| This is a study of a settlement of people who had at one time or another made a living through fishing in Hong Kong. The boat people of South China had been described as an inferior ethnic and occupational group, dominated by the literati ideal of the agriculturists. They escaped discrimination only by shedding their ethnic identity. But in this study of San Mun Tsai settlement in Taipo, Hong Kong, I find that they do not accept their discriminated status passively. Hegemonic domination of the literati ideal does exist but there is space for resisting domination.; In this study, some of the weapons of the underclass are illustrated: The boat people appropriated elements from Chinese religion, especially from the ancestral cult and communal worship to articulate their claim for better terms of settlement on land. Ancestral tombs were rebuilt, ancestral plaques and genealogical records were reinvented to assert their identity as original settlers of Hong Kong. The prestige of their earth gods was enhanced through performances of opera during the Chinese New Year. Religious liaison with other fishing communities through the rite of cosmic renewal advanced territorial status. Christianity, however, contributed only to the individual's social elevation but not that of the community. As agents in the creation of folk models of consciousness, boat people re-interpreted Christian practices and tenets of faith to produce their own version of Christianity.; As far as ethnic identity is concerned, the negotiation of social status determined if ethnic badges were kept after settlement on land. Dragon boat dance during weddings was retained because it was consonant with values of modernity in cosmopolitan Hong Kong. Salt water songs were discontinued because it is old-fashioned. In their public discourse, the boat people presented their own ethnic distinction as superior or just as legitimate. Rhetorical denigration of another ethnic group engaged in fishing (the Hoklo boat people) created another ethnic underclass below them and elevated the social status of the villagers of San Mun Tsai.; This study finds that for the underclass, the negotiation of social status is a brandishing of weapons aimed at eroding the control of the dominant class. The negotiation of social status is a symbolic revolt as well as a critique and resistance against hegemony. The underclass people are shrewd strategists, concurrently looking at the variety of rules and strategies available in different cultural fields, choosing weapons and approaches to bolster their social status. The weak have a repertoire of strategies, a plethora of public transcript and rhetoric which they employ according to the potential ally or opponent they encounter. |
