and at the same time - as on the Chai Wan visit a few years before - let them know what was being done by the Government. By good fortune, one of my friends and former colleagues from the District Office, Tsuen Wan, was the officer in charge of the complicated negotiations with the City's business people and domestic residents, and he was very willing to make arrangements for a Royal Asiatic Society visit. In the end, the tour's extreme popularity with our members entailed three separate visits, each attended by well over 100 persons. On each visit, after a general briefing, the government officers who acted as our guides - they included two young police women inspectors - talked to us about their work as they led small groups through the twisting, narrow, and confusing thoroughfares to meet our own RAS tour speakers at a few places en route where points of interest were explained. In my case, I had stationed myself in the courtyard of the former military yamen (government office) whose pre-1898 buildings had survived many fires as well as the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 156 intellectual and historical traditions. Thus they were able to push the study of Hong Kong history to new frontiers. The Hong Kong History Project, Chinese University of Hong Kong Research was pursued with great energy at the Chinese University, and a history project its members began in 1978 may be said to have marked a turning point in the development of the study of local history. Aimed at saving whatever historical information that might still be found, the Project included Ng Lun Ngai-ha, Kwan Li-hung, David Faure, Bernard Luk, Tam Yu-yim and Barbara Ward, and teams of students. They began by gathering historical inscriptions in temples and ancestral halls, and then went on to interviewing villagers for what they remembered of the villages. Villagers were also asked to come forward with whatever documents they had. Soon, gathering documentary materials and interviewing became complementary. The research teams worked on one district at a time, first concentrating on Sha Tin and Sai Kung, then Lam Tsuen and in 1982, Tsuen Wan, though members would approach other villages in the New Territories whenever the opportunity arose. Their search yielded rich fruits because they cast their nets wide - they sought materials that earlier researchers had not considered relevant. Thus documents such as village regulations, land deeds and accounts, ritual and ceremonial texts, scholars' handbooks, textbooks and almanacs, clan records and so forth were gathered, and these were able to throw new light on important, and yet hitherto neglected, aspects of village life - daily life, farming and subsistence, sickness and death, family life, marketing, intervillage organizations, internal village organization, 22 The project must have seemed like a massive raid by scholars into the New Territories, and its benefit to other scholars is incalculable. Many of the manuscripts and books were deposited in public libraries. Inscriptions copied were published in three volumes as Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, now standard reference. The wealth in information supplied by these inscriptions is overwhelming, and Maurice Freedman noted that, together with land deeds, genealogies and other records, they formed the basic sources for an understanding of the New Territories. The exercise was all the more timely since, in face of Hong Kong's rapid development, it was possible that many of the inscriptions might have been lost had the project not been undertaken at that time. 24 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 166 Hai Journal, no 12 | August 1981, pp 191-201) 1 Lo Hsiang-lin, Hong Kong and Its External Communications Before 1842 The History of Hong Kong Prior to British Arrival (Hong Kong Institute of Chinese Culture, 1963) Barbara Ward, "Rediscovering our social and cultural heritage", Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, (JHKBRAS) 20, pp 116-124, p 124 See Jack Potter Capitalism and the Chinese Peasant. Social and Economic Change in a Hong Kong Village (Berkeley, Calif University of California Press, 1968) He contradicts the theory that the industry and commerce of the treaty ports were the principal reasons for the bankruptcy of the Chinese countryside by showing how in Ping Shan, the effects of capitalism were beneficial to peasants. James Hayes, The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911. Institutions and Leadership in Town and Countryside (Hamden, Connecticut Archon Books, 1972), The Rural Communities of Hong Kong Studies and Themes (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1983), Tsuen Wan Growth of a New Town and Its People (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1993) 7 For the special nature of the District Officer's duties, see Austin Coates, Myself a Mandarin Memoirs of a Special Magistrate (Hong Kong Heinemann, 1975) Selina Ching Chan, "Tradition Inherited, Traditional Reinterpreted. A Chinese Lineage in the 1990s", (Unpublished Ph D thesis, Oxford University, 1995) Alan Birch and Martin Cole, Captive Years the Occupation of Hong Kong 1941-45 (Hong Kong Heinemann, 1982) and Captive Christmas (Hong Kong. Heinemann, 1979) 10 Most of the Rev Smith's work was published in articles in various, often obscure, journals, but more recently they have been collected in anthologies - Chinese Christians, Middlemen and the Church in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Oxford University Press, 1985) and A Sense of History Studies in the Social and Urban History of Hong Kong (Hong Kong Educational Publishing Co, 1995) See especially, DJ Dwyer (ed) The Changing Face of Hong Kong. Proceedings of a Weekend Symposium of the Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch (Hong Kong. The Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. 1971) 12 Editorial, JHKBRAS, vol 7(1967)pp 1-3,p 2 13 PH Hase and Elizabeth Sinn (eds) Beyond the Metropolis Villages in Hong Kong (Hong Kong Joint Publishing (HK) Ltd, 1995) 14 Marjorie Topley, (comp) "Anthropology and Sociology in Hong Kong Field Projects and Problems of Overseas Scholars" Proceedings of a Symposium, February 8-9, 1969 (Hong Kong Centre of Asian Studies, University of Hong Kong, 1969) See Ian Diamond, "The Paper Chase - Archives and the Public Records Office of Hong Kong" ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 9 By their differences in dwellings and occupations, already observed, these four communities can be grouped into land-dwellers and sea-dwellers, the Cantonese and Hakka being the former and the Tanka and Hoklo the latter. 43 The Cantonese, or Punti as they are sometimes called, had their origins in North China and speak a Chinese dialect of the western section of the Yueh language which evidences their claim to be of pure Chinese stock. There is no record of their arriving in the province of Kwangtung, which they colonised, earlier than the Sung Dynasty (960-1278 A.D.). In the van were a clan surnamed Tang who settled in the Yuen Long district of the New Territories late in the 11th century. This clan became the largest landowners with their main centres at Kam T'in, P'ing Shan, Lung Yeuk Tau and Ha Tsuen. They exercised "a kind of feudal power, and the tradition they had brought with them was so strong that they not only became the founders of the Cantonese settlement but to this day exert a great influence in affairs. The Cantonese occupy most of the two principal plains in the northwest sector of the New Territories, and own a good deal of the best valley land in various other areas. Villages in the Tung Chung and Shek Pik valleys, on Lantau Island, date back to the early Yuan dynasty in the late thirteenth century. The livelihood of the Cantonese is dependent mainly on the cultivation of rice. The Hakka migrated originally also from North China and, moving gradually southwards through Fukien and Kiangsi in the 10th century, reached Kwangtung Province during the latter years of the Southern Sung Dynasty. They speak two dialects or sub-dialects of the eastern section of the same Yueh language that the Cantonese speak. Arriving after the Cantonese, the Hakka settled usually upstream of them, that is, on the poorer ground. They have, however, steadily over the centuries encroached on the land first occupied by the Cantonese. For example, after the Manchus in the 17th century had evacuated the entire population of the China Coast inland to guard against the fleet of the Ming Dynasty based on Formosa, the Hakka apparently took the opportunity of resettling in the abandoned coastal area. Again, Hong Kong island is said to have been originally occupied by the Tang clan but the British in the 19th century found it almost entirely inhabited by Hakka. A third example of Hakka encroachment is said to be Lantau Island which in recent times was depopulated by... ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g 13 within 30 years, perpetual leases at low rentals and leases for short terms of 5 to 10 years. Red deeds are the only deeds of which the Government takes cognisance and the Crown Rent is collected on these deeds only.' We need not consider further the details of the Chinese deeds and their system of registration since Lockhart reported- "Although the system of land registration adopted by the Chinese is apparently simple, the difficulties that have been experienced in connection with it show it to be of the most unsatisfactory nature, especially as not much reliance can be placed upon the accuracy of any title deeds registered under it. 15 The expedient adopted by the Hong Kong Government to resolve these difficulties is well-known, a Land Court was set up to hear claims to tenure of land and those established were confirmed by the Government and recorded as Block Crown Leases, commonly known as "Old Schedule Plots.' 11 Lockhart in his Report described the Chinese method of Land measurement:- "Owners or occupiers report their land in mau or Chinese acres, but as it has not been the general custom in the districts to calculate the area of land by mau, but rather by the amount of grain required to sow a field, they also report the area of their land in this manner, two and a half tau of grain being equivalent to one mau (0.1515 English acre) But even this tau varies in different localities. The Kun Tau or Chinese official standard measure of 10 shing, is adopted at Taipo, in Sheung Shui District and at Sha Tau Kok. The Ts'ong Tau or grain measure of 11 shing, is used throughout the Fanling District. The Tsin Tau of 8 shing is employed in the Tsuen Wan and some other Districts.. As to hill and waste land the Memorandum reads:- "All hills and waste lands are claimed by the nearest villages or most powerful clans in the neighbourhood or even at a distance. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1995 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/95941j25g Book Review 217 JAMES HAYES (1996), Friends and Teachers: Hong Kong and its People, 1953-87, Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 11 chapters, appendix, glossary, index, 320 pages. James Hayes needs little introduction to most members of the Society. He was a former editor of the Journal and President of the Council for many years. He is also an extraordinarily nice human being with a passion for bow-ties. He allegedly retired, to Bondi Beach, Australia, in 1987 but there is little evidence that he is taking this seriously. Au contraire, he continues to write prolifically for the Journal and has also added many new books to the Society's collection through his constant forays into used-book shops. All-in-all, James spent 32 years in Hong Kong. He was a member of the Administrative Service of the Hong Kong Government from August, 1956 (he was here briefly in 1953 with the Army). Although he had the varied career that characterises the Service, he spent almost half his time in the New Territories as District Officer South (1957-62), District Officer (and Town Manager) Tsuen Wan (1975-82), and Regional Secretary, New Territories (1985-87). He was, and remains, a noted sinologist and accomplished in the Chinese language. Academically, he was very sound with a PhD from the University of London and an Honorary Doctorate of Letters bestowed by the University of Hong Kong in 1992. James has decided to share his memories of his service in Hong Kong with us in a new book. Autobiographies by former Hong Kong Government civil servants, and by Hong Kong people generally for that matter, are relatively rare events, almost as if the majority are reluctant to write their memoirs for fear of criticism or ridicule, or have little in their careers worth writing about. James has no problem on either count. His career was rich and varied, filled with achievements and may truly be said to have added value to public life in Hong Kong. As for the telling of it, he has avoided the inclination to embark upon a literary ego trip although he is not averse to describing the highlights in detail. Few will be offended by the style. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 3 The attempts by the government to improve and modernise teaching in the village schools, therefore, although they began in 1904, only started to make a real impact after about 1920 However, even if there was an inchoate openness to new ideas in the area, nonetheless oral testimony from all over the eastern New Territories suggests that the traditional society of the area remained basically untouched until after the opening of the railway and the new roads brought the area into a closer physical relationship with the city. The Kowloon-Canton Railway started operation only in October, 1910, and the light railway branch to Sha Tau Kok only in December, 1911.7 The railway was an important factor in the modernisation of the central and north-eastern New Territories, but the effects of the railway were, clearly, only substantial after 1910-11 In 1914, it was decided to build a surfaced circular motor road around the New Territories This was done in phases, between 1914 and 1921. Since the crucial Tsuen Wan to Castle Peak and Kowloon to Tai Po sections were only ready for motor traffic in 1921, the road system thus only became a significant factor in the modernisation of New Territories life after that date. In the islands, there had been an intermittent steam ferry service to Cheung Chau from before 1899, but a regular daily service seems only to have begun in 1910. It is unclear when the regular steam ferry service to Tai O began, but it was probably shortly before 1915. It seems that it was only in 1919 that there was more than a single ferry service a day to Cheung Chau, and only from 1922 that there were more than two Easy contact with the city, and the modernisation and change that implies, began before 1899, but became a marked feature of islands life only after 1910, although the effects were clearly significant by 1921 All in all, it is clear that New Territories physical communications with more developed communities were poor before 1911, and only became a widespread factor of importance after 1921 The district officer noted in 1912 the changes that the railway in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 5 to show signs of change, but these were still limited, except in a few places. After 1921, however, change came fast, and was widespread. The 1911 and 1921 censuses, therefore, are of great interest, as they show us a traditional society on the eve of modernisation. The 1911 Census The 1911 Census of the New Territories was conducted with care. The census date was midnight on Saturday 20th May, 1911. In the New Territories work began two months earlier, but was not finished until a month later. The New Territories residents were notified as to what a census was, what uses the information gathered would be put to, and how the census would be conducted. This was probably done by briefing the village elders, and posting up notices at suitable places. The New Territories was, in 1911, divided into two administrative districts: Northern District (the present day Tsuen Wan, Kwai Tsing, Tuen Mun, Yuen Long, North, Tai Po, Sha Tin, and Sai Kung Districts), and Southern District (the present day Islands District plus New Kowloon). Many of the tables in the 1911 Census Report are divided into these two administrative districts, although occasionally New Kowloon is combined with Old Kowloon. The floating population (the boat-people) was enumerated separately, but few details were taken in this census. Nine enumerator teams were established to conduct the census over an area covering most of the mainland New Territories - the whole of the Northern District except for the present day Tsuen Wan and Kwai Tsing Districts. Each team consisted of a specially employed New Territories man as enumerator, plus a uniformed Chinese police constable with New Territories experience. Each team was given a geographical area to enumerate: these areas were probably related to police sub-districts. Enumeration in the New Territories began on 6th March, 1911, and continued for as long as was necessary - the most complicated districts were not completed until early June. The enumerator team, on entering a village, would announce its presence, and then conduct a house-to-house visit to every building, enumerating those residing there, and entering the details on the spot into books of schedules of 25 pages each. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 6 In New Kowloon, Tsuen Wan, and the Islands, enumeration was conducted by the police stationed there, or by the water police. The police were assisted by a headquarters team consisting of an experienced enumerator and translator. The enumerations undertaken by the police were conducted on the same house-to-house basis as those undertaken by the civilian enumerators, and the same books of schedules were used. 7 Details of age, sex, place of birth, dialect spoken, occupation, religion, married state, degree of education, and infirmities, were recorded for each resident. The schedules were worked up into tables by experienced tabulators in the Census Office, this work being completed by October 28th. Table 1 below gives a summary of the 1911 census tables which refer to the New Territories. For the New Territories the population was tabulated for each village as well (broken down into male and female), as a single-handed contribution to the census by Mr. S.B.C. Ross, the district officer - this was not repeated for later censuses. 20 Table 1 IX 1911 Census Tables Referring to the New Territories Table Description of Table Comments XII The total population of the colony By district, age, and sex XIII Birth places of the Chinese population of the NT (Northern District) Given for males and females separately XIV Birth places of the Chinese population of the NT (Southern District) Given for males and females separately Dialects spoken in the home (NT: North. District) Given for males and females separately Dialects spoken in the home (NT: Southern District) Given for males and females separately Chinese population of the villages of Hong Kong HK Island, Po Toi, etc. Given for males and females separately. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 recorded as having 29 males and 10 females resident. The boat people at Kowloon City and Sham Shui Po may have been included in the Victoria Harbour grouping. But it seems likely that the bulk of the Northern boat-people population was omitted from the statistics in 1911. At Cheung Chau, 4,442 boat-people are recorded in 1911, 2,601 of them male. This probably includes those boat-people usually anchored at Ping Chau and Mui Wo. At Lantau, 5,413 are recorded, 3,159 of them male.** The Lantau figure probably includes, not only the floating population at Tai O, but also the people living in "boat-huts" on stilts there. It also probably covers those boat-people anchored at Tung Chung, and may cover those at Tuen Mun as well. In 1921, 3,552 boat people are enumerated at Cheung Chau, and 3,894 at Tai O (probably not including the “boat-hut” residents). Given the absence of some deep sea fishing boats during the 1921 Census period, it seems that the Southern District floating population statistics are broadly similar in 1911 and 1921. The careful notification of New Territories residents as to the purpose of the 1911 Census, and the use of local men as enumerators, led to a lack of practical problems with villagers, who seem to have responded surprisingly well to the process. The police escorts had "not very much to do,” and “no trouble whatever" occurred. On a more detailed basis, the civilian enumerator teams in the mainland New Territories, and the police on Lamma, in the Sham Shui Po area, and, to a lesser extent, on Lantau, seem to have done a more careful job than the police on Cheung Chau, and in the Tsuen Wan and Kowloon City areas. 598 villages were separately enumerated in the nine mainland civilian enumerator districts," 18 on Lamma, 49 on Lantau, and 23 in the Sham Shui Po district." Very few of the villages or hamlets on Lamma or in the mainland New Territories outside the Tsuen Wan and Kowloon City areas were not separately enumerated. The few that are not are hamlets closely connected with a nearby village and enumerated with it. On Lantau, however, some villages are not separately enumerated. The villages to the south of Tai O (Fan Kwai Tong, Yi O, Fan Lau), those immediately east of Tung Chung and along the upper edges of the Tung Chung valley (Tai Po, Tung Chung Hang, Wong Lung Hang, Lam Che, etc.), most of those in the Chi Ma Wan peninsula (except Shap Long), and most of the very tiny villages 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 10 - extreme north of the island, are omitted. It seems likely that the populations of these villages most of which are rather small were combined with the populations of the nearest market, port, or major village. In most cases the market, port, or major village was where the police post was from which the census was being conducted. Thus, the populations of the missing villages are probably buried in the figures recorded for Tai O, Sheung Ling Pei, Shap Long, Cheung Chau, and Ma Wan. This is certainly what happened at Tsuen Wan and Kowloon City. In Tsuen Wan, populations are recorded only for Tsing Yi, Tsuen Wan, Ma Wan, Chai Wan Kok, and Kwai Chung.1 Clearly, all the Tsing Yi villages are lumped together, as are all the Kwai Chung villages. Equally clearly, the Tsuen Wan villages - with the odd exception of Chai Wan Kok - are combined in a single entry with Tsuen Wan Market. In Kowloon City district, none of the central Kowloon villages (i.e. the very important villages of Nga Tsin Wai and Po Kong and the smaller villages such as Chuk Yuen) are entered separately - their populations are, clearly, subsumed under the entry for Kowloon City.1 In part, the lack of detail in the Kowloon City census may be due to the heavy rain which interfered with the first attempt to hold it. Thus, when conducting detailed analyses of the tables of statistics in the 1911 Census, it is necessary to bear in mind that the populations recorded for the towns and major villages in the south of the New Territories are inflated to some degree, and their social characteristics are likely to be obscured, at least in part. The villages still existing on Hong Kong Island and Old Kowloon in 1911 are separately recorded. Po Toi Island is included under the Hong Kong villages.1 The process of holding the house-to-house enumerator visits lasted “a few days” on Lamma, and three months in the bigger districts.3 Assuming Lamma was completed in five days, and the largest districts (Au Tau, Sha Tau Kok, Ping Shan, and Sai Kung) required 50-60 working days, the average population enumerated each day varied between 143 and 181, with between one and four villages being dealt with each day.1 This is clearly not excessive, and, again, suggests that the statistics produced should be treated as reasonably accurate. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 XVIII XXIV XXV NT' occupations of the Chinese population NT, South (floating population) ages of the Chinese population NT, South (floating population) nationality and marrieds state of the By sex and divided into North and South Districts By ages and sex and married state By sex and nationality Chinese population XXVI NT, South. (floating By sex and married state population) birthplaces of the Chinese population XXVII NT, South (floating By sex and married state population); education of the Chinese population XXVIII NT, South (floating By sex population) occupations of the Chinese population XXXIVa Small craft enumerated By region XXXV XXXVI Staff By region 13 Census books used By police district The biggest difference for the New Territories between the 1911 and 1921 Censuses, however, was the boundary change between the Northern and Southern Districts put into place in 1916, when Tsuen Wan district was transferred from Northern to Southern District. This change was marginal for Northern District. Tsuen Wan in 1911 represented only 34.7% of the total population of Northern District, and this population was similar in character to the rest of Northern District, being predominantly agricultural." However, Tsuen Wan was 34.7% of Southern District in 1921, and its population was markedly different from the marine-based society of the islands. Furthermore, Tsuen Wan, close to the urban areas, is one of the districts where significant development demonstrably did take place between the 1911 and 1921 Censuses - between 1911 and 1921, the population of Tsuen Wan rose 75% (2,982 to 4,983), mostly because of immigrant artisans. This Tsuen Wan factor makes direct comparisons between the 1911 and 1921 Census evidence problematic for Southern District, New Kowloon (Shamshuipo and Kowloon City) was still regarded as part ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Tables 7 and 8 assume that mortality rates in 1911 and 1921 were basically the same, or at least that any changes were too small to be discerned in statistics as approximate as those in Tables 7 and 8. In fact, major improvements in the health of the New Territories only began to be seen in the 1930s. The government had begun to provide for the health of the New Territories immediately after the take-over. A dispensary with a resident doctor was established at Tai Po in 1900, and a programme of vaccination was initiated. However, most of this clinic's time was taken up with treating the police and other government servants in the New Territories; few local villagers were affected. The annual number of vaccinations (including re-vaccinations) was under 100 before 1909, when the Tung Wah Hospital began to assist every summer. Between 1910 and 1920 the annual vaccination rate in the New Territories rose to several hundred. Nonetheless, the area affected by this vaccination campaign seems to have been limited to the market towns of Tai Po, Sheung Shui and Tsuen Wan. The doctor posted to the New Territories in 1900 was withdrawn in 1909, after which the only trained medical staff resident in the area was a “dresser”, who was supervised by intermittent visits by a doctor from Kowloon. The very high rates of neo-natal casualties in the New Territories began to be addressed by the government from 1914, when a government midwife was stationed at Yuen Long. Midwives were posted to Tai Po, Tsuen Wan, and Cheung Chau in 1915, 1916, and 1917 respectively. The Pok Oi Hospital at Yuen Long was reorganised in 1920, and was backed by a government dispensary from 1925. However, the critical decision to post midwives to cover the villages in addition to the market towns was only taken in the 1930s. From the 1930s, the district midwives disinfected all drinking water wells, and vaccinated against smallpox, as well as attending births. Oral evidence suggests that the results on infant mortality were massive. By 1921, however, these great improvements had only begun to affect the market towns, and the overall mortality rates for the New Territories as a whole must have been much as they had been in 1911 and earlier. Between 1911 and 1921, changes in mortality rates were probably, therefore, marginal, and averaging the two sets of statistics, as in Tables 7 and 8, is not unreasonable. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 24 It must be stressed that the figures as given in Tables 7 and 8 are very approximate. They probably under-estimate the numbers of deaths of very young infants. They are likely, therefore, to be conservative: the average age of death, shown on Tables 7 and 8 as 22/24, may well, in fact, have been as low as 18/20. It can, however, be accepted that the average age of death is unlikely to have been higher than 22/24. Clearly these figures, because of the serious under-reporting of very young children, cannot be used to provide detailed statistics of infant mortality in the New Territories. They do, however, show that about a fifth at least of all children died before reaching school age, and that about half of all children died before reaching marriageable age. They demonstrate that infant mortality was a major social factor, and permit debate only on the detail of incidence. It is worth noting some points disclosed by Tables 3-6. Table 5 shows a slight upturn in the population recorded in 1911 for both males and females at ages 60-65; this is clearly a reaction to those elderly villagers who claimed they were "more than one cycle old," and who were consequently all entered as 61 years old. In 1921 this unthinking reaction was not followed: actual ages were identified and entered. Because of the loss of Tsuen Wan district to Southern District, the 1921 figures for Northern District should have been very slightly lower than those for 1911. This is the case for both males and females older than about 50. Since it is this elderly section of the population which is the most sedentary, these figures are likely to be accurate. However, between the ages of 35 and 50, for both males and females, the 1921 records show higher populations for Northern District than in 1911. This can probably be ascribed in part to villagers being caught by the census when returning to worship at their ancestral graves during the Ching Ming Festival, as postulated by the 1921 Census officer, and in part to greater efforts being made in 1921 to capture the boat people. In addition, political troubles in the border area of China had caused large numbers of refugees to cross over into the New Territories in 1920. While most of these refugees had returned to China at the end of 1920, it is likely that some remained in the New Territories, to be caught by the enumerators in Northern District in 1921. 57 Between the ages of 20 and 35, the 1911 figures for the Northern District are higher than the 1921 figures, as expected, but the very ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 25 5% wide divergence where females are concerned cannot be due solely to the transfer of Tsuen Wan alone. This wide divergence can probably be ascribed to the large numbers of women busy in the fields during the 1921 Census period and thus being missed by the 1921 enumerators. The 1921 Census Officer, as noted above, remarked on the problems the peak agricultural season caused for the enumerators, who, clearly, were able to compel the presence of the heads of household, but not always the womenfolk of the family. The higher numbers of females as compared with males recorded in both 1911 and 1921 (at ages above about 26 in 1911, and about 32 in 1921) can be ascribed to the temporary absence of many of the males in the City or abroad. As is to be expected, this feature is much less marked in 1921, because of the return of so many males for the Ching Ming Festival, and the greater effort made to record the boat-people, many of whom were prime-age males, whose families were resident outside the New Territories. The higher recorded figures for females at ages above 55 are more likely to be due to differential death-rates, with females living longer. Southern District. An Immigrant, Urban Society While the censuses show a settled agricultural society in Northern District, in Southern District they show a society dominated by the land and floating populations of the market town seaports of Cheung Chau, Tai O, and Ping Chau, and marked by significant temporary immigration of young adult males. As mentioned above, the census figures are problematic for Southern District. Because of differences in the treatment of New Kowloon, Tsuen Wan, and the floating population, only two tables provide fully usable data: the 1911 figures for the islands' land population, and the 1921 figures for the Southern District floating population. However, even though the series of usable figures is short, nonetheless they clearly show a society radically distinct from that of Northern District. 00 Table 9 shows the reported population figures for the 1911 land population of the islands. As in Northern District, the figures suggest under-reporting of infant children. At 35 births per thousand, the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 44 1921 bringing numbers of usually absent men back to the village for the festival, and the remaining 1920 refugees. Table 17 Married Males. Ratio of Married Men to Married Women N. District 1911 Excess of Males 14428 + Married females 17433 + N. District 1921 Married males 14891 Married females 16124 3005 (17.2%) S. District 1911 Males 6231 Females Excess of (Land) Married males* 1233 (7.6%) Males : Married females* 3985 : Females 2246 (36.0%) S. District 1921 Married males 6429 Married females 5490 939 (14.6%) J S. District 1921 (Boat): Married males** 1817 Males Married females** 1411 406 (22.3%) Females * Includes New Kowloon Fertility was low. We have seen that the likely adjusted annual figure for births was about 2,500 a year in Northern District. The figures for married men and women in the two censuses, when adjusted for widow(er)s and absent spouses, suggests that there were about 10,000-10,750 couples living together as man-and-wife in that district, with the wife of child-bearing age (below 45). This suggests only one live birth for each such couple every 4-4.3 years. With live births at these rates, a family where both husband and wife survived from marriage at about 20 to the wife reaching 45 would have had 5-6 children. However, many couples must have had their married lives cut by the death of one of the spouses, and it is, perhaps, more likely that the average number of children per family was closer to 4-5. Given that less than half of children born lived to marry, it would seem that the population was basically static, or growing only slowly. Comparing the basic 1911 and 1921 figures for Northern District (subtracting the Tsuen Wan figures from the 1911 statistics, and the Floating population figures from the 1921 statistics) suggests that the resulting 1911 population was 32,747 males and 33,393 females, against 32,139 males and 32,056 females in 1921, a slight drop over the decade. While these ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 Table 28 Urban Population: New Territories. 1911 63 Northern District: Town Males Females Total Yuen Long 458 81.9% 101 18.1% 559 Sai Kung 320 62.5% 192 37.5% 512 Hang Hau 262 67.7% 125 32.3% 387 Ha Tsuen Sh 120 67.4% 58 32.6% 178 Shek Wu Hui 29 67.4% 14 32.6% 43 Tuen Mun San Hu 72 67.3% 35 32.7% 107 Tai Wo Shi 377 79.9% 95 20.1% 472 Tai Po Old Market 104 53.3% 84 44.7% 253 Tap Mun 168 66.4% 85 33.6% 253 Sha Tau Kok 43 70.5% 18 29.5% 61 North District Total. 1910 70.8% 789 29.2% 2699 Southern District: Town Tai O land population 1159 51.6% 1089 48.4% 2248 .boat population 3159 58.4% 2254 41.6% 5413 Total 4318 56.4% 3343 43.6% 7661 Cheung Chau land population 1918 59.1% 1326 40.9% 3244 :boat population 2601 58.6% 1841 41.4% 4442 Total 4519 58.8% 3167 41.2% 7686 Ping Chau 434 67.6% 208 32.4% 642 Mui Wo Kau Chun 11 61.1% 7 38.9% 18 Southern District Total 9282 58.0% 6725 42.0% 16007 New Territories Total. 11192 60.0% 7514 40% 18706 * Most of Sha Tau Kok was in China this is the New Territories part of the town Tsuen wan is not included as the census includes a large rural population with the town. Some of the Cheung Chau boat population was probably at Ping Chau, and some of the Tai O boat population was probably at other anchorages on Lantau, but only a small percentage in each case It will be noted that there was no town in the Northern District as large as Ping Chau, and that Cheung Chau was more than 24 times as large as all the Northern District towns put together. There were rural populations included within the total for, especially, Tai O, but, nonetheless, the differences are very real. The 1921 Census includes population figures for only one town, Sai Kung the figure it gives (an overall figure of 606) is in line with the 1911 figure. It is noticeable that the population engaged in “urban” occupations can be comfortably fitted into the recorded populations of the Southern District towns, with a substantial excess over to cover the fishermen and ocean-going seamen living in the towns In Northern ================================================================================ 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 67 speaking Hakka at home, with the females therefore regarding themselves as Hakka speakers, but with the males more usually speaking Punti outside, and, therefore, with some of the males recording themselves as Punti speakers. The Launch District, and the Ping Shan and Sha Tin enumeration districts show this situation, and possibly Tsuen Wan. The Lamma figures, however, defy explanation. Table 29 Languages Spoken in the Home, Northern District, 1911 Enumeration district Punti Hakka Hoklo Others and Total unstated Total Ping Shan(M) 4377 81.0% 997 3180 57.2% 2288 41.1% 3211 60.5% 2098 40.0% 6391 58.8% 4386 40.3% 96 0.9% 10873 (F) 5641 67.5% 8018 74.3% Total 1751 32.5% 5393 2748 25.5% 3 0.0% 28 0.3% 5404 Sai Kung (M) 1195 26.3% 3343 73.5% 1.02% 4549 (F) 1438 30.6% 3256 69.4% 4694 Total 2633 28.5% 6599 71.4% 11-01% 10797 San Tin (M) 1706 100% 1706 (F) 1663 30.6% 3 0.2% 1666 Total Sha Tau Kok (M) 157 3.9% 3369 99.9% 3 0.1% 3372 (F) 187 4.1% 3975 Total 344 4.0% Sha Tin (M) 4392 95.6% 16 0.3% 4595 (F) 818 95.5% 45 0.5% 8570 Total 520 28.4% 1215 66.2% 4 0.2% 1834 Sheung Shui (M) 2747 78.2% 767 21.8% 3514 (F) 2652 79.3% 693 20.7% 3345 Total 5399 78.7% 1460 21.3% 6859 Tai Po (M) 1039 22.9% 3498 76.9% 3 0.1% 4540 (F) 1291 26.3% 3489 71.2% X 0.2% 113 2.3% 4901 Total 2330 24.7% 6987 74.0% 11 0.1% 113 1.2% 9441 Tsuen Wan (M) 375 22.9% 1259 77.0% 1 0.1% 1636 (F) 155 11.5% 1190 88.4% 1 0.1% 1346 Total 530 17.8% 2449 82.1% 1 0.0% 2 0.1% 2982 Total (M) 1610 24.6% 17947 52.2% 50 0.1% 284 0.8% 34383 (F) 15493 44.6% 19106 55.0% 25 0.1% 115 0.3% 34739 *Includes 64 male and female "Miscellaneous Unstated" ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 69 males, while their families remained behind. In other words, those villages with an excess of females are the inevitable reverse side of the coin, off-setting the towns and cities of the area, with their excess of males. Not surprisingly, given the more urban character of Southern District, most of the villages with excess females were in Northern District, as this temporary male emigration was a feature of rural villages, just as temporary male immigration was a feature of the industrial villages, towns, and cities. Appendix I lists the villages with significantly low ratios of males to females (less than 47.0% of total population male, excluding villages with total populations of less than 35, except where the imbalance is extreme) Table 31 maps these villages It will be seen at once from the map at Table 31 that the villages with low percentages of males are concentrated in the mountainous east of the New Territories, and on Lamma. Because of this, more Hakka than Punti villages are low in males. This is, however, a factor of social and geographical conditions, rather than racial or cultural ones: large Punti villages within the eastern New Territories (such as Siu Lek Yuen, Ho Chung, Sha Kok Mei, Wu Kai Sha, Tai Hang etc) share a shortage of males with their smaller Hakka neighbours. Indeed, in Ta Kwu Leng, it is the Punti villages (Ping Che, Lo Shue Ling, Lei Uk Tsuen, Tai Po Tin) which are short of males, the Hakka villages having either a balanced population, or even a surplus of males (eg Heung Yuen with 53.4% of males, and Ping Yuen with 55.9%). Within the richer western parts of the New Territories, villages with shortages of males are less common, but a few clusters can be seen, such as around Ha Tsuen and Yuen Long Markets. These clusters are probably mostly of villages with significant numbers of males working in the markets (the shortage of males in all the Yuen Long villages with shortages was in total 242: the number of excess males working in the markets at Yuen Long and Ha Tsuen was 197) Similarly, it is likely that at least some of the absent males from Lam Tsuen were working in the market at Tai Po The shortage of males in the eastern New Territories is to be explained by emigration. The missionaries of the Basel Mission, who were active in the north-east New Territories from 1849 onwards, remarked on the high levels of emigration from villages in this area from 1851 onwards. By 1880, the missionaries were speaking of "emigration fever" in their reports on the area, by 1894 of "deserted ================================================================================ 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 72 Of course, in some cases the emigration was over a short distance, to the nearest market town. It is likely, as noted above, that the absent males of the Yuen Long plain villages were working in the Yuen Long markets, and possible that some at least of the Lam Tsuen males were in the Tai Po Market. Some Lamma villagers were probably working in Aberdeen, and from all over the New Territories there were villagers working in the city - so many that their return to the villages for the Ching Ming Festival in 1921 could bias the census in that year, as noted above. But much of the emigration, as the Basel missionaries, the temple donation tablets at Shan Tsui and Tsuen Wan, and oral evidence, all make clear, was to overseas. The implications of villages with surplus males are less easy to identify (see Appendix II and Table 32; these identify villages with more than 56% recorded males in their populations: villages with fewer than 35 total population are excluded, except where the surplus of males is extreme). In many cases, just as the villages with low male female ratios identify villages with significant temporary male emigration, so villages with high male: female ratios identify places with temporary male immigration. One group already discussed which stands out is the market towns, almost all of which have high male: female ratios. Nearly 82% of the recorded population of Yuen Long market was male, and almost 80% of that of Tai Po new market (Tai Wo Shi). Even Shek Wu Hui, Ha Tsuen and Tuen Mun San Hui had over two-thirds of their tiny populations male (Table 28). These figures need to be put into perspective. In 1911, within the City of Victoria (i.e., omitting the Peak and the Hong Kong Island villages) there were 151,303 males out of a total Chinese population of 217,668. Males represented, therefore, 69.5% of the total Chinese population.1 Thus, the male domination of the larger New Territories market towns was significantly more substantial in 1911 than that of the city, and even the smaller New Territories markets had at least as high a level of male domination. The only exceptions to this are Cheung Chau, and Tai O, in Southern District. While these towns have more males than females, the imbalance is less than in the Northern District towns or the city: however, it seems likely that small rural populations are included with those towns, and that this causes distortion in these cases. Most of the New Territories towns also, as noted above, had suburban villages which shared the male domination of the town itself. ================================================================================ 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 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 87 under the Au Tau Enumeration District, and the Shing Mun villages are similarly separately enumerated under the Tai Po Enumeration District. The villages of the "Stone Hill" - Ngau Tau Kok, Sui Cho Wan, Cha Kwo Ling, and Lei Yue Mun - are enumerated separately, under Kowloon City enumeration district. * Census Report, 1911, Tables XIV, XV. * Census Report, 1911, page 6. * On Lammia, 18 villages, population 826 (perhaps 3.6 villages, 181 people per day), in Au T'au, 62 villages, population 1873 (perhaps 1 village, 181 people per day), Sha T'au Kok, 67 villages, population 8570 (perhaps 1 village, 143 people per day), Ping Shan, 74 villages, population 10797 (perhaps 1 village, 190 people per day), Sai Kung, 126 villages, population 9243 (perhaps 2 villages, 154 people per day). * Census Report, 1921, pages 159-160, Para 1. * Census Report, 1921, page 160, para 6. * Census Report, 1921, page 151, para 4, 6. * Census Report, 1921, page 152, para 9. * Census Report, 1921, page 152, para 9. * Census Report, 1927, pages 166-167, paras 5, 7. 12 In 1921, Tsuen Wan district had only 135 boat people; if, as is likely, the numbers of boat people there were the same in 1911, then the boat people were only 5% of the population of Tsuen Wan. * Preliminary Census Report (23rd June 1921), op cit, para 4 - 5, Census Report, 1921, page 155, para 9, page 160, para 3, 4, page 162, para 13, Table XI. 14 Preliminary Census Report (23rd June 1921), op cit, para 4, Census Report, 1921, page 160, para 1. 15 Taken from Census Report, 1911, Table XXI, and Census Report, 1927, Tables IX, XIV. 47 That the figures in 1911 are the result of under-reporting of young boys can be seen by checking the figures in the 1921 Census for boys aged 10-14 and 15-19. Since the Northern District population was basically static, these are largely the same group as those aged 0-4, 5-9 a decade earlier. The Census gives 4146 and 3479 for these two groups, thereby confirming the under-reporting of 1911. * Preliminary Census Report (23rd June 1921), op cit, para 3, Census Report, 1921, page 156. * Census Report, 1927, page 161, para 9, page 162, para 1. However, see also note 65. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 88 "The total Northern District recorded population was 69 thousand in 1911, and 699 thousand in 1921 (including the boat-people), suggesting, at 35 births per thousand, about 2420-2450 births a year, of which half (1210-1225) would be male. The 1921 figures for women aged 10-14, 15-19, 25-29, 30-34 do not show the same pattern as the 1911 figures did for the same group a decade earlier; in 1921 these groups, namely 4,380, 3,390, 2,792 and 2,616, thus making it very likely that the differences were due to under-reporting, given the static nature of the population. The figures in Table 7 take no account of emigration from the area which would reduce the resident adult male population (particularly between ages 20 and 40). Emigration was a significant social feature (it is discussed more fully below), but does not make the very rough figures in Table 7 substantially inaccurate. 42 Death-rates, of course, differed much more on a year-by-year basis than today. Epidemic disease (smallpox especially) killed many children, but smallpox struck only one year in every 3 or 4. Malaria and dysentery, the other major killers of children after neo-natal infections, were more endemic as problems. The Census officer in 1921 discussed death-rates within the New Territories, but, presumably because he was aware of the problem of under-reporting of children, he limited himself to the death-rates of persons aged over 25, pointing out that the death rates of males between 25 and 50 were double those of England and Wales at the same date, and were 50% higher for females. Between 50 and 60, death rates in the New Territories were, he found, 1.4 times those in England and Wales and rather higher than this for females. The percentage of the population still alive at age 60 in the New Territories was less than half that in England and Wales for males, and barely half for females (Census Report 1921, page 161, para 8). 55 Papers Laid Before the Legislative Council of Hongkong, 1900. (Sessional Papers), printed by Noronha and Co, Government Printers, No 8, "Report of the Acting Principal Civil Medical Officer for the Year 1900. Laid Before the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Governor", p. 253, 1902. No 37, p 729, 1905, No 15, p 266, 1906. No 14, p 350, 1907. No 27, p 459, 1908, No. 21, p 459, etc., Administrative Reports for the Year 1909, p K54-6, 1910 p L51-52, 1911 p L61, 1912, p L60-61, 1913, p. L61-62, 1914. p L63. 1915, p M57-58, etc. A short history of medical provision in the New Territories is in Administrative Reports for the Year 1932, p M103-104. 55 21 Reductions in infant, especially neo-natal, mortality in the market-towns between 1911 and 1921 were certainly less than the numbers of infants not reported to the Census, and thus are invisible in the statistics. The 4.3% reduction the loss of Tsuen Wan implied was offset, to a large extent, by the 1921 higher figures for the boat people. Between these two factors, the 1921 figures would be expected to be lower than the 1911 figures by about 1-2%. ~ Administrative Reports for the Year 1920 page O29-30 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1996 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/3n209j641 92 For instance, in Sha Tin, both Punti and Hakka indigenous villagers believe that their numbers are, and have always been, about half-and-half, whereas in fact there were, in 1911, 28.4% Punti males to 66.2% Hakka males (the remaining 5.4% were predominantly "not stated"). * Census Report, 1911, Tables XIX, XIXa 97 Basel Mission Archive, Doct. A 1-2, No 14 A1-28, No 47. Des Evangelische Heidenbote, Feb 1906, p 9. See Der Evangelische Heidenbote, Sep 1861, for a discussion of the indentured coolie trade from this general area. "D. Faure, A. Ng, B. Luk, eds, Xianggang Beiming Huipian. Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, Urban Council, Hong Kong, 1986. Vol 1, pp 262-280. The tablet records the donations towards the rebuilding of the main Tsuen Wan Temple. The tablet divides donors into two categories: 500 donors resident in the Tsuen Wan District, and some 636 resident abroad. While a few of those donating from overseas were not Tsuen Wan people (a few Sha Tin villagers can be identified), the great majority clearly are. There can be no doubt that Tsuen Wan, as the other New Territories mountainous areas, had a high percentage of its young adult males overseas in 1900. The overseas donors came from California, Australia, Hawaii, Siam, Singapore, Hong Kong, and elsewhere. Faure et al., The Historical Inscriptions of Hong Kong, op cit. Vol 1, pp 319-329. 10 Census Report, 1971, Table I. 102 Basel Mission Archive, Doct A1-2, No 44 printed in translation in P.H. Hase, "Sha Tau Kok in 153", in Journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol 30, 1990, p 281-297. * J.L. Watson, “Self-Defence Corps, Violence, and the Bachelor Sub-Culture in South China: Two Case Studies”, in Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Sinology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 1989, pp 209-22. There is no evidence for female infanticide in the New Territories or the broader region. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 In the developed areas the working party had its own preferences, but diplomatically decided to let higher authority decide on detail. The general intention was to set up what would be known in the conurbations as Municipal Councils or (minor) Urban District Councils (UDC), and elsewhere as District (or Local) Councils. This might, as the Governor-in-Council chose to decide, produce a Municipal Council for Hong Kong Island and a District Council for the non-urban area, with Aberdeen joining either or becoming a separate UDC; one or two Municipal Councils for Kowloon and New Kowloon; a UDC for Tsuen Wan; and no other change for the NT (but possibly three District Councils one day, where currently the DOS Tai Po, Yuen Long and South held sway.) All would be elected from geographical wards, and not from area-wide rating or electoral rolls; and by preference from single-member wards, with one-third retiring by annual rotation. All these Councils could form Joint Committees with each other, and perhaps have a Joint Consultative Council to co-ordinate their relations with Central Government. It was all deliberately tentative: junior officers must not seem to be handing up tablets of stone. The possibility of public apathy (already much noticed in relation to the existing Urban Council), and the dangers of encouraging the involvement of external party politics, led to cautious suggestions that in the first instance whatever overseeing body the Government would assign to this field (doubtless a new branch of the secretariat, if not an amalgamation of the SCA and the NTA) might nominate members to leaven the elected majority; a proportion of 1:3, or in the last resort 2:3, was proposed. For the franchise, while considering adult suffrage as a distinct possibility, the prudent recommendation was for all men and women and their spouses over 21 to enjoy the vote who owned, occupied or tenanted property on which rates were paid or of which the rent might be deemed to include a rating element; provided that they had three years' residence, and therefore a stake in the colony, British citizenship would not be required. Councillors should not be paid, to avoid the growth of a profession of politicians, but should be entitled to attendance allowances within a statutory limit to compensate for any loss of earnings; and they should appoint their own chairmen from any quarter. The new Councils' potential powers and functions received close examination. From the start it was accepted that Hong Kong's central Page 45 Page 46 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1997 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/wp98g7579 the Social Welfare Department), co-ordinated by regional generalist officers comparable with NT DOs, leading to advisory Regional Councils which might eventually become the main report's Local Authorities. They pointed up more outspokenly than the emollient main report the shortcomings of an out-of-touch government administering a non-English-speaking population that was only too open to misunderstandings and misconceptions (such as that taxes levied were drained off to the UK Treasury.) Interim steps should concentrate strongly on building up public confidence in the unaccustomed principles and practice of popular elected representation (the ‘political education' mentioned above.) The provisional system of regional advisory councils, coupled with departmental decentralisation and administrative co-ordination, should then lead to full local authorities in about six years. Meanwhile Tsuen Wan was indeed a unique opportunity for immediate action (the new towns to come of Tuen Mun, Sha Tin, Tai Po et al had yet to be envisaged.) These three semi-dissenters did not co-ordinate their Note with the other. Dickinson has been described by one of his working party as “the least understood and worst treated member of the Cadet Service" (the original title of Hong Kong's Administrative Branch of the HMOCS, which survived in common parlance long after the absorption into the Colonial Service of the pre-war Eastern Cadetships.) He chose to retire early for personal reasons. It is ironic that in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution overspill, when special duties officers in the defence branch of the secretariat, the SCA and the Information Services Department became so active in devising new ways to win hearts and minds, to keep in touch with the people and to encourage the use of Chinese language, so much of what had been adumbrated in the Working Party Report re-appeared; but because the new ideas now came from well-established senior sources, they became respectable and it was to be long before they offered electoral participation in executive decisions. The SCA became the Secretariat for Home Affairs; City District Officers were created in ten urban districts, and found much to do that had not been done before; City District Committees were established in 1972; a Tsuen Wan District Advisory Board was at last set up in 1977, followed by others; in 1980 a new pattern for district administration was at last suggested, with direct elections to District Boards. But in all these and still later developments that affect present history, there was no official backward recognition that the ground ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 85 of tun fu ceremonies which, collectively, were said to be the largest of their kind ever held in Hong Kong.* After referring to the Chinese almanac, Tung Sing, believed by some to be the world's oldest, continuous publication, an auspicious day, the 7th day of the Second Moon in the Year of the Rabbit, was selected for holding the main tun fu ceremony. The Author was invited. Thirty-six committee representatives attended with some of the larger of the 26 villages taking part having two representatives. Previously, other smaller tun fu ceremonies for individual villages at Pat Heung had been held, the first at the time of Lap Chun. This festival marks the advent of spring in the Chinese solar calendar, when winter ends, the earth awakens and there is a spirit of renewal in the air. In 1999, the year this tun fu festival was held, Lap Chun fell on February 4. Each village taking part in the Pat Heung ceremony displays at least one tun fu pot which each holds one split-bamboo talisman. Such a practice is not uncommon as, in the dawn of Chinese history, charms were frequently carved on bamboo. At Pat Heung, in 1999, some villages had three and some even as many as eight pots. Duties for the person(s) performing tun fu ceremonies start well before the due date. He has to decide how many pots are required. Where will they be placed? Why should they be placed here and not there? How many talismans will be put in each pot and which gods will be summoned. Which magical forces will be brought to bear to protect the fung shui? What supplications will be written on the split bamboo talismans? Although the main rules that priests or masters follow may be similar there will be differences in detail, which can be pronounced, as the reader will see later. The main ceremony, which the Author attended, was held in Sheung Tsuen (Village), in Pat Heung District, on March 24, 1999, where obviously a great deal of planning and preparation had been necessary before the big day. Here, alongside a 150 or so year-old, small-leaf, Chinese banyan tree, a matshed, approximately 9-metres long by 6-metres deep by 10-metres high, had been erected. For a religious ceremony to take place near a tree, with wood being one of the Chinese Five Elements, is quite natural. The banyan after all, with its trailing roots, gives the impression of multiplication, and from there the move to 'fertility' and the extended Chinese family is but a small ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1999 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/s178b887x 97 in tun fu and other religious ceremonies. 'It is not really worth making a fuss about and upsetting the system', seemed to sum it all up. But by comparison, even if western women would probably not accept a 'second-class citizen' situation in a similar way, nevertheless it should be remembered that only men are allowed, still, to become Catholic priests. Women have however been accepted, in a number of cases not so long ago, as clerics into the Anglican (Episcopalian) Church. Again showing leanings towards men, even in the West, the Author recalls his 90-year old English mother saying, in the 1980s, "It's a pity Mrs Thatcher (the then Prime Minister of Britain) isn't a man. People would respect her more.” Will tun fu die out? With the population of Hong Kong expected to reach somewhere in the region of eight-and-a-half million by the year 2010, this can only mean additional new towns and greater urbanisation in the New Territories. Such growth must bring drastic changes in lifestyles as has happened in the past. Western style bars, karaoke and other hostess services are now not uncommon in the Yuen Long and Kam Tin area, signifying the move towards globalisation (Chu; 1999)(Yu; 1999). In addition, what sociological changes will Route Three Highway, the West Rail Link and a possible new town close by bring to the district (Shum; 1996, 41)? But in spite of inevitable changes, Sheung Tsuen, where the main Pat Heung tun fu ceremony that the Author attended was held, is still a pleasant, peaceful village. In spite of paddy fields having long disappeared and derelict cars being dumped together with other eyesores, there is still a country atmosphere. The Koel and other birds call from atop camphor and banyan trees. To an observant person, the number of tun fu ceremonies held in the New Territories still does not appear to be exceedingly small. But with the continuing rapid increase in population and concomitant developments, they are likely to become endangered, although the custom is likely to be around, in smaller numbers, for some time to come. Conclusions Tun fu ceremonies are held because a previously quiet area of the countryside and its feng shui are threatened. Perhaps a hill in which the ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 257 250 square feet, to be known as the Sung Him Tong Sung Chan Wui Kei Tuk Kau Fan Cheung (#*******) near Tsung Hom [sic] Tong in D.D. [Demarcation District] No.83 of the Northern District of the New Territories of Hong Kong, 142 Another Chinese Christian cemetery was also appointed in 1931. It was known as 'Cheung Chau Chinese Christian Cemetery' and contained about 10,000 square feet. 43 In the same year, the "Tao Fung Shan Christian Cemetery' was also in use. 144 In 1932, both a cemetery and an urn cemetery were approved in the coastal market town at Tai O on Lantau Island, which was called 'The Tai O Cemetery'. The cemetery contained about 250 acres. A tiny cemetery was appointed in Stanley in 1933, which was 'to be known as New Stanley Cemetery, the piece of land containing approximately 2.5 acres, situated to the south of St. Stephen's College at Stanley.' 146 This cemetery was extended to approximately 4.26 acres five years later. 147 A government notice 148 in 1933 ordered that a certain Telegraph Hill Urn Cemetery be closed, however, no other reference examined has anything about this cemetery. In the same year, with the closure of Kowloon Cemetery No.1 (European Protestant) at Fo Pang near Ho Man Tin, a new European Protestant cemetery was authorized in Kap Shek Mi Valley in substitution for the closed cemetery. 149 The new cemetery, containing an area of about 11 acres, was to be known as 'New Kowloon Cemetery No.6'. 150 However, no further information in regard to this cemetery has been found yet, though the boundary of the cemetery is shown in a 1954 map. 151 The next new cemetery, 'Sai Kung Catholic Cemetery,' in Lot No.1697 'in D.D.221 of the Northern District of the New Territories,' was approved in 1934. In 1935 a Chinese permanent cemetery in Tsuen Wan, similar in nature to the Chinese Permanent Cemetery in Aberdeen, was set apart for 'Chinese who shall have been permanently resident in the said Colony (of Hong Kong).' 153 Again, as with the Chinese Permanent Cemetery in Aberdeen, the care and management of the new cemetery ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 72 altars erected within the enclosure. On more social occasions, especially among the kaifong associations, it was also usual (and tedious for those present) to invite principal guests to speak: some orators did not need a second invitation! Owing to its super-glossy surface, this particular card does not reproduce well, nor does its successor for the 1985 Ta Chiu. I have therefore used the invitation card for the similar event at Shatin, held also in 1985 to indicate type and content (Plates 2-5).2 Although the majority of invitation cards were printed, some were still being hand-written in black Chinese ink using a brush (Plate 6), and even on the printed ones, the recipients' names and ranks were usually added by brush rather than by fountain pen or biro (Plate 2). Owing to their intrinsic interest, and the fact that most were destined for the wastepaper basket, I kept many of those I received, and sent specimens to library collections as ephemera, literary productions of a fleeting kind. The Hong Kong Collection at the University of Hong Kong has, or should have, them in its holdings today. At the scene Invariably, there would be some indication on site of the event being celebrated. Decorated archways and banners raised on bamboo scaffolding (pai lau), and/or floral tributes (fa pai), were the norm, and very colourful and ingenious they sometimes were, too. They were the work of skilled artisans, but their wording had to be supplied by the host body. Here are a few examples. The elaborate archway erected at the entrance to the ground used for the Ta Chiu at Kam Tin in 1985 features in Plate 7. The floral banner erected to mark the District Commissioner, NT's ceremonial opening of a newly completed local public works concrete track on Cheung Chau Peak in 1960 is shown in Plate 8, whilst the subject of Plate 9 is one of the large floral tributes made to honour a new chairman and his two vice-chairmen of the Tsuen Wan Rural Committee, which, along with others, was set up outside the restaurant 1 I must apologize for the high family content of the illustrations, the selection being made, of necessity, from our own photographs and memorabilia, from my wife's and my own service in the relevant departments. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 76 for their organizers to send round subscription books in order to raise the necessary funds. In country districts, the usual targets were native sons living and working in the urban areas of Hong Kong, or men sojourning in various places overseas. The care taken with their preparation reflected the desire - and equally likely, the need to show respect to the recipients. Like the attendance books mentioned above, the subscription books were drawn up in an approved style, and it was again usual to have them written by a well-known local scholar or, at the very least, by someone whose calligraphy would not disgrace the organizers (Plate 18 shows one such book, dated 1940, which survives from Tsing Yi island, New Territories). In the 1950s, as long before, subscription books were still being prepared in this form, and I recall my chief clerk in the former District Office South bringing in a number of them for my endorsement with the office seal. However, by the 1970s things were different, and I do not recollect seeing these in the District Office, Tsuen Wan, at least not in the time-honoured form. Who were the calligraphers? For the production of all the items listed above, writers of a certain calibre and reputation were required. Some of the paid secretaries had these skills, and were greatly esteemed for them, but the associations were also able to enlist the help, from among their closer contacts, of other men with claims to scholarship, who were able and willing to write the scrolls, couplets, presentation items and subscription books mentioned in this paper. In rural districts, these persons might be a local teacher or headmaster. Their place in the local community was assured, especially if, as was often the case, they were men of worth as well as talent. In the early period of my service, before they were removed by Father Time, there might, too, still be a few rare birds who, like old Mr. Lo, had passed the imperial examinations, as well as a greater number who had achieved honourable failure. Greatly esteemed for their education and attainments, but by then of advanced age, they were still willing to assist for as long as they were able, recognizing the need for their participation, and conscious of the great face given thereby. I have ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 77 provided an account of one failed scholar in the Appendix. Teachers as helpers Like the scholars, local schoolmasters had long performed a vital role in the literary segment of the popular culture, including assistance with mounting local events and ceremonies. Even after the depopulation or abandonment of many old settlements, and the amalgamation or replacement of schools in places altered by development, had changed their situation, their successors in today's modern and much larger schools in the new town areas of the New Territories are still valued by the rural committees and a wide range of social and cultural associations. Some are calligraphers and scholars in their own right, and assist the associations' leaders and their secretaries in various ways. I used to meet many principals in the course of attending district functions and association dinners, and can bear witness to their major contributions to community life. In the old Southern District (present day Sai Kung and Islands), they were well to the fore, particularly on Cheung Chau, a large and always vibrant though outlying community, with a number of regional associations, some of which provided schools. Who paid? The secretaries of kaifong and other urban associations were usually hired and paid for by their chairmen. For this reason, salaries and running expenses were generally kept low, and when a wealthy man was prepared to underwrite the cost, there were in general few changes of chairmen. In the New Territories, a small monthly subvention was paid to rural committees from 1961 on, to assist with running expenses, reflecting official recognition of the work they were performing in the public interest, assisting government and people alike in a period of ever-accelerating development and the disruptions it created for ordinary folk. Later on, similar small monthly sums were made available to federations of societies and to mutual aid committees across Hong Kong. (See Friends and Teachers, p.308, and my Tsuen Wan, Growth of a New Town and its People (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1993), Pp.212, 231 and 243 for these several payments). The cost of the ceremonies and anything that went with them, and in the case of religious festivals of hiring the priests, the opera troupes. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 98 Plate 20. Younger brother to the Dragon. A two-man pei yau dance team in the Tsuen Wan District. circa 1995. Page 165 Page 166 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2002 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/mp4901278 395 so on. I owe this information to our President, Dr. Patrick Hase, who has also referred me to an article on the subject by Professor James L. Watson, "Eating from the Common Pot: Feasting with Equals in Chinese Society", published in Anthropos, Vol. 82, 1987, pp. 389-401. In the course of enquiries (1970s) into foods made at festival time, I came across some interesting facts about the preparation process. This was often laborious. The "cakes" made at the lunar New Year are a case in point. The materials comprised pounded glutinous rice and cane sugar. According to men from two of the former Tsuen Wan villages, sixteen hours were needed to cook the mixture in a very large, deep wok (the Chinese frying pan) in effect for a whole day, from dawn till dusk or later. Cooking in an old-fashioned village stove, fuelled by dried grass or firewood, was essential; since the taste would be different were charcoal or gas to be used. Some of the Sham Tseng elders (also Tsuen Wan District) said that each "cake" might require between 30 to 50 catties of glutinous rice, resulting in very large "cakes". In one household of my acquaintance (originally from Shek Pik on Lantau Island, resited to Tsuen Wan in 1960), it had been usual for them to make four large "cakes" every lunar New Year. These were distributed as goodwill gifts to shops in the market towns of Tai O and Cheung Chau, and the boat people's families in the Shek Pik anchorage - indicative of this household's economic and social ties. People also gave and received portions of such cakes during the customary visiting to mark the arrival of the New Year. The Sham Tseng men had also mentioned a rather curious requirement involved in the preparation of the dumplings made for the fifth day of the fifth lunar month festival, commonly known as the Dragon Boat Festival. The dumplings had to be made with a preparation of wood ash, placed between bamboo leaves, and filtered with water. This watery ash, known as kan shui [the character I was given for 'kan' is that for 'root', but though this sits oddly with the context, I have not been able to find anything more suitable in a dictionary search] had to come from "new" wood, though not necessarily of any particular kind. It was no use trying to filter ash from anything that came to hand, like old boards or drift-wood. Turning to other topics, I had earmarked but subsequently overlooked two interesting items in the course of shaping the chapters. ================================================================================