Representations and Self-Representaions of Hakka Women in Hong Kong, 1900S-Present

Lingnan University Digital Commons @ Lingnan University Theses & Dissertations Department of History 10-17-2016 From invisible to visible : representations and self-representaions of Hakka women In Hong Kong, 1900s-present Ka Lo YAU Follow this and additional works at: https://commons.ln.edu.hk/his_etd Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Yau, K. L. (2016). From invisible to visible: Representations and self-representaions of Hakka women In Hong Kong, 1900s-present (Master's thesis, Lingnan University, Hong Kong). Retrieved from http://commons.ln.edu.hk/his_etd/8 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Department of History at Digital Commons @ Lingnan University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses & Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Lingnan University. Terms of Use The copyright of this thesis is owned by its author. Any reproduction, adaptation, distribution or dissemination of this thesis without express authorization is strictly prohibited. All rights reserved. FROM INVISIBLE TO VISIBLE: REPRESENTATIONS AND SELF- REPRESENTAIONS OF HAKKA WOMEN IN HONG KONG, 1900S-PRESENT YAU KA LO MPHIL LINGNAN UNIVERSITY 2016 FROM INVISIBLE TO VISIBLE: REPRESENTATIONS AND SELF- REPRESENTATIONS OF HAKKA WOMEN IN HONG KONG, 1900S-PRESENT by YAU Ka Lo 邱嘉露 A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the Degree of Master of Philosophy in History Lingnan University 2016 ABSTRACT From Invisible to Visible: Representations and Self-representations of Hakka Women in Hong Kong, 1900S-Present by YAU Ka Lo Master of Philosophy What we perceive as the essential characteristics of Hakka women today are in fact historically constructed and utilized for various purposes by different agents, including Western missionaries, Hakka elites, museum curators and heritage preservationists. This long historical process has made the Hakka women increasingly visible in the public scene. Some scholars argue that it was the men who attempted to manipulate the representations of Hakka women to justify their exploitation of women. As Hung Hsin-lan and Helen Siu have reminded us, the study of Hakka women should be liberated from the lens of exploitation and victimhood and we should position Hakka women in relation to Hakka men to achieve a more balanced analysis. In addition to examining the historical writings about Hakka and Hakka women since the nineteenth century, this thesis focuses on Hong Kong, and also considers the topic through a gender lens, to evaluate the roles that Hakka women have played in the museums and in the surging wave of cultural preservation. The aim of this thesis is to explain how Hakka women have been represented in various media and what has constituted our current perceptions and (mis)understandings toward Hakka women. While the Hakka women have been singled out to represent Hakka culture and have enjoyed the opportunity to create their self-representations, where have the Hakka men gone? What does it mean by a ‘Hakka’ when the Hakka identity is historically constructed in the first place? The present research adopts a combined historical and anthropological approach to rethink the images of Hakka women and review the interactions between the representations and self- representation of Hakka women in the displays and heritage preservation, which point to the broader themes of the interplays between colonialism and ethnicities, the politics of display, gender studies on exhibition and cultural heritage, and the impacts of global cultural trends on local culture formulation. CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ………………………………………………………………………………………... ii LIST OF FIGURES ………………………………………………………………………………………... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ………………………………………………………………………………. iii Introduction: Rethinking the Images of Hakka Women …………………………………. 1 Chapter 1. “Hakka” in Historical Writings before the Twentieth Century……………… 14 2. Becoming Visible: the Making of Hakka and Hakka Women in Hong Kong Kong ………………………………………………………………………………………………… 37 3. Representations of Hakka Women in the Museums of Hong Kong …….…. 71 4. The Making of Hakka Culture in the Preservation of Intangible Cultural Heritage ……………………………………………………………………………………............ 117 Conclusion: Artificial Ethnic Boundaries and Features …………………………………... 164 Appendices ………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 175 Bibliography ………………………………………………………………………………………………... 194 i List of Tables and Figures List of Tables: Table 1: The items in ICH Inventory related to Hakka culture 125-126 List of Figures: Figure 1: The statistics of families and shops in the suburbs of Check Chu. 41 Figure 2: The Banner of Four Ethnicities in Gallery 4: Folk Culture in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Museum of History. 91 Figure 3: Typical Images of Hakka Women in Gallery 4: Folk Culture in Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Museum of History. 97 Figure 4: A Hakka Woman with Bare Feet Carrying Heavy Loads of Hay in the 1920s, A picture showed in the exhibition of A Kaleidoscope: Tsuen Wan, Then & Now in Sam Tung Uk Museum. 105 Figure 5: The Wax-made Figure of a Hakka Woman in Law Uk Folk Museum. 106 Figure 6: Photo-taking Area of Hakka Hat in the exhibition of A Kaleidoscope: Tsuen Wan, Then & Now in Sam Tung Uk Museum. 110 Figure 7: A page of Educational Pamphlet of A Kaleidoscope: Tsuen Wan, Then & Now in Sam Tung Uk Museum. 112 Figure 8: A Hakka Women in Traditional Clothing in the Pamphlet of the exhibition of A Kaleidoscope: Tsuen Wan, Then & Now in Sam Tung Uk Museum. 113 Figure 9: Band Weaving in Process. The Patterned band weaver is Laam Bing-kiu and the woman standing next to her in black is Choi Ching-mui. 147 Figure 10: The patterned bands are worn on the female model. 160 Figure 11: Hakka hat is transformed into a white-laced hat. 161 ii Acknowledgement I would like to express my appreciation to all the individuals who have been my informants and interviewees in Hong Kong and Taiwan. In particular, I must thank Chen Bo-yu and Chen Qi-zhong, who warmly welcomed me to the community of Meinong, Taiwan and did me a great favor to contact the interviewees. Without their helpful personal network and information, and those of Lee Wai-kuen, Yip Pak- keung, Cheung Kwai-choi, John Choy, Tsui Yuet-ching, Choi Ching-mui, and Simon Go in Hong Kong, I could not have made the observations and analyses for this research. Many thanks to Prof. Mark Hampton who organized a reading group and brought me together with a friendly and engaging research community. The discussions of the reading group extended my knowledge about the historiographies and deepened my understanding of history from a global perspective. We exchanged ideas, gave feedback, and suggested improvements to our own writings, and prodded one another to achieve better work. Without their useful advice and encouragement, the road to the completion of this thesis would have been much harder. I am particularly grateful to have Simon Case who helped provide advice in the editing of the thesis and cheered me up all the way to a higher standard of research. I am also thankful for the constructive comments and loving inspirations given by Prof. Grace Ai-ling Chou, my co-supervisor. Her sage advice and generous help throughout the course of my research have been very much appreciated. She considered things all for my benefits, and I always feel encouraged by her caring messages during my ups and downs. A debt of gratitude is owed to Prof. Liu Tik-sang, my external examiner, who raised profound ideas and thought-provoking questions which have helped me to enrich my research. My deepest, most heartfelt gratitude is to Prof. Poon Shuk-wah, my chief supervisor. At the beginning of the research period, I struggled with the process of narrowing down the topic and organizing the framework of the research. My drafted writing structures were at times chaotic and much frustration was felt. Prof. Poon advised me not only with patience and tolerance, but also with inspiring questions and suggestions. Her meticulous supervision greatly contributed to the process of writing this thesis. Without her guidance, the completion of this thesis would not have been possible. iii Introduction: Rethinking the Images of Hakka Women Hakka women are commonly stereotyped as being able-bodied, physically strong and unusually diligent. These images of Hakka women were historically constructed by the Hakka elites and western missionaries who utilized them to be one of the identifiers of the Hakka culture. These discourses survive through the centuries and have become embodied in the representations of Hakka women in museums and in the preservation of intangible heritage in Hong Kong today. Starting from the early twentieth century, Hakka women were used as a source of ethnic pride and a paradigm of womanhood in Hakka people’s self-narratives, female magazines and Lo Hsiang-lin’s influential Hakka studies. This historical process has made Hakka women increasingly visible in the public scenes and constituted our current perception towards Hakka women, and continues to be a dominant representation of Hakka women in Hong Kong museums and in intangible heritage properties considered for preservation. This thesis aims to deconstruct the historical narratives of the Hakka women by analyzing the changes of the discourses on Hakka women from the nineteenth century to the present day. It will also examine the ways in which Hakka women have been represented, and whether or not they enjoyed the space to make self- representations. Defining Ethnicity: Who were

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