RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1961 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/vd6724704 Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch RASHKB and author 122 Vol. 1 (1961) ISSN 1991-7295 touch the dead is to run the risk of becoming infected by an aura of ill-luck (sz yan fung) whereby all the misfortunes of the deceased will be transmitted. Amongst fishermen fear of the dead and of ill-luck is particularly pronounced. At Tai O on the north-western end of Lantau, fisherfolk on their death bed may be taken from their boats to die in a special house maintained for the purpose near the cemetery. During funeral processions in both the urban areas and the New Territories it is the practice to scatter different types of paper, representing money, along the route to the burial ground, particularly at cross-roads where traditionally malevolent spirits tend to congregate. It is hoped that in the confusion caused by the evil spirits grabbing the money the spirit of the deceased will be able to pass unscathed. The remainder of the paper money thrown out at points other than cross-roads is for the use of the spirit of the deceased in making his way back to his home three days after death (saam ch'iu ooi wan). In many homes, a corner in a hall or passage may be reserved for a tablet and memorial, to house the spirit on its return to the home. This return of the spirit may at first sight be difficult to reconcile with the belief that the spirit descends into hell. The answer is that according to Chinese belief each dead person has a number of spirits. The descent of one of these spirits into hell is often assisted at the burial by the scattering and burning of specially printed hell bank notes (meng t'ung chí paî), together with paper effigies of clothes, suit-cases, motor cars, steam ships, aeroplanes, etc., often of most elaborate and detailed construction. The impact of crowded living conditions, economy and improved public health have had their gradual effect in changing the pattern of Hong Kong burial custom. Except for paupers, by far the greater proportion of Chinese dead from the urban areas (numbering some 10,000) are now buried in the public cemetery at Wo Hop Shek, near Fan Ling in the New Territories. Coffins may be conveyed by rail from Kowloon daily as a service included within the burial fees that are $5 or $15 according to size of coffin. Only some 20% of the coffins are carried to the cemetery by private hearses at the expense of the relatives. Of the balance brought by rail, not more than half are attended by relatives. It is obviously not possible in a public cemetery to site graves in accordance with individual interpretations of good fung shui. The fact that each coffin is simply allotted the next vacant space in the burial terrace is readily accepted, although it must be admitted that the majority of terraces are well up the hillside with a commanding view of distance and water. Similarly, when the routine six months' notice of intention to exhume remains from the coffin sections is given, it is unusual for relatives ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 178 NOTES AND QUERIES 29. Yet another bridge, in Central Tsuen Wan, still has its protecting shrine in place, with a stone tablet inscribed to the Fuk Tak Kung (福德公) of the Wing Fuk Bridge (#). The cyclical date would make it 1945 (which is obviously too late) 1885, 1825 or earlier. There is no means of telling which it is, but its style and appearance indicate an early date. Incidentally, all three bridges noted above have lost their original appearance, having been repaired post-war with concrete and reinforcing steel bars. Conclusion 30. A recent visit to the mountain took me from Lead Mine Pass, above the head of the Shing Mun Reservoir, to a point east of Chuen Lung, along paths formerly opened by villagers but in most cases now widened by the Agriculture & Forestry Department of the Hong Kong Government to assist their fire prevention and fire fighting activities. 31. The route ran through the Sei Fong Shan area, where there are many graves: so named (四方山) because there is access to it from four sides i.e. Tai Po, Pat Heung, Kwai Chung-Tsuen Wan and Chuen Lung (on Route TWSK). Then through the abandoned fields and village site of Nam Fong To, a single lineage village of the Law family (羅氏), evacuated in 1928 to Wo Hop Shek near Fan Ling (NT) for the construction of the reservoir. The site was enclosed by a thick low rubble wall and stands amid large boulders and (now) many trees. From the Tsuen Wan side the last stage of access was across a large stream and up a steep flight of stone (boulder) steps. West of the village the hills on both sides, but especially the opposite side of the valley, were marked by steep slides of water that became water-falls in places. Further on, the path overlooked the valley of Wu Yeung Shan (烏羊山) with many abandoned fields. The village of that name, on the main lower path to Wo Yee Hop village (*) and Kwai Chung, was inhabited by a branch of the Chengs (鄭氏) from Shing Mun Tai Wai. Moving SW and passing along the slopes of the mountain above Wo Yee Hop and Lo Wai well above catchwater level we encountered a few more graves placed in good locations. Also patches of abandoned cultivation built up here and there on stone-walled terraces above the path. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES 193 For the general background the reader is referred to pp. 419-433, 697-700 of Kung-chuan Hsiao's monumental study of late imperial China Rural China: Imperial Control in the Nineteenth Century (University of Washington, Seattle, 1960). Also to Chapter X of Frederic Wakeman Jr.'s Strangers at the Gate, Social Disorder in South China 1839-1861 (University of California Press, 1966): 'Class and Clan' 109-116. It is of interest that as late as 1905 and 1908 villagers of Honam Island, Canton were fighting out their feuds on the campus of the Canton Christian College, the future Lingnan University: see Lingnan University by Charles Hodge Corbett (New York 1963) p. 40. The self-government of Chinese villages existing alongside what A. R. Colquhoun styles ‘a long common frontier' with 'centralised autocracy', i.e. the situation which allowed this kind of independent action to subsist, is interestingly handled in his China in Transformation (London, 1898): 238-288. Hong Kong, December 1977. C. MOVE OF THE SHING MUN VILLAGES* JAMES HAYES The Shing Mun villages of Shing Mun Lo Wai, Pak Shek Wo, Pei Tau To, Shek Tau Kin, Fu Yung Shan, Nam Fong To, Tai Pei Lek and Ho Pui contain about 855 Hakka Chinese, mostly named Cheng but having among them also Cheung's, Ko's, Lo's, Tang's and Tsang's. In a hollow in the hills about two miles broad by two and a half long, formed by Tai Mo Shan, Grassy Hill and Needle Hill, and sloping from Lead Mine Pass southwards to Pineapple Pass and Tsun Wan, the inhabitants of these villages own 180 acres of agricultural land, 1180 acres of forestry rights and 42 acres of pine-apples. The whole of this area will have to be evacuated, and after careful search in co-operation with the villagers, suitable sites have been found to accommodate them at Kam Tin, Wo Hop Shek, Nam Shui Po, Tsat Sing Kong, Ping Kong, Fung Yuen (Yue Kok), Shek Ku Lung, and Pan Chung, and to these it is proposed to move all the inhabitants of the Shing Mun valley above Pineapple Pass. Details of the transfer are as follows:--- * Taken from the Hong Kong Government's Sessional Papers 1928. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n 194 NOTES AND QUERIES FROM PERSONNEL. TO Shing Mun Lo Wai 251 Pak Shek Wo Pei Tau To Shek Tau Kin Fu Yung Shan S | Kann Tie 3H Wo Hop Shek Nam Shui Po Tsat Sing Kong Ping Kong Fung Yuen (Yue Kok) Shek Ku Lung 5 | Pan Chung 25 276 31 13 44 126 126 82 7 27 116 46 51 27 124 Nam Fong To 28 28 Tai Pei Lek Ho Pui 4 11 15 11 23 46 46 126 540 79 11 23 46 46 7 103 855 persons The greater part of the new village sites is on Crown land. It has been necessary to purchase a small area of private land included in the sites, at a total cost of $1,055.51. A further sum of $2,783.80 compensation for fruit trees unavoidably involved brings this figure to $3,839.31. Site Preparation: The cost of preparing the sites for the new villages is shown in the following table: --- Kam Tin $ 5,000.00 Tsat Sing Kong 1,300.00 Pan Chung 10,000.00 Shek Ku Lung 500.00 Ping Kong 1,000.00 Wo Hop Shek 1,700.00 Nam Shui Po 5,000.00 Fung Yuen 7,000.00 $31,500.00 This work will be done exclusively by Government, and provision has been made in the 1928 Estimates to cover the expenditure. Page 210 Page 211 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1977 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/np198x23n NOTES AND QUERIES 195 Wells: The cost of making eight wells at Kam Tin, Pan Chung, Wo Hop Shek, Ping Kong, Yu Kok, Tsat Sing Kong and Nam Shui Po is $2,400. Houses: Free sites are given in exchange for land on which houses now stand and the question of compensation for building land resumed at Shing Mun should not arise. The existing dwellings at Shing Mun have been measured and it is necessary to provide for the erection of buildings of the same cubic content in the new villages subject only to approval of plans. It is proposed to allow the villagers to construct their own houses, Government paying in accordance with the following table, for (1) Dwellings, by contract (contractors engaged by villagers) as the work proceeds, at a flat rate of 12 cents per cubic foot. (2) Outhouses, roughly constructed by the villagers themselves, at their value as they now stand in Shing Mun. Cost of New Dwellings Compensation for Outhouses Kam Tin $106,056 $4,838 Pan Chung $22,463 $891 Wo Hop Shek $9,022 $926 Shek Ku Lung $1,745 $71 Ping Kong $10,564 $759 Yue Kok $9,152 $491 Tsat Sing Kong $6,458 $161 Nam Shui Po $2,814 $209 Compensation (Outside owners) $1,874 Total: $170,148 $8,346 There being now 200 dwellings, this works out roughly at $850 a house including temples, and should ensure a good type of building throughout. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1983 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/j9607p61v 60 (f) Finally, in entering business or commerce, a man will frequently assume yet another name, “pit tsz” (筆子), for purposes of business only. (g) Apart from the milk name, proper name and school name, a girl will at marriage assume her husband's clan name in front of her own, e.g. HO Fung Ling (何鳳玲), on marrying TANG Man Lin (鄧文連), becomes TANG HO Fung Ling (鄧何鳳玲). (h) The reluctance of married women to reveal their full maiden name often leads them to leave off their final name and instead to add the suffix "shi” (氏). NOTES 1 The notes were later amended and in this amended form were put on a file (Ref1/477/54) which is now in the Public Records Office. The notes as given here represent the original form, with footnotes, introduction and minor amendments by the author (Hon. Ed.). * Wills, of whatever sort, were, whatever the legal position, very rare among New Territories villagers. I remember only one, of a wealthy Cantonese landowner. * I met such a case in Tai Po where the wife, fortunately, did not contest the husband's claim that she was not a virgin. * I must have come across up to half a dozen cases of sam p'o tsai, including two or three disputes where the girl refused to marry her intended groom. The groom's family did not attempt to force marriage, but were concerned about a formal separation. The groom's family had of course for some time received the free use of the girl's services as a household worker, and so could not validly demand compensation from the girl's natural parents. A sam p'o tsai is quite different to a mui tsai who was to all intents and purposes a slave girl. (Mui tsai were banned in Hong Kong before World War II.) * Up till the 1950's, huet chong graves were normally left untouched for 5 years, this being the period needed for bodies to decompose completely. But, from the 1950's onwards, bodies took longer to decompose, and 7 years is now the standard time. I know this, because from 1958-60 I was in the Urban Services Department in charge of disposal of the dead. I was also in the Urban Services Department from 1968-71, when again I was connected with this aspect. In those days, the coffin section at Wo Hop Shek cemetery used to be cleared every 5 years, but there were so many unfit graves that this period was extended to 7 years. The need for the longer period arose apparently from the wider use of antibiotics and other drugs which seem to have the effect of preserving bodies and which were then coming into much greater use. See in general on Burial Customs the author's Chinese Burial Customs in Hong Kong, journal of the Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, Volume 1, 1960, pp 115-124. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 188 These sites and their associated trees, which are usually of a great age and which villagers often claim were planted when the village was founded, are of fundamental importance to the fortunes of a village, more so than the fung shui woods themselves. In some villages, such as Ma Mat Wei, during the last war fung shui woods were felled so that rice could be bought for the impoverished villagers. The important individual fung shui trees, however, were never felled. Villagers will go to great lengths to protect these sites from private development and from government projects. Roads may be diverted to avoid harming such sites. While the importance of certain trees can be determined on fung shui principles, villagers who do not possess any fung shui knowledge may just call any tree they want to protect a "fung shui tree". Shrines are in various states of repair or dilapidation according to the devotion and resources of the villagers and shrines may sometimes be completely rebuilt, such as at Tai Om where one of the main shrines was first built seventy years ago, but was rebuilt in the last few years and is surrounded by a small garden. Sometimes shrines may also be relocated, usually because of a road widening scheme, and the relocation of a shrine is a very serious fung shui matter. The relocation shrine at Wo Hop Shek, near Fanling, is an example. Occasionally a shrine may be abandoned, presumably due to a loss of efficacy by the residing deity. The Tai Wong shrine in the wood at Ho Sheung Heung is no longer worshipped, while it is the earth god, Fuk Tak Gung, who resides in the comfort of the village temple. There are also three Tze Jik shrines, which are more important than Paak Kung, protecting the village to the north, east and south. These shrines are particularly worshipped by farmers and protect the whole community. A typical layout of village shrines may be seen at Man Uk Pin, north east of Fanling. The Tai Wong shrine on the northern arm of the fung shui wood protects the whole village. The water spirit Paak Kung, by the dam on the stream which borders the fung shui wood, ensures the safety of the drinking water supply. There are also four other Paak Kung facing each of the four directions, with trees planted to protect them, including two within the fung shui wood, and one in the middle of the village. The villagers of Man Uk Pin take their spiritual protectors very seriously. Several villagers claim to have seen the spirit of Tai Wong himself while they were walking along the path at night. He was seen to be dressed in ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-1994 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zk522640g 189 court robes and glided along the path only to disappear into the base of a tree once he drew parallel to the watcher. Villagers have also seen fires at the Paak Kung shrines even during rain The village with the greatest number of shrines, out of the 20 villages examined in detail in the study, is Sheung Tsuen (Pat Heung). The more important Tai Wong shrine is housed in the 200 year old temple and is the governor of the village. There are also ten other Paak Kung and earth god shrines located around the village. Six of the Paak Kung protect the village at night while four earth gods of a lower rank are located in each of the four directions and are 'on duty' for twenty four hours a day as general security guards and to prevent people from becoming lost. All the shrines are worshiped on the first and fifteenth day of each lunar month and on major festivals Worship at the shrines varies from village to village, although it is common that worship is carried out on the first and fifteenth days of the lunar new year. Seven of the villages performed rites at their shrines at this time. Offerings may also be made with prayers at the main Chinese festivals, particularly during Lunar New Year and the Mid-Autumn Harvest festival, as well as at weddings, births and the birthdays of elders and ancestors and for general thanksgiving. Some villages have their own special ceremonies. At Ma Mat Wai, the Paak Kung shrine to the earth god 'Hin Tan' is worshipped on 'farmer's day' on July 14th and at the harvest festival on August 15th. The shrine at Pak Kong is worshipped on the birthday of the popular sea-goddess Tin Hay. The Hei Shą Fuk festival is only carried out at Wo Hop Shek, near Fanling, at the end of the last month of the lunar year and at the end of the first month of the lunar calendar. Each family in the village contributes $30 to buy pork which is cooked with vegetables on stoves built into the Tai Wong shrine. February 13th of the lunar calendar is the god Hung Shing's birthday in Ho Sheung Heung, which is even more important for the village than Lunar New Year. For three days before the god's birthday, an opera is held in front of the Tze Tong while a feast and dragon dance takes place on the day itself. In June a feast day is also held to commemorate two officials, Chou and Wong, sent by the Emperor to save the village from pirates. This may represent those officials who came to rescind the Imperial evacuation order in 1669. The festivals in Ho Sheung Heung are organized by the master of the temple but in other ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-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-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 260 Japanese invasion, steps could not be taken until after the war. 177 178 In July 1949 the first of such cemeteries, the Sandy Ridge (Urn) Cemetery near Lo Wu was approved, and burials commenced on 9th April 1950. In the financial year of 1950-51, the number of reburials (including temporary storage awaiting cremation) at Sandy Ridge (Urn) Cemetery was as high as 65,558. 180 181 SE This was followed by the commissioning of the most important post-war cemetery, the Wo Hop Shek Cemetery, which was authorized on 27th February 1950. Burials in this cemetery commenced on 1 December in the same year. The cemetery was served by a branch of the Kowloon-Canton Railway, and coffins could be transported to the cemetery by railway hearse. In the financial year of 1951-52, 16,054 coffins were transported to the cemetery by the railway hearse. 182 Appendix 1 Name of Cemetery Name of Cemetery Location Year Remarks Protestant Burial Ground Wan Chai 1841 Closed 1845, last graves removed 1889 Catholic Burial Ground Wan Chai 1842 *Colonial/Hong Kong Cemetery Happy Valley 1845 *Stanley Cemetery Stanley Earliest graves: 1843. Closed c. 1870, re-opened during the war. Renamed Stanley Military Cemetery after WWII. West Point Burial Ground St. Michael Catholic Cemetery Happy Valley 1848 *Parsee/Zoroastrian Cemetery Happy Valley 1852 *Jewish Cemetery Mid-Levels 1857 Appeared in a 1863 map. Details not known. Muslim/Mohammedan Cemetery Happy Valley Appeared by 1850s. Details not known. *Muslim/Mohammedan Cemetery Po Yan Street (Cemetery Street) 1870 Chinese Burial Ground Yau Ma Tei 1871 Chinese Cemetery Mount Davis 1882 Chinese Christian Cemetery Chai Wan 1882 183 184 ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g Shum Wan Cemetery Aberdeen 1938 There had been another *New Kin Inland Lot No. 2662 (St. Raphael's) Catholic Cemetery War Emergency Cemeteries *Sai Wan Military/War Cemetery Prison Cemetery *Sandy Ridge Cemetery *Wo Hop Shek Cemetery *Cheung Chau Catholic Cemetery *Holy Cross Catholic Cemetery *Chinese Permanent Cemetery Cape Collinson *Muslim Cemetery *Buddhist Cemetery *Military Cemetery *Chinese Permanent Cemetery 263 cemetery in Shum Wan in 1920s, details of which is not known. Removal of all urns was ordered 1949. Earliest graves: 1941. Piper's Hill 1941-45 Refer to the article. Cape Collinson 1947 Stanley Lo Wu 1947 1949 Wo Hop Shek 1950 Cheung Chau Earliest graves: 1957. Cape Collinson Earliest graves: 1960. Earliest graves: 1963. Cape Collinson 1963 Cape Collinson Earliest graves: 1964. Cape Collinson 1967 Tseung Kwan O 1989 * Cemeteries still known to be in existence. Appendix 2 1. Distribution of lots at Sandy Ridge Cemetery Coffin section: 1. General 2. Roman Catholic 3. Little Sisters of the Poor 4. Tung Wah Urn section: 1. General 2. Tung Wah 3. Chiu Chow 4. Yan Ping 5. Chung Shan 6. Hok Shan 7. Sun Wui 8. Tsang Shing 9. Fukien ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 264 10. Chekiang and Kiangsu 11. Hopeh and Shantung 12. Pentecostal 13. Christian 2. Distribution of lots at Wo Hop Shek Cemetery: Coffin section: 1. General 2. Chiu Chow 3. Fukien 4. Yan Ping 5. Wai Hoi Wai 6. Pentecostal 7. 7th Day Adventists Urn section: 1. General 2. Chiu Chow 3. Toi Shan 4. Hoi Ping 5. Ka Ying 6. Tung Kwun The very large number of indigenous villagers' burial sites/graveyards, some of considerable size, will not be dealt with in this study. 2 Prior to 1926, Hong Kong's official spelling was 'Hongkong.' In September 1926, under instructions received from the Secretary of State for Colonies, 'Hong Kong' was adopted as the official form. See Hongkong Government Gazette (hereinafter HKGG) Notification 479 of 3 September 1926. 3 The name of Wan Chai was not in use in the early 1840s, the area around the burial ground was described as 'that part of the town fronting upon Howwan Bay' in Friend of China of 19th May 1842. 4 Oxley, D.H. (ed) (1979), Victoria Barracks 1842-1979. Hong Kong: Headquarters British Forces Hong Kong, p. 25. 5 The barrack area of the present Hong Kong Park site. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 273 * For instance, HKGG Notices 423 of 13th August 1920 and 44 of 4 February 1921. The old Kowloon Tong Village was located about the present Tai Hang Tung Recreation Ground site. HKGG Notice 369 of 16 July 1926. 93 See Empson, p. 181. » HKGG Notice 540 of 23rd December 1921. Removal of some graves in Kowloon Tong Cemetery was ordered in 1924 for the laying out of roads and building sites, see HKGG Notices 366 of 20th June and 712 of 19th December 1924. 95 HKGG Notice 936 of 30th September 1949. SI 9 HKGG Notice 1020 of 1 September 1950. 97 Around the present Wah Fu Estate area. The cemetery had also been referred to as MARK'in some government notices, e.g., HKGG Notices 420 of 18th July 1924 and 253 of 29th April 1927 etc. 98 The road was later renamed Victoria Road. 99 The origin of this early Kai Lung Wan Cemetery is not known yet. 100 HKGG Notification 692 of 17th August 1906. Similar to Chai Wan Cemetery, a very large section of the Kai Lung Wan Cemetery was later under the management of the Tung Wah Hospital, the cemetery was called 'Tung Wah Hospital, Kai Lung Wan'. But the detail for this development is not known. In 1939, there were 10,679 interments in the Tung Wah section of the cemetery, see Annual Report of the Chairman Urban Council Hong Kong for the year 1939, p. M(1)17. Also, according to a 1951 stone inscription at the Chiu Chow section of the Wo Hop Shek Cemetery, another section of the Kai Lung Wan Cemetery was reserved for the Chiu Chow dead in about 1923. 101 In a 1978 government map (HONG KONG STREETS & PLACES VOLUME 2: THE OFFICIAL GUIDE KOWLOON & THE NEW TERRITORES, p. 83), Tseung Loong Tin (Cheung Lung Tin) is referred to a hillside area between Lam Tin and Yau Tong. 102 Cha Kwo Ling was one of the 'Four Hills' (194) villages in eastern Kowloon. ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 276 125 As late as the 1990, there was still a new burial. 126 HKGG Notice 311 of 14th August 1914. According to a 1951 stone inscription at the Chiu Chow section of the Wo Hop Shek Cemetery, a section of this cemetery was reserved for the Chiu Chow dead in 1933. All graves of the 'Government or General section' of urn cemetery in the same cemetery were ordered to be removed in 1947, see HKGG Notice 743 of 19th September 1947. 127 For instance, HKGG Notice 421 of 20th October 1922 and Notice 321 of 20th July 1923. 128 HKGG Notice 797 of 14th October 1938. Removal of all urns in Shum Wan Cemetery was ordered in 1949, see HKGG Notice 936 of 30th September 1949. 129 HKGG Notice 420 of 12th September 1919. The location of this cemetery is not mentioned in the notification and the site is not known at the moment. 130 HKGG Notice 18 of 21 January 1921. The cemetery was to be split into three separate ones in 1930, see below. 131 HKGG Notice 678 of 5th December 1924. 132 HKGG Notice 439 of 3rd August 1928. A section of this cemetery still exists within the St. Joseph's Home for the Aged. As the whole piece of land has just been sold to a developer in February 2002, the cemetery may be cleared soon. See a local Chinese newspaper, The Economic Journal, 13 March 2002, p. 6. Information provided by the Rev. Carl T. Smith. 134 HKGG Notice 400 of 27th June 1930. 135 Fo Pang was the old name for the area around the present Wah Yan College site. 136 A 1920 map, CO1047/455, as kept in the PRO at Kew, shows a European Cemetery near Tai Shek Ku, approximately the present Kowloon Hospital site, but not in the Fo Pang area. Further clarification is needed in regard to the relation between these two cemeteries. Kowloon Cemetery No. I was closed in 1933, see HKGG Notice 799 of 15th December 1933. 137 Removal of all graves and urns in this cemetery was ordered in 1948, see HKGG ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 330 Introduction The purpose of this short paper is to introduce the research that I have carried out since 1995 on deathspaces, first of all in Hong Kong and later in Guangzhou and Seoul. My interest in this topic arose from a visit that I made to Wo Hop Shek Cemetery at Chung Yeung, 1995. I had just arrived in Hong Kong to join my husband, David, for what was meant to be a year's leave of absence from my position as a geographer at the University of New England in New South Wales, Australia. I needed to find a nice, tidy topic of research that I could undertake in a few months of field work while in Hong Kong. We were taken aback by the festival mood at Wo Hop Shek. It was a sunny day. There were endless streams of cheerful family groups going up and down the steep road. Stalls selling flowers, food and sunhats, or marketing tombstones and urns, were staffed by smiling men and women. There was a strong but low key police presence. Clouds of pungent incense floated around the columbarium, and ash fluttered down, settling on our shoulders. Late in the afternoon, flames crackled somewhere out of sight up in the hills and a fire engine raced up the road. No-one seemed to mind our presence or even notice us except to offer an occasional courteous nod. I realised that this was a unique manifestation of time-space and one I wanted to know a lot more about. Fortunately, my time in Hong Kong has not been limited to that first year! When you begin researching issues relating to death in Chinese culture, you go right to the heart of beliefs and customs. I feel fortunate that I chose such an intriguing and fundamentally important topic. In the research I eventually undertook, I concentrated on Hong Kong's municipal cemeteries, provided by public and private organisations, and not on rural graves and graveyards. This made sense because of my background as a geographer teaching on a degree programme in Urban and Regional Planning. There are sensitive and important issues involved in planning for the provision of space for the dead. As a geographer rather than an anthropologist, I have been more interested in broad spatial issues than in the practices associated with funerals and burial. However, this does not mean that I see place as a passive object. Indeed, place is dynamic: it is a context for the activities ================================================================================ RASHKB Journal 皇家亞洲學會香港分會學刊 | RAS-2001 https://digitalrepository.lib.hku.hk/catalog/zg651950g 331 of those who use it. Places, their layout and furnishings, and their associated activities, are crammed with meanings that can be identified and analysed for what they tell us about people's beliefs. Thus, the sociologist Anthony Giddens suggests that one way to look at place is as a 'locale', a 'setting for interaction'. Activities come and go, but places remain, with the traces of what has happened there. And meanwhile, the shaping of a place will continue, both in terms of the physical qualities of that place and in its image in the minds of those for whom it has some significance. As a result of my visit to Wo Hop Shek, and subsequently to many of the other urban cemeteries in Hong Kong, I wrote several papers about Hong Kong's urban cemeteries and columbaria. In 1999, curious to know how fifty years of Communist rule had affected the spatial manifestation of death in a metropolitan landscape in mainland China, I extended my research to Guangzhou. And, equally curious to find out how a modern East Asian society with an uninterrupted tradition of Confucian beliefs and customs was coping with the expression of death in the landscape, I also arranged to carry out associated research in Seoul, South Korea. I refer to each paper below. In the published versions, each has a long list of references. These are a valuable dimension of the published work, as they offer a sound starting point to those wanting to carry out related research. These lists represent hours of leafing through back issues of journals, combing bookshelves, following up other researchers' reference lists, collecting newspaper cuttings (and, in one case, employing a Chinese-speaking research assistant to access a Guangdong evening paper online), and using electronic search tools to search and download. The website of the Korea Herald was especially useful. As well, of course, I used — especially for theoretical approaches — articles in recent issues of those professional journals to which I subscribe. Very important were the occasional and invaluable recommendations of 'You had better get hold of this....' from RAS members! Personal introductions have helped, too. In fact, several members of the Royal Asiatic Society (Hong Kong Branch) have been consistently generous and encouraging since I began this research, and I owe a lot to them. Dan Waters, James Hayes and Patrick Hase have kindly read several of the papers listed below and ================================================================================