ENG-1961 — Page 31

16

REVIEW

of these terms is precise enough to lay down an unmistakable line in a society which does not draw such a line. And even if a line could be drawn between any two of these pairs of theoretical asymptotes, there would be little value in hiving off the 'Chinese', 'Asian' or 'local' majority without also sub-dividing it into its main components. Much the same difficulty arose about dividing the population by nationality, since so many of them have two nationalities or none. The solution was to drop the terms 'race' and 'nationality' and use instead scientifically conceived questions defined in terms of linguistics and geography. Everyone was asked his country of birth and his country of ancestral origin. Everyone except children under five and the dumb were asked what language they usually spoke, and whether they (additionally) spoke English, Cantonese, both or neither. From these answers, suitably coded, could be deduced the main linguistic and territorial (and therefore also the ethnic) divisions of the population and also, what was more important, an idea obtained of how far the non-Asian was being assimilated to the Asian and the non-Cantonese to the Cantonese. The results already mentioned show that Hong Kong people, whatever their racial or geographical origin, are being fused quite fast into a composite Cantonese-speaking community.

To enable a study of immigration patterns to be made, those born outside Hong Kong were also asked how many years it was since they settled here.

The questions on employment and occupation followed standard modern practice, the only departure being to ask all employees how they were paid (by the day, by the month, by the piece, or on commission) and whether their employment was permanent or casual (or seasonal). They were not asked how much they earned, despite rumours to that effect, for which there was never the least foundation, in certain British newspapers. Of course it would have been valuable to know, not so much how much each person earned but the total earnings of each household, but no technique has yet been worked out for obtaining such information accurately in Hong Kong, and it seemed inappropriate and dangerous to preju- dice the success of the census by trying it.

The difficulties which were encountered in this part of the work were just what had been expected. Nearly everybody of working

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