From Periphery to Enclosure: The Change of Lin Ma Hang Village and Hakka Cultural Heritage at the Frontier of Hong Kong's New Territories (1898--1997)

Using Lin Ma Hang Village in Sha Tau Kok, Hong Kong's New Territories as a case study, this thesis gives an historical account of how indigenous villagers living in the border area adjusted to political and social changes following the lease of the New Territories by Britain until Hong Kong's return to China, and how they inherited the Hakka culture through different ways.;Emphasis has been placed on the manifestations and material culture of Hakka people, studies into their internal consciousness has not attracted much attention. Lin Ma Hang is a specific case to look into the Hakim psychology in the context of a closed area. Adjacent to the boundary between Hong Kong and the Mainland China, this is an indigenous Hakka-speaking village. For many years during the Qing Dynasty, its villagers had to walk on a bridge that enabled them to reach their farmland located on the other side of the Shenzhen River. However, after the Qing Government's signed unequal treaty, Convention for the Extension of Hong Kong Territory in 1898 which allowed Britain to lease the New Territories, the original village area of Lin Ma Hang was divided into two parts - the Chinese side and the British side, with the Shenzhen River serving as the boundary. Indigenous villagers from Lin Ma Hang, which came under the jurisdiction of Britain, continued to cross this bridge to the Chinese side, just like their forefathers. Such border-crossing practice was maintained even during the 1960s when the Mainland China suffered a famine which led to mass exoduses of people and political and social turmoil such as the Cultural Revolution. Since the 1980s, the entire village has been enclosed by iron fences by the British for security reasons, which posed a formidable obstacle to the villagers' daily lives and travelling to nearby markets, and a psychological imprisonment in the minds of villagers, and their gradual loss of control of their farmland. However, it appears that the spirit of endurance embedded in Hakka culture had enabled them to overcome all types of obstacles and reestablish their confidence to communicate with the outside world, continuing their fight for the opening up of the closed area.;After the return to China, the Hong Kong Government finally decided in January 2008 to reduce the Frontier Closed Area (FCA) coverage from about 2,800 hectares to about 400 hectares and over half of the people residing inside the current FCA are no longer required to have a closed area permit to enter or leave the excised area. For over a century, Lin Ma Hang villagers, especially some Hakka women, can be considered as ambassadors promoting communication between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. They not only witnessed the changing relations between China and Britain, but they also moved between different identities as Chinese, Hakka and Hong Kong people. The history of Lin Ma Hang records the experience of a group of Chinese refugees with Hakka consciousness, mostly with the surname Yip, who lived under British and subsequently Japanese rule and became Hong Kong people after the Second World War. It also highlights the complex and multi-layered nature of Hakka identity.;With the case study of the Lin Ma Hang Hakka village, this thesis attempts to explore the Hakka culture that has been ignored by Hong Kong people. It signifies how an indigenous village, which was divided up due to political reasons, survives through its unique ways.