Hakka, the In-betweeners

In what came to be called 'The Land Between', the migrant Tang clan of the Hakka people had been established in their new home for some 250 years before the British signed a deal to start the trading post at Hong Kong harbor.

Never satisfied with just the harbor, the British extended their Colony - another opium war later - first to mainland Kowloon and then, by the Convention of Peking of 1898, to 'The New Territories.'

It was then that the farming areas bordering China - rice paddies, duck farms, fish ponds - became known as the 'Land Between.' So the scattered Hakka people came to be ruled by the British instead of the Chinese.

But their traditions have survived long enough to see the changeover back to China. Under the new Hong Kong regime, you can still find Hakka women in black costumes, wearing spliced bamboo hats with wide brims and cloth fringes, puffing on their pipes. And you can still find villages that long pre-date British rule.

The Hakka were originally North Chinese of obscure origins who moved south in three large migrations in the fourth, ninth and 13th centuries, their name stemming from a bastardised Cantonese version of a Mandarin word meaning ''guest people'' which was to distinguish them from the natives of the areas they settled.

Chan Yam-shing was a typical Hakka, arriving at a place called Tsin Wan (now spelt Tsuen Wan) in the mid-18th century, 150 years before it became part of the "New Territories" of Britain. He and his fellow Chan clan members first built sea-walls to reclaim land and establish their farms before constructing a traditional square-shaped walled village.

They called it Sam Tung Uk, which means 'three-beamed dwelling' because along the central axis of the village runs a series of three small halls, including an ancestral hall of worship, each having a major supporting beam.

The families moved into their new village "on an auspicious date during the 51st year of Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty". That's sometime in 1786 to us Westerners. Later, more rooms were added along three sides, extending the external surrounding wall and changing its shape to rectangular.

Incredibly, Sam Tung Uk village still exists like that today, hidden in the over-whelming shadows of 30-storey apartment blocks, near a busy railway station and modern shopping plaza, although no longer inhabited by Hakka, but instead turned into a museum.

It's at the end of the red line, a $HK13 train ride from Hong Kong's Central MTR railway station (you can also pick the red line ''Kowloon-side'' at Tsim Sha Tsui, and no problems with the automated ticketing system here - simply press your destination on a map and indicate whether you are an adult or child).

It's all so easy. Get off at the end of the line at the now-new town of Tsuen Wan, domineered by tall apartment buildings. Simply follow the bi-lingual signs from the station, through a non-tourist shopping mall, down the stairs and past the local bus stops where white-unformed school children may be waiting (politely!) for their transport.

Entry is free. Bright lanterns and red and gold decorated beams and walls greet the visitor in the three halls, contrasting with the whitish-grey of the main structure and the tiny roof tiles of a darker shade. 'Small lanes' are barely a metre wide. 'Houses' are more like a series of apartments or individual rooms, many with a mezzanine floor to add space.

There are no windows, only tiny slits, but a small courtyard between an outer entrance and an inner doorway provides light, and within this a sunken area forms part of a drainage system to prevent monsoonal showers flooding the home. 'Traditional Hakka way', a local worker tells me, when I ask an explanation of the architecture.

Several rooms house exhibits of the Hakka way of life: stoves, chimneys, agricultural implements, oil lamps, heavy dark furniture, ceramic pillows, rattan storage cases, a leather chest, a ceramic pot described as a spittoon, but which a children's interpretation leaflet seems to indicate was actually a potty-like toilet.

Other rooms display prints describing Chinese festival activities, New Year celebrations, folk tales from opera, and various legends.

Walls between some apartments have been demolished to create a larger exhibition hall, with regularly changing themes relating to aspects of Hong Kong life. When I was there, it held a fascinating array of delicate lithographic advertising posters from the 1920's and 30's, with detailed explanatory captions: a distant era in an exotic place for me, but nostalgia for three elderly Chinese, struggling around on walking sticks, who were the only other people I saw during my hour-long visit. No doubt they recalled playing games with lemonade bottle tops, or their first puff of a DoorFook cigarette.

'This place is absolutely amazing,' was the last comment in the visitors book, signed by 'Julie, Sydney, Australia', and dated a month before my visit.

This was a museum, but elsewhere in today's modern, bustling, Hong Kong, you can find Hakka enclaves, where the people might not be living in the past, but are still living among themselves.

Encyclopedia Britannica describes the Hakka as ''extremely industrious, shrewd, people, who tended to be very clannish,'' They spoke a strange dialect, dressed differently, and had strange customs - like not binding their women's feet. They were never really accepted where they went, and kept get involved in skirmishes over land.

Thus they never totally assimilated. And they always felt the need for protection, living together in family compounds or small villages behind walled fortifications.

Kam Tin walled village, also called Kat Hing Wai, is the grandest of them. This moated settlement was built in the late 1600's and is impressive evidence of the centuries long prosperity and power of the Tang Clan, the New Territories major land-owners.

Slit windows of guard towers set in six metre high walls stand above a defensive moat, now full of water lilies, but surely certain still to keep out tigers, rival clans, and the vanquished followers of the Ming Dynasty who were multi-skilled enough to find new occupations as pirates or bandits.

An honour box set near the grilled iron gate at the sole entrance through the wall solicits donations from visitors (a dollar will do), and while the village behind the walls has been modernised, pipe-smoking Hakka women in traditional costumes pose for tourists for a fee.

On the approach road to the Lion Rock Tunnel at Sha Tin, better known for its modern racecourse, is another outstanding example of a fortified village, called Tsang Tai Uk, meaning Tsang's Big House. Built in the 1840's, this large rectangular grey-brick compound with high corner towers was originally home to a rich quarry-master's clan, although more recently it housed displaced families after the Second World war.

Or near the present market towns of Fanling and Sheung Shui, see Kun Lung Gate Tower, built in 1744 to serve as an entrance to the San Wei community. It is said to be the best surviving example of a walled village's gate tower.

Back in these ''old days'' of Colonial Hong Kong, a ''must-do'' bus tour would take you to the look-out called Lok Ma Chau, where the attraction was the border with China. Here, you were excitedly told, you were actually looking at "RED China!", with all that implied.

The border remains, but is now called a boundary, for Hong Kong is not a colony of Britain, but a Special Administrative Region of China. Nevertheless, travel in both directions is strictly controlled.

Lok Ma Chau is still included in the "Land Between" tour. While there's no longer the same mystery of "Red China", you can observe instead the enormous industrial growth across the "boundary". While doing so, you're still likely to be approached by a pipe-smoking Hakka woman looking for a photo-opportunity to earn some tobacco money.

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Published on 2/13/02