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 to sustain their lives. Despite its expansive shoreline, Sha Tou Kok suffered from a scarcity of arable land. Villagers farmed in the valleys and lowlands, cultivating a variety of rice like see mew (絲苗), Wong Huk Chai Mei (黃殼齊眉), Fa Yiu Tsai (花腰仔).
In addition, glutinous rice was also planted to produce different kinds of Ban-kwo (Hakka rice cake) and rice liquor. Due to the shortage of flat farmland, the villagers resorted to developing terrace fields on the hills. Depending on the irrigation conditions, rice and drought-resistant crops like sweet potatoes and millet were cultivated. Vegetables, Longan and Lychee trees were planted in the village, primarily for their own sustenance. Households often reared a few chickens, ducks or pigs, which could later be marketed. During festivals, villagers would butcher poultry at their homes for rituals, and the meat would then serve as the primary protein source for the entire family during festive seasons. Based on oral history accounts, pigs were not butchered in the village until the 1950s. For remote villages, pigs had to be transferred by boat to Sha Tou Kok for processing, whereas for villages with road access, arrangements could be made for butchers (豬肉佬) to transport the pigs. Once the pigs were slaughtered, their meat would be sold at the meat stalls in Sha Tou Kok Market.
Coastal Hakka villages benefited from their proximity to the sea. Wong Hing Cheung, the current (2022) village chief of So Lo Pun, recollected how their ancestors would venture out to the sea for fishing to complement their agricultural activities. At one point, the village had up to twenty-six fishing boats (So Lo Pun history PPT slides, 7). In the 1930s, village youths would gather wild fruits like hill gooseberries as they were herding cattle on the mountains, and barter wild fruits for fish from fishermen. The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the emergence of freshwater fish farming in various parts of the New Territories. Existing rice fields were converted into fish ponds, as seen in Nam Chung (南涌). Wong Gun Kwan Ming(黃冠軍明), the then village chief of So Lo Pun in 1974, invested HKD 300,000 to develop fish ponds in the village with the intention of rejuvenating the rural economy. Unfortunately, the initiative did not manage to reverse the village’s fate of population decline and deterioration.
In the early years, it was commonplace for women in every household to gather grass and collect firewood in the forest. In 1974, a forest reforestation scheme was introduced by the colonial administration. Each village was assigned specific firewood cutting zones through a permit known as the forestry licence. Villagers had to pay an annual fee of one cent per acre for the license (Hase 2013, 68). The Chinese designation “Cung saan pai” (「松山牌」) for the permit originated from the British government’s promotion of Masson pine tree cultivation to swiftly restore eroded hillsides. Villagers were allowed to cut the branches of said trees within the permitted zone. The surplus of collected firewood and dry grass could be sold at the Sha Tou Kok Market. Back then, rural villagers utilized firewood for cooking and lime production, while water-based fishing communities needed dry grass for breaming (Strickland 2010). Barefooted, Hakka women had to journey through the mountains each day, collecting firewood and dry grass to support their families.
The instances provided above shed light on the hardships of rural life in the New Territories in the past and the villagers’ resourcefulness in making use of the natural environment.
（這裡所指的香港新界客家人，泛指十七中葉以降、清初遷海令撤銷之後，從廣東、福建沿岸遷徙到當時廣東新安縣生活的移民。當時包括今日新界全版圖的新安縣，不少最肥沃平坦的土地已經為遷界前在此置有田產，或者先來一步的人們佔據，是以他們只好在較為偏遠的山區而人煙罕至的地方落腳。至十九世紀末，新界的客家人口發展迅速，與本地人口旗鼓相當。據《1911年新界殖民地人口統計報告》，本地人口47,990人，客家人口44,374人，可想而知客家人的力量在新界可謂舉足輕重。）
1 Hase, Patrick. 2013. Custom, Land and Livelihood in Rural South China: The Traditional Land Law of Hong Kong’s New Territories, 1750-1950. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
2 Strickland, John, ed. 2013. Southern District Officer Reports: Islands and Villages in Rural Hong Kong, 1910-1960. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.