ENG-1963 — Page 67

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POPULATION

two and three clan villages are common and multi-clan villages also occur. By custom, men are compelled to marry outside their own clan but it is believed that no intermarriage occurs between land and boat-dwellers.

The Cantonese who form the majority community 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 other areas. The oldest villages, those of the Tang clan in Yuen Long District, have a history of continuous settle- ment since the late eleventh century. On Lantau Island there are Cantonese villagers near Shek Pik and Mui Wo dating back to about the same time while some in the Tung Chung Valley date back to the late thirteenth century. 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, meaning strangers) began to enter this region at about the same time as the first Cantonese or possibly even before. However, the latter were the more successful settlers and in areas where both groups live side by side, the Hakka are always found upstream, along foothills and generally on the poorer land. After a period of sub- servience to the powerful Cantonese families, the balance was restored by heavy immigration. They are now almost the exclusive possessors of the Sha Tau Kok, Sai Kung and Hang Hau peninsulas and of the foothills of Tai Mo Shan. They form the biggest community in Tai Po and Sha Tin and on the islands of Tsing Yi and Ma Wan. The relations between Hakka and Cantonese have endured a period of strife but are now peaceful. Inter-marriage is not uncommon and the two groups share some of the villages.

The Tanka comprise a majority of the boat-dwellers and they very seldom settle ashore. At Tai O, however, there is the rare instance of a fairly large group of Tanka living in huts built on stakes over a mud creek. The Tanka have been in the region since time unknown and are the principal seafaring people of South China, owning large sea-going junks and engaging in deep-sea fishing. They speak their own distinctive dialect of Cantonese, indeed of