HKU Bulletin September 2007 (Vol. 9 No. 1)

38 39 A History of Hong Kong’s New Territories A lthough the Chinese conceded Hong Kong to the British in 1842, the New Territories did not become part of the colony until some years later, in 1898. It was immediately referred to as ‘the great difference’ by senior Hong Kong colonial official, James Stewart Lockhart. On returning from an inspection tour of the newly-leased extension to Hong Kong territory in August 1898, Lockhart used the phrase to describe the enormous gulf between the rural stretches of Southern China, and the farmers who occupied it, and the British colony of Hong Kong and its people. In his book The Great Difference: Hong Kong’s New Territories and Its People 1898-2004 , author, James Hayes, argues that the government’s recognition of this ‘great difference’ resulted, from the outset, in a quite different approach to administering the territory and its people from the one adopted in the old urban areas. This resulted in repercussions that continue to affect Hong Kong to this very day. Hayes, who worked in the New Territories for almost half his thirty-two years of government service, and was Regional Secretary in charge of district administration from 1985 to 1987, explores the crowded events and dramatic changes in the often tumultuous history of the lease period, and details the effects these had on the native inhabitants and their relationship with government. The book examines the New Terr i tor ies through the tumultuous period of Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1945, and looks at the end of subsistence farming, which opened up the way for urban development and the system of country parks. Although largely rural throughout its history under colonial rule, the area has undergone rapid development since the 1960s. New towns, designed to accommodate the burgeoning population of Kowloon, have sprung up in what was once an idyllic green belt between the congested streets of Hong Kong and Southern Kowloon and Mainland China. Based now in Sydney, Australia, James Hayes is a scholar of the Hong Kong region and its people. His previous publications include his memoir Friends and Teachers: Hong Kong and Its People 1953-87 . The Great Difference: Hong Kong’s New Territories and Its People 1898-2004 is available from the Hong Kong University Press. A New Perspective on Colonial Governance T he tragic fire that left 50,000 squatters homeless, at Shek Kip Mei in 1953, has long been considered the trigger for the Hong Kong government’s public housing scheme. But a new book argues that the colonial response may not have been as humanitarian as first appeared. Anthropologist, Alan Smart, who spent several years living amongst squatter villagers in Hong Kong, offers a fresh explanation for the government’s public housing efforts in his new book, The Shek Kip Mei Myth: Squatters, Fires and Colonial Rulers in Hong Kong, 1950-1963 . Smart, Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Calgary, Canada, argues that the public housing programme was thanks more to the political wrestling between the colonial government of the time and Mainland China, than a direct and humane response to the Shek Kip Mei fire. In so doing he sheds light on the development of Hong Kong, a society and landscape profoundly influenced by the government's role as provider of up to half of all housing. Smart basis his argument on the inadequate government response to other large squatter fires in the 1950s. Through a thorough reading of government records he explores the failures of the colonial administration to control illegal settlements and in so doing, uncovers the serious handicaps inherent in a government that is unelected and undemocratic. Smart’s careful research is suffused with an obvious sympathy and respect for the plight of squatter vi l lagers, upon whom he has based previous research. As wel l as being a major contribution to Hong Kong’s social history The Shek Kip Mei Myth offers new insights into the nature of governance in colonial cities, the policy making process, and the nature of colonial society. BOOKS The Shek Kip Mei Myth: Squatters, Fires and Colonial Rulers in Hong Kong, 1950-1963 is available from the Hong Kong University Press.