Rural Common Village Story
Get to know the wisdom of village life, people and stories, imagine the possibilities of the future!
Get to know the wisdom of village life, people and stories, imagine the possibilities of the future!
Stick rice flour (粘米粉) and glutinous rice flour (糯米粉) are essential ingredients of traditional Hakka pastries. In bygone days before the establishment of supermarkets, pre-packaged rice flour was not available in rural areas. To make Ban-kwo (Hakka rice cake,茶粿和糕粄), farmers had to crush rice grains into powder by manually grinding the ingredients with a stone […]
如果對香港鄉村歷史有興趣的話,你會怎麼開始?先以鄉間最常見的文字資料 – 石碑作頭炮:眾籌修建公共設施(道路,橋,船,學校,廟宇)=〉反映地區社群關係
宗族內籌款修建祠堂 =〉反映宗族內部關係
糾紛仲裁的結果 =〉反映村民如何處理糾紛及當時的社會環境/法律
標示地界,指明道路方向 等等
【1. Walls – Mud Bricks, Blue Bricks, Rubble Masonry】 Vernacular houses in Hakka villages tend to be constructed with 3 main materials, mud bricks, blue bricks, and rubble masonry. Old village houses tend to be constructed with mud bricks. Wealthier villagers would construct the front façade of the house with blue bricks and construct the […]
Dwarf Mountain PineBaeckea frutescens The branches of the plant can be tied together to make brooms. They grow on hillsides facing the sun. The crushed leaves of the plant smell of White Flower oil. They can be used to produce aromatic oil and tannin extracts. Sandpaper vineTetracera asiatica Both the top and the bottom surfaces […]
RamieBoehmeria nivea The ubiquitous plant grows everywhere but it is also very functional. The leaves can be used as pig feed or made into hakka rice cakes named ‘coarse-leaf tart’. Its stems can be made into rope, clothing, and shoes after being soaked and torn. Dioscorea cirrhosa Lour. The ball-shaped rhizome of cirrhosa reveals its […]
Chinese MugwortArtemisia argyi The Hakka people believe that Chinese mugwort has the properties of removing dirt and filth, and the plant grows exceptionally well near Ching Ming Festival, thus Chinese mugwort leaves are added into Hakka rice cake as an ingredient near Ching Ming times. The Chinese mugwort Hakka rice cake, also referred as ‘Ching […]
Phrynium capitatum The leaves of the plant are large, glabrous, and structured. They are suitable for wrapping glutinous rice dumplings and steaming rice cakes. When rice cakes are steamed, clean, fresh leaves are used to line the base and sides of bamboo steaming baskets. Slurry is poured into the basket after lining. The stiff leaves […]
As the Chinese saying goes, “People are shaped by the land they inhabit.” Environmental settings significantly influence the traditional way of living and customary practices. Before the outbreak of World War II, the economy of the New Territories in Hong Kong relied mainly on fishing and farming. Local inhabitants efficiently utilised the natural resources available […]
The story of Ap Chau begins with the True Jesus Church (「真耶穌教會」). ♦ The True Jesus Church initiated its missionary efforts in mainland China at the start of the 20th century. Before the outbreak of World War II, missionaries founded churches and offered medical assistance in the Sha Tou Kok Market (Tung Wo Hui, 東和墟) […]
Yellow rice wine chicken is a popular dish in the Hakka culinary tradition. One might be familiar with red and white wine, but what about yellow rice wine? Historically, villagers in the New Territories used to produce their own wine using glutinous rice for personal consumption. Made from simple ingredients like glutinous rice, water and […]
Besides Hakka Year Cake (圓籠粄), the Hakka community celebrates Lunar New Year with a special delicacy called ‘Micang’ (Hakka Rice Cracker, also known as ‘Miceng’ and ‘Mitong’). Similar to chaguo (glutinous rice cake, 茶粿), the Hakka rice cracker is a rice-based product. Its main ingredients include sticky rice flour (粘米), glutinous rice flour (糯米), peanuts, […]
Known as ‘gou’ (糕) in Cantonese and ‘ban’ in Hakka, this traditional delicacy is a form of cake created using ground rice. During the Lunar New Year, the Hakka people place great importance on making Hakka Year Cake (‘circular steamer cake’, 圓籠粄), serving both as gifts and for household consumption. A prevalent theory circulating online […]
The ‘Kitchen God’ (灶君) is a common sight near ancestral kitchen stoves in the New Territories. According to folklore, the Kitchen God makes an annual trip to the heavenly court on the 24th day of the twelfth lunar month to report to the ‘Jade Emperor’ (玉皇大帝) about human affairs, facilitating the adjudication of rewards and […]
It is said the essence of Hakka cuisine is savory, fragrant and fat. Dishes with pork belly are one of the most representational dishes of the cuisine. To our knowledge, there are three types of Hakka dishes made with pork belly. Kau Pork – a representational dish for complex cooking techniques Kau could refer to […]
In addition to worshiping, temples serve three additional purposes: 1. As a regular meeting place for village and village alliance discussions, negotiations and arbitrations, and as a symbol of unity. Some temples were only worshipped by one village originally, yet they evolved to become the core temple of the whole village alliance after the formation […]
It is easy to encounter temples of different sizes in Hong Kong. This ranges from large-scale Tin Hau temples that occupy the space of a few shops on ground floors to shrines in shops. If you look closely, you see deities everywhere in the city. Part 1 – Religions Believers are free to worship different […]
Background In Chinese tradition, the Dragon Boat Festival, otherwise known as the ‘May Festival’, coincides with the ‘Month of Five Poisons’. Hence, one of the rituals of the Dragon Boat festival involves warding off the ‘five poisons’: snakes, centipedes, scorpions, geckos, and toads. Rural residents employed different techniques to repel bugs and poisons, leading to […]
關公信仰是客家人最重要的的信仰,雖然客家人是多神崇拜,但是建主廟的話還是關帝為首,客家人的關帝廟的名稱多數為「協天宮」是關公的另一個封號「協天大帝」,在沙頭角很容易看到祂的身影,例如上面說到的荔枝窩,無獨有偶發現協天 宮包圍著沙頭角海,有谷埔、南涌、膊頭下、烏石角、山咀,非常有特色的協天宮 圈
七姐誕算是一個已經式微的大節日,舊時七夕是華人民間大節,風俗非常多!
在新界鄉郊當然有不少慶祝活動,而且是以女性為主的節日,浪漫和精緻,值得將七夕復興。
相傳這一天,天上的織女和幾位姊妹落到凡間遊歷,期間在河川之間洗澡,此時,牛郎遇到織女一見鍾情,從此雙方墜入愛河,織女偷偷下凡成了牛郎妻子,織女還將天上的手作工藝的藝法傳授給凡人,牛郎與織女男耕女織,過著幸福的生活。