Southern District Officer Reports: Islands and Villages in Rural Hong Kong, 1910-60

Foreword

Foreword This book, the tenth in our series, is unique in that it is a compilation of largely unpublished material from a number of different sources. The title of the book is deliberately misleading. The south of today’s Hong Kong, in the middle of which sits Hong Kong Island, can in no way be described as remote. However, in the days of Hong Kong as a British colony, the Southern District comprised most of the islands, apart from Hong Kong itself, as well as the area around present-day Tseung Kwan O and the south of the Sai Kung peninsula. This was a very large district to administer and much of it was indeed remote in the earlier half of the last century. The challenges of looking after such a large and disjointed area required remarkable men to fill the post of District Officer South. John Strickland has combined masterfully the written reports of six such remarkable men and created the present volume. His achievement is to make the ordinary into something extraordinary, transforming reports that were potentially dry into a compendium that is eminently readable. For the most part, the raw material for this book was not intended to be published. Rather, the reports were meant to be a detailed summary of the present conditions that these men faced. Put together in one volume they now provide an extremely rare glimpse into a vanished past. Strickland’s own love for and knowledge of the countryside of Hong Kong is evident in the way he has merged the elements of the various reports into a geographically logical sequence. Many of the villages here described have disappeared without trace, but what does remain is a very valuable description of what the majority of Hong Kong’s land area used to be like. The Royal Asiatic Society Hong Kong Branch and the Hong Kong University Press are very proud of what they have achieved so far with the Studies Series. More and more people, both here and abroad, are finding that Hong Kong and its unique history and culture provides a rich and fascinating field of study. An increasing number of schools are including the history of our city and its surroundings in their xiv FOREWORD curricula, for which we should be able to take some credit. We will continue to bring to the public original works that will enhance this area even further. The publications in the Studies series have been made possible initially by the very generous donation of seeding capital by the Trustees of the Clague Trust Fund, representing the estate of the late Sir Douglas Clague. This donation enabled us to establish a trust fund in the name of Sir Lindsay and Lady Ride, in memory of our first vice president and his wife. The Society itself added to this fund, as have a number of other generous donors. The result is that we now have funding to bring to students of Hong Kong’s history, culture and society a number of books that might otherwise not have seen the light of day. Furthermore, we continue to be delighted with the agreement established with Hong Kong University Press, which sets out the basis on which the Press will partner our efforts. Robert Nield President Royal Asiatic Society, Hong Kong Branch February 2009 ...