The volume collects the published articles of Dr. Marjorie Topley, who was a pioneer in the field of social anthropology in the postwar period and also the first president of the revived Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society. Her ethnographic research in Singapore and Hong Kong set a high standard for urban anthropology, and helped creating the fields of religious studies, migration studies, gender studies, and medical anthropology, focusing on topics that remain current and important in the disciplines. The essays in this collection showcase Dr. Topley's groundbreaking contributions in several areas of scholarship. These include “Chinese Women’s Vegetarian Houses in Singapore” (1954) and “The Great Way of Former Heaven: A Group of Chinese Secret Religious Sects” (1963), both important research on the study of subcultural groups in a complex urban society; “Marriage Resistance in Rural Kwangtung” (1978), now a classic in Chinese anthropology and women’s studies; her widely known and cited article, “Cosmic Antagonisms: A Mother-Child Syndrome” (1974), which investigates widely shared everyday practices and cosmological explanations that Cantonese mothers invoked when they encountered difficulties in child-rearing; and “Capital, Saving and Credit among Indigenous Rice Farmers and Immigrant Vegetable Farmers in Hong Kong's New Territories” (2004 [1964]).

Buddhism and Taoism remain vibrant and prominent in Singapore's religious landscape. Yet, little is known of why Chinese Singaporeans chose and remain in these ancient religions. Analyzing over thirty face-to-face interviews with Buddhists and Taoists in Singapore, this book provides a glimpse into their fascinating narratives consisting of encounters and experiences with the presence and power of spiritual realities. A renewed understanding of Buddhism and Taoism will, hopefully, encourage readers of other religious traditions to create space for each other's religious identity. Only then can we continue to live and share a multi-religious environment within the small nation-state.

In this pioneering study, Sheilah Hamilton shows that, from the earliest days of British rule, the colonial administration introduced harsh legislation to control Chinese watchmen who were employed to protect the fledgling colony's property in the absence of an effective public police force. She examines the growth in different Hong Kong Government departments of what would now be regarded as 'hybrid' police and argues that the existence of such posts within the civil service resulted in greater social control of the local Chinese community at minimal extra expense. Amongst the topics of private security explored are: the impact of the few private security personnel engaged by local Chinese organizations such as the Nam Pak Hong, Tung Wah Hospital and Po Leung Kuk; the evolution of the District Watch Force from a force engaged in purely local security duties to an arm of the Hong Kong Government involved in non-security matters such as controversial sanitary inspections; and the unique system of village guards and scouts in the New Territories. A particular focus is the early maritime security problems and the internal security forces of Hong Kong's shipping companies. A final chapter compares the situation in Hong Kong and explores the similarities and differences with Shanghai during the period.

In East Asia’s largest cities, hundreds of thousands of women remain single into middle age and beyond, giving rise to a demographic transformation with profound implications for their societies. Labeled in the media as “loser dogs” and “parasites” in Japan and “leftover women” in mainland China and Hong Kong, single women in East Asia are criticized for being choosy, selfish, and overly independent. Based on ethnographic research and interviews with more than a hundred single women in Shanghai, Hong Kong, and Tokyo, Making Our Own Destiny is the first study to comprehensively compare the views and experiences of single women living in these three great cities—cities that stand at the forefront of the region’s movement toward later marriage and rising singlehood. This well-researched book explores how single women attempt to take advantage of unprecedented opportunities for success in education and work while navigating marriage and family expectations. Unlike their counterparts in Europe and North America, many do not have romantic partners and most do not have children. What do these women want? How do they see themselves and their place in society? What are their values, goals, and dreams? As they work to balance opportunities with expectations, single women in urban East Asia find themselves deeply embedded in the caregiving systems of their societies. In Shanghai, author Lynne Nakano finds single women rushing to marry to enter intergenerational relationships of care. In Hong Kong, they consider the risks of marriage as they tend to the needs of natal and extended families. In Tokyo, many single women hope to marry to have children while others find a place for themselves in their families as elder caregivers. Nakano’s intimate portrayals not only expose meticulously planned family strategies gone awry, engagements broken, and careers abandoned, but also highlight the experiences of women embracing the joys of remaining single. Hers is a fascinating study of modern women finding meaning in their lives while offering an insightful glimpse into the future of urban families in an age of low fertility and long transitions into adulthood.

“Without a clear idea of the history of the New Territories, the history of Hong Kong as a whole would be impossible to bring to any sort of satisfactory completion. ... Elucidating the development of a village, a clan, a temple, or a market-town is also, in and of itself, real and valuable history, and abundantly justifies the time and effort spent on it.” This book is a history of village communities in the New Territories of Hong Kong, including those in the areas of Ha Tsuen, Hung Shui Kiu, and Sha Tin as well as those on the islands of Lamma, Ma Wan, and Tung Ping Chau. Elaborating on primary interviews with village elders, government documents, and public information, this book places the individual histories of each area into the context of Hong Kong’s rich past. The introduction sets up the rest of the book, outlining common themes and highlighting the dangers of using the communal memories of village communities while, at the same time, showing the valuable information doing so can bring. Each chapter provides a more detailed account of one specific area, concentrating on the settlement history, the lifestyle, and the politics of that area.

The author has recorded the inscriptions on all 8000 graves in the HK Cemetery. These by the way will be available in due course as an on-line database through the Hong Kong Memory project. She has selected, from the graves she has recorded, a wide range of people whose lives shed light on the nature of society in Hong Kong. Inevitably as this was the 'Colonial' cemetery, they are predominantly Europeans, although there are numerous Chinese and a surprising number of Japanese too. She has then sought out information on these people from contemporary newspapers, land records, court records etc to provide a rich description of life in Hong Kong during the first 100 years approximately from its colonization and a wonderful series of anecdotes. Patricia Limhas lived in Hong Kong for more than thirty years and is married to a Chinese. She studied at Cambridge University and had a long and happy career teaching English, History and Latin in various schools and bringing up a family of three daughters. On her retirement from teaching she decided to try to bring the often hard to find heritage of Hong Kong Island, Kowloon and the New Territories to the attention of a wider public by publishing two books of walks. This book followed on from the second book. When gathering material for a walk round the cemeteries of Happy Valley, the old, silent, granite monuments and headstones sparked a keen interest in the lives of the forgotten people who lay buried in Hong Kong Cemetery. "Patricia Lim turns a tour of the Cemetery into a tantalizing historical journey, rediscovering the many individuals whose lives - even the most fleeting and obscure - reflect significant developments and provide a nuanced understanding of Hong Kong's past. A solid database and a riveting good read - a winning combination!" -- Elizabeth Sinn, University of Hong Kong

This book examines the British cultural engagement with Hong Kong in the second half of the twentieth century. It shows how the territory fit unusually within Britain’s decolonisation narratives and served as an occasional foil for examining Britain’s own culture during a period of perceived stagnation and decline. Drawing on a wide range of archival and published primary sources, Hong Kong and British culture, 1945–97 investigates such themes as Hong Kong as a site of unrestrained capitalism, modernisation, and good government, as well as an arena of male social and sexual opportunity. It also examines the ways in which Hong Kong Chinese embraced British culture, and the competing predictions that British observers made concerning the colony’s return to Chinese sovereignty. An epilogue considers the enduring legacy of British colonialism. This book will be essential reading for historians of Hong Kong, British decolonisation, and Britain’s culture of declinism.