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Custom, Land, and Livelihood in Rural South China: The Traditional Land Law of Hong Kong's New Territories, 1750–1950
Author(s): Patrick Hase (Author)
- Publisher: Hong Kong University Press
- Publication Date: June 4, 2013
- Language: English
- Print length: 552 pages
- ISBN-10: 9888139088
- ISBN-13: 9789888139088
Book Description
Land was always at the center of life in Hong Kong’s rural New Territories: it sustained livelihoods and lineages and, for some, was a route to power. During imperial times villagers managed their land according to customs that were often at odds with formal Chinese law. British rule, 1898 to 1997, added complications by assimilating traditional practices into a western legal system. Custom, Land and Livelihood in Rural South China explores land ownership in the New Territories, analyzing over a hundred surviving land deeds from the late Qing Dynasty to recent times, which are transcribed in full and translated into English. Together with other sources collected by the author during thirty years of research, these deeds yield information on all aspects of traditional village life―from raising families and making a living to coping with intruders―and evoke a view of the world which, despite decades of urbanization, still has resonance today.
Editorial Reviews
Review
“This is a by far and away the best study of land deeds and land tenure systems that exists for south China’s Pearl River Delta. The book is a must read for social historians, anthropologists, sociologists, and anyone interested in Chinese land issues. Ha
“This is an important book which documents in detail how the institutions of traditional Chinese land law developed hand in hand with the transformations of local society, before and after colonisation. Patrick Hase combines exemplary scholarship with his
About the Author
Patrick H. Hase is the author of The Six-Day War of 1899: Hong Kong in the Age of Imperialism.
