Author: Martin Liu
Date: 04-30-02 04:29
Friday March 23 1996
Where tradition is a way of life
The unique qualities of Hong Kong's old villages have been captured in
a
Many village traditions, labelled superstitious and wiped out by the
communist government in China, are alive and flourishing in the
villages of
Hong Kong. And a book just published makes sure they will not be
forgotten.
'In the 50s, Western scholars who wanted to study Chinese society, but
were
denied the opportunity to conduct fieldwork in China, came to the New
Territories to look at this outpost of the Chinese empire for data and
inspiration,' said Dr Elizabeth Sinn of University of Hong Kong's
history
department.
'After the liberation of China in 1949, many traditions and customs in
the
villages had to be abandoned as dictated by the government. But in 1898
when
the New Territories were seceded to the British, the Hong Kong
Government
promised the villagers they could preserve their traditions.
'So while the whole of China was in upheaval, this part of China - the
New
Territories - didn't change. At some level, we can see more about
Chinese
villages in Hong Kong than in China. Even after 1997 the rights of the
New
Territories' inhabitants will be preserved as stated in the Basic Law,'
Dr
Sinn said.
The uniqueness of Hong Kong's villages, still of immense interest to
Chinese
and Western scholars, is the subject of a book recently published to
celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Royal Asiatic Society.
Beyond the Metropolis: Villages in Hong Kong (Joint Publishing Hong
Kong)
contains essays and photographs which attempt to capture New
Territories
villages as they have been in the past three years. The essays cover
the
political, economic, social and cultural dimensions of village life.
'Although Hong Kong is very modern and urbanised, we have a lot of
villages
on the outskirts,' Dr Sinn said.
'Even though some villages are surrounded by high-rises, the lifestyle
and
mentality of the villagers remains the same as it was generations ago.
Their
emotional attachment to the village is still very strong.' Dr Sinn and
Patrick Hase, the editors of the book, discovered a group of amateur
photographers who enjoyed recording Hong Kong's villages, but did not
realise the historical and cultural value of their pictures. They
worked
with the historians on Beyond The Metropolis.
'We supplied the essays and they provided the pictures. We went to the
villages with the photographers and told them what kind of pictures we
needed,' Dr Sinn said.
To the publishing editor, Dr Cheng Tak-wah, books about traditional
Hong
Kong villages are still rare.
'Some of the material in the book is quite valuable and derives from
extensive field work, oral history of the villagers and the
researchers' own
experience,' Dr Cheng said.
'The pictures are exceptional as well. They capture minute details of
everyday life in the village. We had to sieve through 3,000 photographs
to
find 200 to publish.' Many of the writers in the book are expatriates
who
have lived in Hong Kong for 20 or 30 years and speak fluent Cantonese.
They
have little problem doing their research. Dr Hase, for one, speaks not
only
Cantonese but the Chiu Chow and Hakka dialects.
In the book, a wide range of topics are discussed: fung shui, walled
villages, festivals, single and multi-surnamed clan villages. There are
also
in-depth discussions about individual villages.
One writer, Mr James Hayes, was a district officer in the old southern
district (the present Sai Kung) in 1955. He has visited 180
settlements,
including Wong Yi Chau, a big village which was abandoned in the 70s.
Mr Hayes recorded that there were 135 inhabitants who had about 20
brown
cattle and 200 pigs. They made their living from pig rearing and
selling
firewood.
Remittances came from five men working abroad, all employed in Chinese
restaurants in Liverpool. Another man worked in Hong Kong with the tram
company.
Some of the villagers were Christians who went to the local Protestant
chapel. A pastor came to hold services each Sunday. Some other village
people went to the Catholic Church at Pak Tam Chung.
Village people could be quite quarrelsome in those days. A 49-year-old
village representative made a sworn statement in 1950 that he had
settled
about 500 disputes including marital affairs, trespass by cows, damage
to
crops and boundary disputes.
Some settlements were badly hit during the Japanese occupation. For
many,
the war years were merely the culmination of bad times characterised by
sickness and disease, and a decline in male births.
The villagers had no rational explanation but presumed that the local
fung
shui had been altered for the worse.
Today, many village houses are empty or ruined and the fields
abandoned. The
beauty of the village setting can still be seen, but the old, hard life
has
disappeared.
Architecture can be as fascinating as the customs. One notable example
of
the walled village tradition and the single-surnamed clan is Tsang Tai
Uk,
which still stands in Sha Tin.
Completed in the 1870s and occupying 60,000 square feet with its high
and
fortified walls, gun slits and watch towers at each of the four
corners, it
is a formidable construction pieced together by an immigrant, Tsang
Koon-man.
Tsang was a Hakka from Guangdong province. He came to Hong Kong in the
late
18th century to work quarries and became prosperous by meeting Hong
Kong's
insatiable demands for building materials.
He decided in 1848 to find land on which he could establish a village
for
his descendants. He settled on Sha Tin because it was a rich
agricultural
area and built a village with a wall around it.
The need for defence was not due just to piracy or bandits, but to a
growing
influx of newcomers from China hoping for a better life in Hong Kong.
Until 1962 the main entrance to Tsang Tai Uk was closed at 9 pm in
accordance with the tradition of self defence.
The heart of the village consists of the entrance hall, clan meeting
hall
and ancestral hall. The residential units are small, and open off a
maze of
narrow passages and small interconnecting courts.
In the main courtyard there are two wells. Once they produced good
quality
drinking water but today they are only used for laundry purposes as
piped
water was installed 16 years ago.
In the clan meeting hall, the elders met and adjudicated disputes and
debated village problems. On occasions, at the end of the war, the
elders of
the broader Sha Tin district met here.
A great carved screen, dated 1878, survived in the meeting hall. Tsang
bought himself an imperial degree some time before his 71st birthday.
He
held a grand party to which all the high-ranking officials who had
helped
him achieve his honours were invited, and they gave him this screen as
a
gift.
Today, surrounded by high rise development, Tsang Tai Uk remains
substantially unchanged in structure and layout.
Many Tsangs have migrated and now only about 200 of the clansmen,
mostly in
the sixth generation, remain in Hong Kong.
.
ngs have migrated and now only about 200 of the clansmen, mostly in
the sixth generation, remain in Hong Kong.
|
|
The Asiawind forums are provided to you by
InTechTra Inc.
