ENG-1961 — Page 60

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POPULATION

dress, organization and custom, which suggest that they are racially distinct, it is safer to treat them as linguistic rather than racial groups. Up to 1955 there were more Hakka speakers than the other three groups put together.

The Cantonese occupy the best part of the two principal plains in the north-western sector of the New Territories, and own a good deal of the most fertile valley land in various other areas. The oldest villages, those of the Tang clan in Yuen Long district, have a history of continuous settlement since the late eleventh century, during the Southern Sung dynasty, with whose imperial family the clan was connected by marriage. Villages near Shek Pik, on the south coast of Lantau Island, and Mui Wo on the east coast of the same, also date from the Sung dynasty, while the oldest of the Tung Chung villages on the north shore of Lantau Island were perhaps founded in the late thirteenth century. Subsequent migra- tions have brought Cantonese from many districts of Kwangtung, and they are the majority community of the principal islands. The earliest families in Yuen Long district speak a sub-dialect of Cantonese which is related to that of the Tung Kwun district of Kwangtung Province and which is not very easy for city Cantonese to follow, but city Cantonese (Pun Yue dialect) is the lingua franca of all the New Territories market towns, regardless of whether the particular area is predominantly Cantonese or Hakka.

The Hakka (this is their own word for themselves, and is ex- plained as meaning strangers) began to enter this region at about the same time as the first Cantonese, or even before. The Cantonese were the more successful settlers, however, and in the areas where both groups live side by side the Hakka are always found upstream, along foothills, and in general on the poorer land. After a period of subservience to the powerful Cantonese families, the balance was restored by heavy immigration and the Hakka are now almost exclusive possessors of the Sha Tau Kok, Sai Kung and Hang Hau peninsulas, and of the foothills of Tai Mo Shan. They are the majority community in Tai Po and Sha Tin and on the islands of Tsing Yi and Ma Wan.

There is a history of strife between Hakka and Cantonese but their relations are now peaceful and inter-marriage is not uncom- mon. Some villages are peacefully shared between the two groups

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