RURAL ECONOMIC REFORM AND

THE RESURGENCE OF LINEAGE PRACTICES

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy

Pui Lam Patrick Law School of Sociology and Anthropology The University of New South Wales November, 2002 ABSTRACT

Rural modernization in the Pearl River Delta in southern China has taken place rapidly since the 1980's, with the collective agricultural economy being replaced by a free market. The effects of decollectivization on the social as well as political life of the area have been significant. This research seeks to understand the extent and depth of the impact of Rural Economic Reform on lineage practices in a peasant village in southern

China The thesis attempts to argue that some parts of the structures of the revived lineage system will be transformed and some parts will survive intact. It will also argue that the changes and continuities ofthe structures oflineage will lead to the co-existence of traditional and modern elements, resulting in increasing structural tension.

By examining attitudes related to marriage and courtship and the experiences of the married life of old- and middle-aged villagers, the thesis shows that the thirty years of political reform between 1949 and 1978 were been unable to undermine the villagers' attachment to traditional values. Socialism and patriarchy were not incompatible and hence the socialist revolution failed to transform the pre-Liberation patriarchal ideologies in the countryside. Lineage practices have revived rapidly since the implementation of Rural Economic Reform in 1978. As these reforms have taken place for over a decade, there is a growing desire for personal autonomy that has posed challenges in patriarchal relationships. Furthermore, the replacement of traditional economic transactions by market-based ones has increased the growth of individual interests. This has gradually weakened the traditional concept of the collective welfare of the family. The democratization of both social and political life is demonstrated by the case of a young villager, the villagers' reaction towards lineage activities, and the voting attitudes of young villagers in the Village

Committee Election.

The re-embedding force from locality has survived some parts of the traditional lineage structures. The revival of folk religious practices has reinforced traditional gender relations and the thriving sex trade has commodified women. These changes have, paradoxically, reinforced men's belief in the traditional marriage system.

Traditional patriarchal relationships have survived. The thesis also argues that the strategic use of family networks in the Village Committee Election has revitalized the political function oflineage networks, which again strengthens lineage organization.

The thesis concludes that rural economic reform in southern China has brought about changes and continuities of the structures of lineage in Lo Village, resulting in the formation of a specific form of modernity.

ii CERTIFICATE OF ORIGINALITY

I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my lmowledge

it contains no material previously published or written by another person, nor material which to a substantial extent has been accepted for the award of any other degree or

diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due

aclmowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by

others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis.

I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or

in style, presentation and linguistic expression is aclmowledged.

ui Lam Patrick Law November, 2002

111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank The Polytechnic University of Hong Kong for their generous financial support for my Ph.D. studies. I wish to thank the informants at my field site, as they not only provided me information but also looked after my personal safety in the village. Special thanks also go to Dr. S.P. Yuen and Dr. Y.Y. Ho for reading earlier drafts and providing many useful suggestions for the revision of Chapters 2, 4, 5, and 6 of my thesis. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Raul Pertierra, for I have profited immeasurably from both his patience and stimulating suggestions during discussions, as well as from his extensive critical commentary on the draft of this thesis. My final words of appreciation go to my wife, Wai-ching. Her continuous emotional support has made my thesis possible.

iv TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter 1 Introduction 1

Chapter2 Lo Village 43

Chapter3 The Lineage of Lo 71

Chapter4 The Story of Lo Hing-nam 107

ChapterS A Middle-aged Villager 156

Chapter6 A Marriage in the Nineties 202

Chapter7 Rural Economic Reform and the Lo Lineage 246

ChapterS Folk Religion 284

Chapter9 Lo Village Committee Election 331

Chapter 10 Rural Economic Reform: Continuity, Change, and Contradiction with Regard to the Structures of Lineage 388

Bibliography 408

v CHAPTER!

INTRODUCTION

Rural Economic Reform in the Pearl River Delta has been taking place rapidly since the 1980's, with the collective agricultural economy being replaced by a free market economy. The effects of decollectivization on the social as well as political life of the area are tremendous. With the advancement of modern economic conditions, it is widely believed that the destruction of traditional1 lifestyles in the Pearl River Delta during this decade has been more serious even than in the days of the Cultural Revolution. My research seeks to understand the extent and depth of the impact ofRural Economic Reform on the structures of lineage and will argue that the impact of Rural Economic Reform will lead to the changes and continuities of the structures oflineage, resulting in the coexistence of modem and traditional elements. In what follows, I will introduce the significant issue discussed in my thesis.

1 For the sake of convenience, the use of ''tradition" or ''traditional" throughout this thesis is used with reference to continuities with pre-1949 or pre-Liberation culture and society. 1 1 Introduction to the Main Issue in the Thesis

After the communists took over China in 1949, political reforms took place in the villages. At the beginning of 1950, land reform was carried out under which lineage estates, ancestral properties, and the lands and houses of rich villagers were taken over by the government and redistributed to the people, in order that everyone should have his own farmland to farm. Between 1950 and 1954, the collective economy was established in rural areas by a series of measures so that private ownership of lands was completely replaced by collective ownership.

In addition to the changes to the economic structure in rural areas, the communist government launched a series of anti-feudalism campaigns. Lineage activities such as

Spring and Autumn ancestral worship festivals were all forbidden, ancestral halls were pulled down, genealogical books were burnt, and all lineage related religious activities such asfeng shui were banned. Many of the surface structures of the traditional lineage system disappeared during the three decades of socialist revolution.

British social anthropologists believe that lineages in southeastern China were formed as landowning corporations2 and historians who study the formation of Chinese

2 Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China (London: Athlone Press, 1958), 130-3; Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung (New York: The Ath1one Press, 1966), 1-42; Jack M. Potter, "Land and Lineage in Traditional China," in Family and Kinship in Chinese Society, ed. Maurice Freedman (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970), 121-38; Jack M. Potter, Capitalism and the Chinese Peasant: Social and 2 lineage contend that participation in lineage activities such as ancestral worship was essential for the development of group consciousness of the lineage.3 In light of these perspectives, it seems that the establishment of the collective economy and the launch of anti-feudalist campaigns would destroy the old lineage system.

Rural economic reforms introduced in 1979, however, have brought a number of unexpected changes. After decollectivization took place, traditional ways oflife, which had been suppressed during the Cultural Revolution, started to re-emerge. Villagers began to place a strong emphasis on traditional lineage activities, which had been common prior to

1949.4 For instance, ancestral halls, which had been destroyed, were rebuilt in villages throughout the Delta. Genealogical books, which had been burnt during the Cultural

Revolution, were re-compiled. Ancestor worship held at the graves of the dead ancestors and in the newly constructed ancestral halls during the Spring and Autumn festivals have been resurrected. These re-emerged traditional practices have become popular. There has

Economic Change in a Hong Kong Village (California: University of California Press, 1968), 102-17; Hugh D.R. Baker, A Chinese Lineage Village: Sheung Shui (California: Stanford University Press, 1968), 99-131. 3 Patricia Buckly Ebrey, ''The Early Stages in the Development of Descent Group Organization," in Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, ed. Patricia Buckely Ebrey and James L. Watson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 23-4. On more about the historians' perspective on the formation oflineage, see See Evelyn S. Rawski, "The Ma Landlords of Yang-chia-kou in Late Ch'ing and Republican China," in Kinship and Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, 245-73; Susan Naquin, ''Two Descent Groups in North China: The Wangs ofYung-p'ing Prefecture, 1500-1800," in Kinship and Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, 210-44. For a similar viewpoint, see also Keith Hazelton, "Patrilines and the Development of Localized Lineages: The Wu ofHsin-ning City, Hui-chou, to 1528," in Kinship and Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, 157. 4 These changes are common in Guangdong. See Isabelle Thireau, "Recent Changes in a Guangdong Village," The Australian Journal ofChinese Affairs 19/20 (1988): 289-31 0; See also Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Tzme of Change (Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000), 16. 3 relationships among the branches. 8

In addition, villagers still cultivated their own land even in the collective era. The only difference was that they no longer needed to pay rent to their rich kinsmen who had previously owned the land, but to the communist government instead. As a result, the patron-client relationship had shifted from a landlord-tenant to a state-tenant relationship.9 Villagers, however, still considered themselves as the members of local communities rather than citizens of the state.10 Thus, these changes mainly affected the rich landlords in the village since poor peasants cultivated their own land as they did before 1949. Consequently, the mode of the agricultural economy in rural areas did not change significantly.

During the intensely collective era, brigades worked in the form of a factory and workpoints were given to each peasant in accordance with an evaluation of the labour produced in the fields. As mentioned earlier, cadres were related to a lineage, and when they had to distribute work positions to people or calculate the workpoints, their decisions were apparently based on the closeness of kinship relation. 11 More importantly at the end of each year when workpoints were changed into money, the

8 See Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," in Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era, ed. Deborah Davis and Steven Harrell (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 132 9 Jean C. Oi, State and Peasant in Contemporary China: The Political Economy of Village Government (California: University of California Press, 1989). 10 Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984). 11 Jean C. Oi, State and Peasant in Contemporary China, 129-31. 5 been a rapid resurgence of lineage activities.

In view of these phenomena, a number of research works carried out in the 1980's point out that the Communist government failed to transform the pre-Liberation lineage system during three revolutionary decades. The following are their main analyses.

During the period of socialist revolution when collectives were to replace lineage, a three-tiered system, that is the commune, brigade, and production teams, was implemented. 5 The brigade, which was under the management of the commune, was in fact a village. In Guangdong, a large proportion of the villages is single lineage or is dominated by one lineage, and members of production teams were largely from the same lineage branch. 6 Although cadres of the brigade were appointed by the communist government, most of them were from their own villages and had a kinship relationship with their members. In other words, lineage members managed most of the brigades. 7 It was only when the government appointed members from poor lineage branches that conflict arose between lineage branches within the villages. These conflicts, however, did not eliminate the influence of lineage but only reinforced existing hostile

5 On the three-tiered system, see A. Doak Barnett with Ezra Vogel, Cadres, Bureaucracy and Political Power in Communist China (New York: Columbia University Press, 1967), part 3; Benedict Stavis, Peoples Communes and Rural Development in China (New York: Cornell University Press, 1974); Byung-joon Ahn, "The Political Economy of the People's Commune in China: Changes and Continuities," Journal of Asia Studies 34 (1975): 631-58; William Parish and Martin K. Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), chap. 4. 6 Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China, 2. 7 Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, Chinas Peasants: The Anthropology of a Revolution (New York: Cambridge University, 1990), 251-69. 4 money the members of a family had gained was distributed through the head of the family, mainly the father. This continued the influence of the patriarchal structure at the family level.

Elements of traditional culture also existed in the collective era. For example,

Chen et al point out in the Chen Village project that bad elements (huai chengfen) were not inherited from the mother, they were inherited from the father instead, resulting in the continuation of patrilineal inheritance. 12 As Potter and Potter point out, "the outlines of the newly established brigades tended to replicate the outlines of former traditionallineage."13

In short, socialist ideology and patriarchal culture are not incompatible14 and the deep structure of the old lineage system remained intact during the decades between

Liberation and the end of the Maoist era. 15 Therefore, from 1979 when the Rural

Economic Reform was implemented and political control was loosened, lineage activities began to emerge.

Despite the fact that the traditional lineage system has survived the socialist revolution and was revived in the 1980's, it is now undergoing another huge impact

12 Anita Chan, Richard P. Madsen & Jonathan Unger, Chen Village under Mao and Deng, expanded and updated edition (California: University of California Press, 1992), 131-3. 13 Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, Chinas Peasant, 256. 14 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), 261; Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 266. 15 Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, Chinas Peasants, 251-69. 6 brought about by the Rural Economic Reform. 16

In prosperous provinces such as Guangdong, before the rural reform took place the

economy of peasant villages was mainly agricultural. When decollectivization was

introduced, the economic structure of the region, which has good transportation links with

Hong Kong, changed rapidly. 17 Many factories 18 were built on what previously had been

agricultural land and there was a great influx of workers from northern provinces.19 Most

of the peasant villagers who had lost their cultivated land gave up farming. Some worked

in factories and were transformed from peasants to waged labourers; others established

small businesses. Even though other villagers still had land to cultivate, they started to

convert the farmland into fishponds where returns were significantly higher than from

16 On the major changes brought about by the Rural Economic Reform, see W.L. Parish, ed., Chinese Rural Development: The Great Transformation (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1985); K. Griffin, ed., Institutional Reform and Economic Development in the Chinese Countryside (London: Macmillan, 1984); E. Perry and C. Wong, The Political Economy of Reform on Post-Mao China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985); Jorgen Delman, Clemens S. Ostergaard, and Flemming Christiansen, eds., Remaking Peasant China: Problems of Rural Development and Institutions at the Start ofthe 1990 :S (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1990) ; Robert F. Ash, "The Evolution of Agricultural Policy," The China Quarterly 116 (1988): 529-55. 17 See Ezra F. Vogel, One Step Ahead in China: Guangdong under Reform (Mas.: Harvard University Press, 1989), 176. 18 On the development of industrial economy in the countryside, see William A. Byrd and Lin Qingsong, eds., China :S Rural Industry: Structure, Development and Reform (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990); Ezra F. Vogel, One Step Ahead in China, 171-5. 19 On the discussion concerning the influx of outside workers, see Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," 124; Yuen-fong Woon, "Labor Migration in the 1990s: Homeward Orientation of Migrants in the Pearl River Delta Region and Its Implication for Interior China," Modem China 25 (1999): 475-512; C. Cindy Fan, "Migration in a Socialist Transitional Economy: Heterogeneity, Socioeconomic and Spatial Characteristics of Migrants in China and Guangdong Province," International Migration Review 33 (1999): 950-83; Helen Siu, "The Politics of Migration in a Market Town," in Chinese Society on the Eve of 1iananmen: The Impact of Reform, ed. Deborah Davis and Ezra Vogel (Cambridge: Harvard University, Council of East Asian Studies Publications, 1990), 61-82. 7 fanning. Villagers have largely engaged in multi-sector production instead of subsistence production, and the local economy has been gradually incorporated into the global economy.20

Some observations suggest that the above-mentioned drastic economic reforms in the countryside have had negative impacts on the revived traditional lineage system. Their claim is this; with the development of factory wage-labour, young villagers are now able to earn salaries which are given directly to them rather than to their parents, as was the case with the workpoint system in the collective era. They are economically independent and some even have a significant contribution to the household income, giving rise to a new balance of power in the family where decisions are now rarely taken unilaterally by the patriarchs.21 The substantial increase in freedom of mate choice in the 1980's indicates the growth of individual autonomy after 1979?2

Some arguments however, contend that traditional kinship structures in the countryside may not be weakened by the new economic fonns.23 When the household responsibility system was in place in the 1980's, local or overseas lineage ties were essential social resources for villagers engaging in multi-sector economy. The reliance of

20 Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," 119-22. 21 Isabelle Thireau, "Recent Changes in a Guangdong Village," 304. 22 Ibid, 305. See also Matin K. Whyte, "Changes in Mate Choice in Chengdu," in China Society on the Eve of Tzananmen, 181-214; Minchuan Yang, "Reshaping Peasant Culture and Community: Rural Industrialization in a Chinese Village," Modern China 20 (1994): 172. 23 Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," 106. 8 overseas kinsmen in establishing factories in the villages or through the local kinship network in building business connections are examples of using kinship ties as social resources in developing the economy. 24 Thus it is maintained that economic reforms have made the traditional social structure in the countryside once again important and hence the revived traditional lineage system will survive the economic reform.

fu view of these two divergent arguments, it seems that the impact of the Rural

Economic Reform on the structures of lineage is complicated. Through the study of Lo

Village,25 a village in the Pearl River Delta, my thesis attempts to argue that some parts of the structures of the revived lineage system will be transformed and some parts will survive intact. My thesis will also argue that the changes and continuities of the structures of lineage will lead to the coexistence of traditional and modern elements, resulting in increasing structural tension. Structures of lineage in this thesis refer to lineage activities such as ancestral worship; lineage ideology such as lineage norms and values that the villagers commit themselves to; and lineage patterns such as segmentation, social relations, and family life within the peasant village.

fu the next section, I will tum to the theoretical discussion of the main contentious issue contained in the thesis.

24 Elisabeth Croll, From Heaven to Earth: Images and Experiences of Development in China (London: Routledge, 1994), 172-4; Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants, 327-39. 25 Some of the names of the villages, people, and places are fictitious. This was done to protect the informants' privacy. 9 2 Theoretical Discussion

In analyzing the effect of economic reform on rural Chinese society, Scott and

Popkin's works are commonly employed. 26 Scott's moral economy approach and

Popkin's political economy perspective, as maintained by Little, are complementary rather than contradictory.27 Little also argues that employing only a single perspective of these two is unlikely to capture the complex social and historical process of rural social change. 28 In fact, these two works can contribute to the understanding of both the instrumental and the cultural aspects of peasant society in China in the course of rural economic reform. In order to put them together in my thesis as suggested, I will try to explore the possibility of employing Habermas' theory to understand the interplay between the communicative aspect of the cultural approach, and the instrumental aspect of the rational peasant approach on rural social change. However, recognizing the fact

26 For example, see Ralph Thaxton, China Turned Rightside Up (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983); Robert Marks, Rural Revolution in South China: Peasants and the Making of History in Haifeng County, 1570-1930 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1984); Kamal Sheel, Peasant Society and Marxist Intellectuals in China (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1989); Jean C. Oi, State and Peasant in Contemporary China; Vivienne Shue, Peasant China in Transition: The Dynamics of Development Toward Socialism, 1949-1956 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1980); Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village. 27 Daniel Little, Understanding Peasant China: Case Studies in the Philosophy of Social Science (New Haven: Yale university Press, 1989), 67. 28 Ibid, 27. 10 that there are apparent differences between Western and Chinese society both in their historical developments and cultural forms, Habermas' theory of modernity will be employed with caution in explaining the problem of modernity in rural society in the

Pearl River Delta. fu what follows, I shall briefly outline Scott and Popkin's approaches first.

It was Scott's opinion that in a Malaysian village, when double-cropping and the use of combine-harvesters were introduced, the well-to-do fanners "are virtually all concerned with production, income and growth."29 Traditionally, peasants considered land cultivation from the perspective of subsistence and that this had priority over surplus and market production. After mechanization and the green revolution in Malaysia, the well-to-do fanners put more emphasis on economic calculation. Cash rents had to be prepaid and there was no room for negotiation even when the yield was very poor. Furthermore, since the profits gained from double-cropping were good and hiring combine-harvesters was relatively easy, the landlords had taken back the land once rented to small tenants,30 which shows that the impersonal forces of the market economy dominate after modernization with well-to-do villagers considering it rational to maximize gain. Social relations are consequently assessed in tenns of their economic value rather than the traditionally anchored conception of justice on which moral ties were formed between patron and

29 James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms of Peasant Resistance (Mas.: Yale University Press, 1985), 149. 30 Ibid, 165. 11 clients. According to Scott's analysis, prior to modernization, there was a moral context in which the villagers developed their social relationships and their own identities. The effects of modernization, however, lead to the gradual destruction of the traditional moral context, resulting in intravillage social relations being challenged and measured in terms of impersonal economic calculations. This in tum causes the traditional ethical framework to become more fragile and the peasants' social identity to be shattered.

Of the data collected from Lo Village, some support Scott's analysis, particularly those about the solidarity, the sense of brotherhood and the harmonious social relationship between some lineage branches of the Los. The way of paying rent, the relationship between landowners and tenants and the tacit contract of the priority of selling land to their agnates reveal a traditional ethical life that is similar to that which Scott describes. The respect and concern for the elderly villagers revealed in the ritual practices also indicates that there are moral expectations and preferences among the villagers in the pre-Liberation era. Sometimes, however, the villagers intentionally make positive judgments on the nature of social relations and mask some practical aspects of the kinship relations. 31 The information given by the villagers only shows the ideal relationship that the lineage members expect or anticipate.

In Lo Village, the fission of the Lo lineage is a good example of how villagers may

31 Pierre Bourdieu, Outline of a Theory of Practice (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977), 39. 12 not comply with traditional genealogical rules. Some Chinese anthropologists maintain that the fission oflineage in peasant villages is a natural genealogical process.32 It does not imply any conflicts of interest and competition among brothers. After marriage, brothers have to establish their own family so the process of fission has evolved. According to the data in the Lo's genealogical book, however, there is a trend whereby fission always takes place in families with well-to-do and poor brothers. The well-to-do brothers, after the fission, always established a lineage branch and branch ancestral hall so that their poor brothers' descendants cannot enjoy the welfare of their own lineage branches neither can properties be passed to the descendants of their poor brothers. According to the older villagers, it seems that wealthy brothers do not want to share their land and assets with their poor brothers. Some research into the Chinese lineage points out that lineage members are often selfish and instrumental in calculating lineage properties and interests, and this often leads to the fission of lineage in southeastern China. 33 In view of this data, the moral economy perspective cannot provide a complete explanation of the peasant village since it neglects an important empirical fact that villagers are selfish and utilitarian.

Moral economists place too much emphasis on the moral life of village and village

32 See Chi-nam Chen, Jia Zu Yu She Hui: Tai Wan He Zhong Guo She Hui Yan Jiu De Ji Chu Li Nian (Lineage and Society: The Fundamental Ideas of Taiwan and China Social Research) {Tai Bei: Lian Jing Chu Ban Shi Ye Gong Si, 1990). 33 Emily Ahern, The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village (California: Stanford University Press, 1973); Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China; Jack M. Potter, "Land and Lineage in Traditional China"; Rubie Watson, Inequality Among Brothers: Class and Kinship in South China (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985). 13 social harmony, neglecting the fact that peasants are selfish and utilitarian in their thinking and hence do not believe in the fact that there may be possibilities other than the unlimited acquisition of property which gives rise to exploitation and domination in the peasant village. Now, I will turn to Popkin's model of political economy which is entirely opposed to the perspective of the moral economists and at the same time assumes that the peasants are rational self-interested actors.

Popkin uses his model of political economy to study peasant villages. In it he assumes that: "[the peasant] is primarily concerned with the welfare and security of self and family. Whatever his broad values and objectives, when the peasant takes into account the likelihood of receiving the preferred outcomes on the basis of individual actions, he usually will act in a self-interested manner."34 Popkin focuses on the individual's decision making from an economic perspective and also applies investment logic in investigating the formation of norms and the coordination of actions in peasant villages. He proceeds to say that ''by using the concepts of individual choice and decision making, we can discuss how and why groups of individuals decide to adopt some sets of norms while rejecting others. ,.Js

It is Popkin's perception that even the sense of filial piety is developed out of asset investment. He quotes an example from Thailand where "parents hope children will repay

34 Samuel Popkin, The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam (Calif.: University of California Press, 1979), 31. 35 Ibid, 18. 14 their kindness and the trouble they took to raise them by caring for them in their old age, but they cannot rely on their children and thus parents retain title to their property as long as they can to protect themselves."36 If we adopt Popkin's framework to study Chinese peasantry, the traditional filial piety may then be viewed as a lineage norm which has been formed out of the calculation of individual self-interest.

In view of his analysis, Popkin does not consider norms as fixed and culturally determined, rather they are "malleable, renegotiated, and shifting in accord with considerations of power and strategic interaction among individuals."37 Hence, political economists regard the change in norms and procedures as being based on the calculations of rational peasants while the moral economists consider that change is as a result of moral consensus.

In Lo Village, at the beginning of the Rural Economic Reform, some peasants used the lineage networks to consolidate their economic as well as political power where brothers of a lineage branch would join together to accumulate capital to invest in the free market. Some lineage branches re-established their lineage network so that they could form interest groups in order to negotiate with the Party branch secretary of the village.

Hence lineage became an important means by which they protect their interest. Lineage activities flourished more at the beginning of Rural Economic Reform, with villagers

36 Ibid, 18. 37 Ibid, 22. 15 enthusiastically participating in the revived lineage activities so they could gain more following modernization. "If, on the other hand, there are substantial problems of organization, individuals may withhold contributions... Under these conditions the political economy approach can be of value in explicating the dynamics of collective action."38

Some China studies share similar views with Popkin regarding rational peasants.

One work by Shue also maintains that Chinese rural peasants are practical people and will act in all matters out of self interest, 39 and, even though Oi upholds the culture of dependency in rural China, she also points out that peasants are risk-minimizing, admitting that this understanding brings her closer to Popkin's view.40

fu short, Popkin's :framework can give an accurate explanation of the expedient practice of peasant from a self-interested point of view. However, if we merely view the village from this perspective, we will however overlook the influence of cultural elements. fu the Chen Village project, Madsen maintains that the rational peasant model has its deficiencies in explaining collective action.41 The work of Potter and Potter also points out the importance of the understanding of Chinese culture in order to capture the essence of events in rural society. 42

It seems that each framework provides a different perspective. Popkin's rational

38 Ibid, 25. 39 Vivienne Shue, Peasant China in Transition. 40 Jean Oi, State and Peasant in Contemporary China, 153. 41 Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village, 7-10. 42 Sulamith Potter and Jack Potter, China's Peasants, 180. 16 peasant framework puts more emphasis on instrumental or pwposive rationality while moral economists believe that peasants' active participation in village affairs reveals their deep concern for traditional ritual practice. Nevertheless, moral economists place too much emphasis on the traditional ethos of peasant villages, which focuses on the moral life of peasants alone. Their position on the effects of modernization is negative as they believe that the introduction of a cash economy and unlimited acquisition of personal property will inevitably lead to a challenge to the traditional ethos and give rise to the destruction of traditional culture and hence the problem of the destruction of social identity for the peasants.

In order to gam a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of rural economic reform on peasant villages in the Pearl River Delta, both approaches are essential. The perspective of the moral economists provides a framework for analyzing the traditional ethos and identifying the conflicts of change in the course of modernization, while the approach of political economists gives a profound description of how the rational peasants adapt themselves to a changing environment and how they make use of traditional nonnative values to achieve their self-interests.43 In studying the effects of rapid economic reform, changes from outside must bring challenges to the traditional ethos which give rise to conflicts. This leaves the problem of how the peasants respond to change in such a way

43 The idea of synthesizing the two frameworks comes from Pertierra's work. See Raul Pertierra, Religion, Politics, and Rationality (Manila: Ateneo De Manila University Press, 1988), 10. 17 as to transform traditional values. Pertierra's work suggests that we must examine the communicative aspect so that it "enables one to expand rationality beyond the technical, normative and strategic modes ... "44 In order to synthesize the two approaches while paying attention to the communicative aspect of the change, I will employ Habermas' theory of modernity in understanding Rural Economic Reform and its effect on the structures oflineage.

Habermas maintains that society can be conceptually understood in terms of lifeworld and system. Communicative action that takes place in the lifeworld aims at reaching understanding and forming a rational consensus on which the moral standards and social norms of society are built. Lifeworld thus provides a framework and vocabulary for interpreting objective events and turning them into social affairs. Lifeworld is ''the context for language which stands behind the back of each participant in communication and supports the process of understanding. Every actual consensus is achieved against this uniquely pre-reflective form of background relations.',45 Through communicative action individuals develop as well as confirm their membership and identity. Communicative action serves the following functions: "Under the functional aspect of mutual understanding, communicative action serves to transmit and renew cultural knowledge; under the aspect of coordinating action, it serves social integration and the establishment of

44 Ibid, 11. 45 Rick Roderick, Habermas and the Foundations of Critical Theory (London: Macmillan, 1986), 119. 18 solidarity; finally, under the aspect of socialization, communicative action serves the formation of personal identities.'.46 Thus lifeworld is the basis for social interaction, the basis for the reproduction of culture, society and personality. In the same vein, it is therefore, the carrier of cultural, social and personal traditions.

When employing Habermas' theory in studying social change in China, Fei

Xiaotong's idea of "the differential mode of association"47 and Francis Hsu's concept of the "father-son dyad"48 may throw light on understanding the lifeworld in the countryside.

According to Hsu's analytical framework, the father-son dyad is the essential social relation of a village with a single lineage or of a village dominated by a single lineage. As the father-son dyad is essential, this means that the father and his married sons will live together. The horizontal ties of family will then become more inclusive, probably generating a joint family system and hence extending to embrace a large number of members to form a lineage. In addition to inclusiveness, continuity is another important attribute of the dyad relationship, which emphasizes the extension to the

46 Jurgen Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, vol. 1 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1987), 137. 47 Xiaotong Fei, From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society, trans. Gary G. Hamilton and Wang Zheng (California: University of California Press, 1992); Xiaotong Fei, Peasant Lifo in China: A Field Study ofCountry Life in the Yangtze Valley (London: Routledge, 1939). 48 Regarding Hsu's concept of the father-son dyad, see Francis L. K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour" in China in Crisis: Chinese Heritage and the Communist Political System, vol. 1, bk. 2, ed. Ho Ping-ti & Tsou Tang, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968); Francis Hsu, Americans and Chinese: Passage to Differences, 3ed. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1981 [1953]). 19 male's line of descent so as to maintain the spirit of the ancestors stretching across generations as a form of immortality of the father-son dyad. These two attributes generate an elaborate lineage structure in which an individual's behaviour is regulated by the hierarchical kinship network. Within this network, the relationship between kinsmen is defined in terms of the closeness of their bloodline. This patrilineal network is what Fei calls the "differential mode of association." In this network, there are hierarchical orders that stipulate that the junior is subordinate to the senior kinsmen and women are subordinate to men.

In the village where the everyday social relations are dominated by the lineage network, the emphasis is put on collective values which are the values of the family or the lineage. Put in a broader context, even though it seems that the father has sole authority in the family, his decisions are in fact made on the basis of the collective values of the family or the lineage therefore, the importance of the lineage as a whole supercedes the individual, and decisions should be made on the basis of collective values instead of individual emotional gratification. In other words, the villager's decisions or actions are governed by the good of the family, or the good of the lineage.

An individual's personal emotional feeling, or personal "likes" or "dislikes" should not be considered as the basis of his decision or action.49 For instance, there is no room for

49 Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, Chinas Peasants, chap. 9. 20 personal emotional gratification in the selection of a spouse, and marriage is arranged according to the interest of the family rather than the interest of the son. A person's concept of a good marriage should be governed by the family's or even the lineage's concept of good marriage. In short, individual autonomy cannot be exercised in the lineage network.

In Habermas' theory, while lifeworld takes up the task of symbolic reproduction in society, system serves the function of material reproduction. Based upon the social meaning lifeworld provides, individuals carry out their instrumental action for the preservation of bodies and goods and hence the formation of systems. In this sense lifeworld provides anchorage for the system to form the basis for purposive-rational action.

For instance, in traditional Chinese peasant villages, the transaction of landownership and land leasing were regulated by lineage rules, so brothers within the same lineage branch should have priority in buying land, and arable land should be rented to brothers. It was only if their brothers did not want to rent the land, that the land was allowed to be rented to other villagers. The system depended on the lifeworld for the reproduction of norms and values, the reproduction of socialized individuals and the continuation of cultural traditions.

On the other hand the lifeworld relies on the system for its material reproduction. In a modernized society, the lifeworld is highly rationalized where consensus is communicatively achieved while the system is well-differentiated and the mechanism is

21 steered by the media of money and power in the economic and political subsystems respectively.

In the case of China, with the implementation of Rural Economic Reform after

1979, economic transactions are no longer directed by the central planning system but are regulated by the mechanism of the free market. In an ideal situation, a free market provides fair opportunities and environments for competition. A free market does not shoulder any social goals to direct investments and production as the central planning system does. Rather, each individual can have one's own intentions and goals when entering the market and can sell or buy whatever goods one chooses. In addition the individual has the right over the disposal of his own property, which indirectly implies that the individual's decisions and interests are respected in market competition.

Obviously, the mechanisms of the free market have cultivated the consciousness of individual autonomy which is different from the collective ideals of lineage ideology. In view of these features, the awareness of individual autonomy bred in the process of economic modernization certainly challenges the traditional values. For instance, over the issue of marriage, younger villagers will demand more autonomy in the selection of their partners. Thus, it seems that economic modernization does have an impact on the revived traditional culture and thereby leads to the rationalization of the peasant lifeworld, and hence parts of the structures of lineage will be transformed.

22 According to Habennas' theory, when a society is modernized to a certain point, the

communicatively achieved consensus will be intruded upon by the steering media of the

systems. For instance, if the traditional norms are challenged, it is supposed that the

problem of validity claims should be settled by the force of the better argument. Then a

new consensus can be achieved rationally and integration can take place through the

process of reaching a shared understanding of consensual norms. Gradually, however, the

steering media, such as money and power, penetrate the lifeworld and the reasons used in

settling disputes by communicatively agreed consensus become one-sided, that is, they

only follow the logic of the modem market. The crisis faced by modernized societies come

in the form of the intrusion of the highly differentiated system into the lifeworld so that the

rational consensus achieved through communicative action is destroyed and hence social

integration as well as identity are shattered.

Habermas' theory was devised to study the problem of modernity in western society.

In China, however, and particularly in the countryside, the case is different. From 1949 to

1979, China underwent a series of political upheavals while its economy was often a

subsistence economy. The transformation from a subsistence economy to a multi-sector

economy which was gradually incorporated into the global economy in the Pearl River

Delta, took only fifteen years--a fraction of time it took to modernize western societies. It seems that the lifeworld was not rationalized to the stage that the "core cultural tradition is

23 transformed into formal elements such as concepts of the world, procedures of

argumentation, abstract basic values etc., and is thus increasingly separated from the concrete contents."50 On the surface, it seems that the advancement of the modem economic condition will lead to the rationalization of the lifeworld such as the breeding of the awareness of individual autonomy. Yet, there may not be the colonization of the lifeworld similar to that in the West.

According to Taylor's analysis, the market ''would not survive were it not enframed with nonmarket entities" such as commitments, ideals, honesty, fairness and justice.51

When decollectivization takes place and the market economy replaces the collective economy, problems will arise, as it is difficult to draw the line between market and nonmarket elements. Consequently, when the lifeworld has not been rationalized to a mature stage, nonmarket elements such as honesty, fairness and justice by which the market is enframed will not then be developed properly as they did in the West. When economic development proceeds rapidly after decollectivization and while the modem enframing ideals have not yet been developed, the ideas of rational calculation and profit seeking will be dominant in rural areas. In a way this will lead to the unexpected acceleration of the colonization of the lifeworld.

50 Arie Brand The Force of Reason: An Introduction to Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1990), 36. 51 Charles Taylor, .. The Philosophical Reflection on Caring Practices," The Crisis of Care: Affirming and Restoring Caring Practices in the Helping Professions (Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1994), 174-87. 24 If the theories of modernity have been developed to describe the social change of western society, then Taylor's description of the unexpected acceleration of the colonization of the lifeworld may be only one of the possibilities of change in China as it is believed that "there may be quite a wide range of cultural responses"52 of the non-western societies against the domination of economic rationality. For instance, Latouche points out

3 that there may be informal elements in the formal economy of the Third World. 5 Even though Taylor may be right in saying that the modern nonmarket elements may not be developed in the countryside in China, it does not imply that there will be a moral and cultural void and hence lead to the infiltration of the steering media of the system into lifeworld. The revived traditional lineage ideals may become the enframing ideals and support rapid economic development. In fact, some research reveals the fact that lineage values and kinship networks are the socio-cultural conditions for the rapid economic development in the course of rural reform in the countryside in China. 54 Thus when the market economy replaces the collective economy, it may not necessarily lead to the unexpected acceleration of the lifeworld in the countryside in China. On the contrary some lineage ideals have not only remained untransformed but have survived the rapid economic change as they did during the revolutionary decades.

52 John Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture (London: Polity Press, 1999), 96. 53 Serge Latouche, The Westernization ofthe World (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996), 113-5. 54 Elisabeth Croll, From Heaven to Earth, 172-4; Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," 121. 25 fu light of the above theoretical discussion, the impact of the implementation of the

Rural Economic Reform Policy on rural society is complicated, particularly in those economically prosperous areas such as the Pearl River Delta. fu Lo Village, despite the fact that there has been a rapid revival of lineage activities since the implementation of Rural

Economic Reform, the enthusiastic attitudes towards lineage activities began to deteriorate in the 1990's. It seems that this may give rise to the weakening of the collective consciousness of the lineage. Market-oriented economy has led to the growing emphasis of individual interests over family interests, resulting in the emphasis of private property rights. And with the increase in economic independence, young villagers also often claim greater independence in their private matters, leading to a new balance of power, on the one hand, and the growing consciousness of individual autonomy on the other. From

Habermas' perspective, modern economic conditions have transformed the lifeworld in these aspects.

On the other hand, there are also phenomena which show that parts of the old lineage system will be strengthened instead. Kinship ties are important means for villagers to gain economic interests. fu Lo Village, villagers may use connections with their fellow kinsmen to obtain a job in the factory. It is also evident in the grass-roots political reform held in Lo

Village where villagers make use of their kinship network to pursue their economic as well as political interests in the Village Committee Election. This will result in the strengthening

26 of both the kinship network and the traditional value of kinship ties between "me" and

5 anyone who is "one of us" (family member). 5 In addition, religious and magical beliefs and practices have become common phenomena in the countryside in Guangdong. As it is maintained by Potter and Potter, these ritual forms are the expression of the traditional lineage system, meaning that some parts of the lineage structures have survived the rapid

6 economic development and have become important again. 5

These phenomena suggest that drastic economic development may not lead to the total "disembedding of the social relation of the local contexts of interaction."57 There may be "countervailing re-embedding forces from the localities" which give rise to the

"push and pull of the disembedding andre-embedding forces."58 This process may lead to

9 the coexistence of the traditional and modern elements. 5 For instance, economic reform has brought about the growing emphasis of private property rights and the development of the consciousness of individual autonomy in Lo Village. But this change may not indicate a full capitulation of the local lineage culture to the inexorable logic of economic modernization. There are examples that kinship networks survive in the rapid economic development and are also reinforced in the grass-roots political reform. On the one hand,

55 Metzger considers that this value still has influence in Chinese society. See Thomas Metzger, "The Western Concept of the Civil Society in the Context of Chinese History," Hoover Essays No. 21, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace (Stanford: Stanford University, 1998), 12-7. 56 Sularnith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, Chinas Peasants, 337. 57 John Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture, 55. 58 Ibid, 61. 59 Ibid, 96. 27 some parts of the lineage structures are transformed by the economic reform resulting in

the formation of modern elements and, on the other hand, some parts of lineage structures

have survived the economic reform. The coexistence of the modern and traditional

elements reveals a specific form of modernity in Lo Village. 60 Habermas' theory of

modernity, which assumes a simple dualism of tradition and modem, may not be able to

give a comprehensive account of the problem of the modernity of Lo Village induced by

rural reform. 61

In view of the above theoretical consideration, my thesis attempts to argue that

modern economic conditions that ensued from the implementation of the Rural Economic

Reform have brought about changes and continuities of the structures of lineage in Lo

Village, resulting in the formation of a specific form of modernity. I shall also argue that

this specific form of modernity in Lo Village will lead to the coexistence of the modern

and traditional elements, with the result of constituting seeming contradictions. Before

proceeding to the outline of the arguments of the thesis, I will turn to the discussion of the

fieldwork in Lo Village.

60 This idea of a specific form of modernity comes from Peter Taylor. See Peter J. Taylor, Modernities: A Geohistorical Interpretation (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1999), 20-5. 61 This idea comes from Tomlinson's discussion on the issue of globalization and multiple modernities, see John Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture, 63-70. 28 3 Fieldwork

The fieldwork for this thesis took place in Lo Village, which is located in

Dongguang County in Guangdong Province. The fieldwork was mainly carried out from

1994 to 1996. In this period, due to my teaching responsibilities in Hong Kong, I was

not able to stay in the village for long periods of time, as normal anthropological

research requires. Interviews and observations were conducted at the weekends or

during holidays, especially in the summer vacations. From 1996 to 2000, when I was

writing the draft, I went back to the village once or twice every month in order to gather

more information on the changes which had taken place in the village.

Initial interviews carried out in the first half of 1994 resulted in only superficial

data as I found villagers wary of strangers. Perhaps this was the result of their

experiences during the three revolutionary decades. As I wanted to develop closer

relations with the villagers and gain their trust, I rented the ground floor of a house at

the centre of the village in the middle of 1994. The house was old-fashioned and shabby, probably built in the early 1980's. The ground floor that I rented only had three rooms--a bedroom, a living room and a kitchen. There was also a washroom but it was situated in the front garden of the house. I had to share it with other residents living in the second and third floor of the house, and most of them were outside workers. Even

29 though the living condition of the house was poor, it did provide me a place to interview

villagers when it was not convenient to meet them in their own homes. The location of

the house was also very good for conducting research as it was next to the market place

of the village, where many villagers gather during the daytime. It was therefore easy to

meet villagers when walking outside the house. Whenever I went to Lo Village, I stayed

in the house and after that the relationship with the villagers gradually improved.

Establishing a good relationship with the villagers allowed me to have

opportunities to join the functions organized by the Lo lineage. For instance, I

participated in the Spring and Autumn ancestral worship of different families and

different branches of the Lo lineage for several years, both at the graves and in the

ancestral halls. I also joined the activities of the Lo lineage reunion for at least four

years so as to understand the change of the enthusiastic attitude of the villagers towards

lineage activities. When the old villagers planned to build a house to establish the "Lo

Village Fraternity Club", I attended the preparatory meetings as well as the opening ceremony of the Club, watching the conflicts among the kinsmen in the course of founding the Club. I also participated in various kinds of lineage activities in the Lo's main ancestral hall as well as the Tak ancestral hall, a Lo branch hall rebuilt in 1997.

Attending all these lineage activities not only provided me an opportunity to conduct comprehensive participant observation but also to further build up better relationships

30 with the villagers. Some villagers even considered me as one of their members. For

instance in the past few years, I was invited in the summer season to try their famous

fruits such as lychee, and I remembered that in one year they gave me sixty kilogrammes of lychees. During the end of each Lunar year, they would also give me

dry duck gizzard as this is one of the most famous products in their county.

Establishing a good relationship with the villagers also provided me with the chance to meet various strata of villagers and hence to locate the target sample of informants for different areas of inquiry. Despite the fact that I had developed a better relationship with a great many villagers, there was still a problem in conducting in-depth interviews with the old- and middle-aged villagers when using a tape recorder.

Though they indicated that they were not reluctant to be taped in the interviews, the data

collected were superficial when placing a tape recorder in front of them. Perhaps this was the consequence of their experience in the years of political turmoil. In order to collect more important data from these two age cohorts, eventually I abandoned the idea of using a tape recorder. Every time I fmished an interview, I had to rush back and write down the field notes immediately. This problem did not happen among the young villagers.

There were also other problems that I faced in the field. As I had not been introduced by any government officials to the village cadres, I could not gain the trust of

31 the village official even though I stayed in Lo Village for years. On the contrary, they

were very suspicious of my presence in the village. On one occasion I asked the Party

branch secretary to allow me to carry out a village census, but he was not co-operative

and suggested I find someone in the village office to do it for me. I was, therefore, not

able to gather hard data on the Lo Villagers after 1979. I also asked them to give me

permission to read the household registration records of Lo Village, but obviously this

request was rejected too.

In addition, it was my initial intention to include in my study interviews with

villagers of different ages and sexes about the changes they had experienced during the

Rural Economic Reform. Traditional restriction of communication between different

sexes, however, still prevailed where women should keep their distance from men. I was

unable to talk to women in depth, as women seldom told me anything about their life

experiences when their husbands were there, preferring not to join in the discussions.

Although some married women are quite talkative, they were not willing to be

interviewed if their husbands were absent. As a result of these difficulties, the case

studies were conducted with male villagers only. However, it did not mean that I was unaware of the condition of women in Lo Village. During 1994 and 1995, I had also participated in a research project in Lo Village conducted by my colleagues, studying the changing conception of the Chinese self in rural China. There were women

32 researchers responsible for interviewing both female outside workers and female

villagers. Through discussing the data with them, I obtained a very good picture of the

condition of the women in Lo Village. However, I would like to present in this thesis the

ethnographic data collected only by myself so that the reader can experience a male

fieldworker's angle throughout the interviewing process. I therefore did not incorporate

any data about women collected by the female researchers.

4 Outline of the thesis

Chapter 1 is a general introduction to the thesis. It covers the problems of the

study, theoretical issues and the fieldwork. Chapter 2 begins with a brief introduction to

the geographical position, population and industrial development of Lo Village. This is

followed by a discussion on the economic and social environment of the village in the

years before and after 1949; and a brief introduction to the changes in the Lo lineage in

those years and the changes in Lo Village since the implementation of the Rural

Economic Reform.

Chapter 3 will firstly give a brief account of the organization and segmentation of the Lo lineage in Lo Village before 1949. The analysis of the organization ofLo lineage

33 is based on the debate between Western anthropologists and Chinese anthropologists

and historians over the issues of the functions and genealogy of lineage organization.

Through the discussion of this debate, it is attempted to reveal that genealogical rules provide the basis of understanding both the sets of ideas or ideological constructs for the development of the group consciousness, and social relations such as the differentiation of the outsiders and family members of Chinese lineage. On the other hand, the analysis of the economic and political factors affecting the structural aspects of lineage such as segmentation provides understanding of the function of material reproduction in rural society. Integration of these two approaches will then lead to understanding of the communicative aspect and the instrumental aspect and their interactive relationship in lineage. In short, Chapter 3 will show that the concepts of system and lifeworld provide a framework for understanding Chinese lineage, forming the basis for analyzing the impact of the Rural Economic Reform on the structures of lineage in the rest of the chapters in this thesis.

According to the framework of system and lifeworld, it seems that the transformation of the political system after 1949 will inevitably lead to the change of the lifeworld in the countryside. Some anthropologists, 62 however, point out that the

62 Sulamith H. Potter and Jack M. Potter, Chinas Peasants: The Anthropology of a Revolution; Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China; Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed; Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983). 34 anti-feudal campaign was not successful. They have arrived at the conclusion that socialist ideology and patriarchal culture are not incompatible.63 In order to have a deeper understanding why the change in political system has not successfully brought the change of the lineage culture, in Chapters 4 and 5 the stories of an elderly villager and middle-aged villagers will be discussed.

Chapter 4 is about an elderly villager, Lo Hing-nam, who grew up and married before Liberation took place. This case study serves two purposes. Through examining his experience of married life, and his attitudes on marriage and courtship, it is intended to reveal firstly that pre-Liberation lineage cultural values are persistent and deeply influenced his generation, despite the fact that they had experienced thirty years of socialist transformation. In the second place, it is also hoped that the pre-Liberation lineage norms and values, which Lo Hing-nam generally accepts, can serve as a reference for understanding how rural economic reform transforms these norms and values in the case study of young villagers in Chapter 6.

In Lo Hing-nam's case, he was born and grew up before 1949. This may explain to some extent that he and his generation adhere to the pre-Liberation lineage ideology.

Chapter 5 turns to a middle-aged villager, named So Yiu-kong. He was born in the

1950's when China was going down the road to collectivization. During his teenage

63 See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China, 261; Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China, 266 35 years, there were anti-feudalist movements against the pre-Liberation lineage cultural values. In his twenties, the Rural Economic Reform Policy began to take place. Through examining his attitudes on marriage and courtship, and his experience of married life, it is hoped that his story can reveal that villagers of the middle-aged cohort still adhere strongly to traditional values even though they have experienced two tides of social change. Despite the fact that traditional values have had strong influences on middle-aged villagers, like So Yiu-kong, Chapter 5 also reveals how the implementation of the Rural Economic Reform Policy did, to some extent, change some of their views such as the growing emphasis of personal interests over family or lineage's collective interests.

Chapter 6 is a case study of a young villager, Lo King-lam, who was born after the implementation of Rural Economic Reform and grew up in the period when the market-oriented economy has been replacing agricultural economy. Lo King-lam's story seems to be different from the stories of Lo Hing-nam and So Yiu-kong. His way of choosing his wife and his family relationships reveal the gradual formation of values which emphasize personal autonomy, on the one hand, and transform traditional family relations on the other, where intergenerational conflicts gradually increase.

At the end of Chapter 6 there will be a round up of the three stories, which will compare and contrast the changes that the three generations have experienced. In the

36 first place, it will argue that socialism and patriarchy are not incompatible and hence the

socialist revolution failed to transform the pre-Liberation patriarchal ideologies in the

countryside. Then it proceeds to demonstrate that Rural Economic Reform has

successfully brought about changes at the individual level where young villagers

demand more individual autonomy in their daily lives, and hence concludes that

economic modernization will at the same time lead to the rationalization of the lifeworld,

and hence forms a modem personal identity. 64 Finally, it will also argue that, at the

social level, particularly in gender relations, the rationalization process of the lifeworld

has faced an impasse. According to Hsu, as the father and son relation is more essential

than the husband and wife relation, the one-husband-many wives polygamous marriage

system was common before 1949 and the husband had sole authority over his wives. 65

Besides, Hershatter also points out that before 1949, marriage, concubinage, and

prostitution were in a continuum in which women were considered as property and only

the forms of transaction were different. 66 In order to alter this gender inequality, prostitution and concubinage were eliminated after 1949 and a new marriage law was promulgated in 1950 where polygamy and marriage by sale were prohibited.67 The

64 Jurgen Habermas, The Theory ofCommunicativeAction, vol. 1, 137. 65 Francis L. K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour." 66 Gail Hershatter, "Prostitution and the Market in Women in Early Twentieth-Century Shanghai," in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, ed. Rubie S. Watson and Patricia Buckley Ebrey (Berkeley: University ofCaliomia Press, 1991), 256-85. 67 Jonathan K. Ocko, "Women, Property, and Law in the People's Republic of China," in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, 313. 37 thriving of the sex trade began in the 1990's, however, this is considered as the revival

of the pre-1949 prostitution. With the huge supply of girls in the sex trade market, the

traditional idea that women were considered as property has resurged and the

one-husband-many wives marnage has also been revived m the form of buying

mistresses, despite the fact that polygamy is prohibited. As a result, the reproduction of

modem gender relations has been unsuccessful as the thriving sex trade commodifies

women and reinforces men's belief in the patriarchal gender relation.

Research in the 1980's has shown that the deep structure of lineage was not destroyed during the period of the anti-feudalist campaign68 and patriarchal social order remained the basic social order of the countryside in China. 69 With the implementation of Rural Economic Reform, however, it is believed that even though the patriarchal social order was sustained during the period of political turmoil, it will be shattered by the influence brought about by the impersonal force of the market-oriented economy.

The emphasis on individual interests will take precedence over the collective welfare of the lineage. As a result, the relationship between the individual and the family network is no longer as strong as it was before 1949. In light of this argument, Chapter 7 will focus on the discussion that the rapid growing influence of instrumental rationality will

68 Sulamith H. Potter & JackM. Potter, China's Peasants, 251-69. 69 During the period of socialist reform, Madsen maintains that peasants had never thought of themselves as citizens of a nation. See Richard Madsen, Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village, 100. 38 shatter the revived traditional lineage network and that the growmg emphasis of individual self-interest will lead to a huge impact on traditional lineage ideologies. Then it will conclude that the modem economic condition may transform the patriarchal social order of the countryside in the Pearl River Delta.

Due to the release of political pressure in the course of Rural Economic Reform, folk religions which have been banned for years were revived. It is believed that the revival of folk religions "seeks to fill the immense moral and cultural void that has been excavated" during the process of rapid transition from collectivization to decollectivization.70 In addition, as there is an instrumental element in traditional folk religious practice, 71 the growing influence of the instrumental rationality may not shatter, but in some way reinforce the revived religious practice instead. Despite the fact that folk religions are diffused, their influence in traditional lineage values is pervasive. 72 Therefore the revival of folk religion will strengthen the traditional lineage values. Chapter 8 will be devoted to discussing the revival of folk religions in the

1980's, showing that there is a discrepancy of the rationalization process between the

70 Arthur Waldron, "Religious Revivals in Communist China," Orbis 42 (1998): 327; see also Andrew B. Kipnis, ''The Flourishing of Religion in Post-Mao and the Anthropological Category of Religion," The Australian Journal of Anthropology 12 (2001), 32-46; Stephan Feuchtwang, "Local Religion and Village Identity," in Unity and Diversity: Local Cultures and Identities in China, ed. Tao Tao Liu and David Faure (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1996), 159-76. 71 Emily Ahem, The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village; Arthur Wolf, "Aspects of Ancestor Worship in Northern Taiwan," in Ancestor, ed. William H. Newell (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1976), 348. 72 Francis L.K. Hsu, Rugged Individualism Reconsidered: Essays in Psychological Anthropology (Knoxville: The University ofTennessee Press, 1983), 251-62. 39 lifeworld and system. When the economy of Lo Village has become more developed, folk religious activities have become more freguent. At the cultural level, it seems that economic modernization has led to the entrenchment of traditional world views, the sets of pre-Liberation lineage ideologies are once again reinforced through the practice of religious rituals.

At the political level, the Communist Government has been aware of the problem of the disproportionate development of the economy and politics and hence decided to implement grassroots political reform to minimize social unrest in the countryside.

Chapter 9 will then discuss the launch of the Village Committee Election in Lo Village.

In analyzing the conflicts between the lineage branches, the tensions among collective welfare of the family, individual self-interests and individual autonomy in political decisions, Chapter 9 will contend that the political reform, however, not only cannot enhance the development of democracy but also fails to facilitate the growth of political citizenship. More important, it will also demonstrate that the pursuit of the political and economic interests of the villagers will lead to the survival of the traditional lineage structure in the area of polity.

Chapter 10 is the conclusion to the thesis. By employing Habermas' theory of modernity, it is argued that Rural Economic Reform may lead to the rationalization of the lifeworld. At the personality level, indeed the modem economic condition has

40 brought about the development of the consciousness of individual autonomy. At the

cultural level, with the advancement of the market economy, the goodness claim

reproduced by the traditionallifeworld has also been challenged. Through the process of

rationalization oflifeworld, there is the possibility that modem cultural elements such as

fairness and individual rights will be reproduced to replace the lineage-based conception

of good. Theoretically speaking, at the societal level, the kinship-based social

relationship has been shattered and will be gradually replaced by a society legitimated

by civic virtues, resulting in the possibility of the development of possessive

individualism at the personality level. Thus the revived lineage structures may be

transformed by Rural Economic Reform. Even if these changes are likely to materialize,

they touch on only one dimension of social change in the countryside in the Pearl River

Delta. Even though some parts of the traditional lineage structures have been transformed by the modem economic condition induced by Rural Economic Reform, some parts have still survived. The thriving of the sex trade strengthens the social acceptance of traditional gender inequality; revival of folk religions leads to the re-entrenchment of the traditional world views, resulting in the buttressing of the traditional lineage values at the cultural level and the reinforcement of traditional gender inequality at the societal level; grass-roots political reform not only fails to develop civic virtues but also bolsters the resurged lineage organization, hampering both the

41 growth of political citizenship and the development of a civil society in the countryside.

All these reveal the the disembedding forces of the modem economic condition induced by Rural Economic Reform may not be able to uproot all the local cultural elements. On the contrary, the re-embedding force from the locality has survived some parts of the traditional lineage structures. As maintained by Tomlinson, there is "always a push-and-pull between the disembedding forces" of the modem economic conditions and "countervailing re-embedding forces" coming from the locality, 73 therefore there may be a coexistence of modem and traditional elements in Lo Village. Therefore,

Chapter 10 will conclude that there are changes as well as continuities of the revived traditional lineage structures induced by the modem economic conditions. This will lead to the coexistence of modem and traditional elements, resulting in increasing structural tension.

73 John Tomlinson, Globalization and Culture, 61. 42 CHAPTER2

LOVILLAGE

Lo Village is located 6 kilometres to the east of Cheung Lok Town, 1 Dongguang

County, Guangdong Province, and is under the administration of Cheung Lok Town

Government. Before 1993, the main road linking Lo Village and the Cheung Lok Town was a small single-lane motorway. By 1995, the road has been expanded into a triple-lane highway, linking Lo Village to Shenzhen in the south and Guangzhou to the north. In addition, Lo Village is only 3 kilometres from the Cheung Lok Town exit to the highway network, constructed in 1995, linking it with Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Zhuhai. In terms of economic development, Lo Village's proximity to the road network places it at a geographic advantage.

2 2 Lo Village has an area of about 5 km , with a residential district of about 1 km , the remainder being farmland. Since the implementation of Rural Economic Reform in 1979, about two-thirds of the farmland has been filled and leveled for factory construction and industrial development.

1 Some of the names of the villages, people, and places are fictitious. This was done to protect the informants' privacy. 43 Lo Village has a population of about 2,000, comprising some 600 households.

About 1,500 people are of the Lo descent. According to Lo genealogical records, their ancestors migrated from Shandong Province to Guangdong Province at the end of the

South Sung Dynasty, some eight hundred years ago. There are about ten other surnames represented in Lo Village. This type of village, where one lineage dominates, is very common in southeast China.

Since the implementation of the Rural Economic Reform, in the early 1980s, many foreign investors from Hong Kong and Taiwan have opened factories in the village.

Between 1993 and the end of 1999, the number of factories in the village increased from twenty to more than seventy due to Lo Village's proximity to the road network. The population of the outside workers from other provinces also increased from ten thousand to about thirty thousand. These outside workers are mainly from Guangxi, Hunan, Hubei and Sichuan provinces.

The residential district is located at the north of the village. Part of it comprises old farmhouses some of which are broken down. After the reforms, however, some villagers became rich, resulting in newer two- and three-storey houses. The old and new mingle together due to lack of planning. More recently the Lo Village government gave over a large area of farmland to the east of the village for the construction of new houses.

Until early 2000 there was a busy market at the center of the residential district.

44 Every morning the market was crowded with people buying and selling food. This market has been relocated to a new market which is 16,000 square metres.

Prior to 1995, factories were mainly located to the northeast and the south of the village. After 1996, the village government expanded the industrial district and developed the road network. The number of factories increased as a result. Factories previously located near the residential district were moved into the factory district. To accommodate the large population of the outside workers from other provinces, a large number of shops and restaurants were opened. In addition, a small-scale shopping center was opened to provide these outside workers with commodities. As a result of the 1996 plans, the factory district has now been developed into an industrial area.

A large area ofLo Village's farmland has been re-developed for industrial purposes, with only one-third of the farmland remaining. Part of it was also re-developed into fishponds with the rest being rented to peasants from other provinces for farming. The villagers of Lo Village no longer make their living by farming, and so the picture of Lo

Village as a traditional village has disappeared. This change is a common phenomenon in the Pearl River Delta resulting from rural economic reform.

1

45 Prior to 1949, Lo Village was a peasant village and had a population of around 2000.

At that time, there were around four thousand mu (1 mu approximately equals to 0.067 hectares) of paddy fields around Lo Village. Since the Village is situated near a tributary of the Pearl River, part of the paddy fields were saltwater fields. Saltwater fields are not suitable for planting rice, therefore, villagers used to grow water grass in these fields before Liberation. Therefore, most of the villagers of Lo Village made their living by growing paddy rice and water grass. Elderly villagers recall that the paddy fields had good yields in those days, because of the large number of fields and the fertility of the soil.

The fresh water paddy fields could bear two crops per year, yielding around six dan (1 dan equals to 50kg) of grain per mu. The saltwater fields could yield about six dan of water grass per year, some ofwhich was exported to Japan. Before 1949, one dan of grain could be sold for HK$5. Thus, one mu of paddy field could yield a crop worth HK$30.

For a family cultivating three mu of fields, they could earn HK$90. Compared to the price of green vegetables, which were sold at around HK$0.02 to HK$0.03 perjin (1jin equals to 0.5 kg), and the price of fresh fish, which was about HK$0.2 to HK$0.3 per jin, the villagers of Lo Village could be said to have enjoyed a good standard of living. With the exception of the period during the Second World War when Japan occupied this part of

China and there was famine, Lo Village enjoyed sufficient food supply.

46 Before the Liberation, wealthy families in Lo Village sought to purchase farmland because the more land they owned, the greater their income would be. They would also build large houses in order that the whole extended family could live together. Poor villagers, however, could only lease farmland from rich farmers, and they could not afford to build big houses. Any money saved was used for the purchase of farmland, and this would have priority over the buying of land to build houses. Thus, married sons had to live with their parents. This is in contrast to the Rural Economic Reform of 1979, where villagers with any money, tried to buy as much land as possible for building houses, as residential land could be owned privately. Poor farmers tended to lease farmland from their closest kinsmen. This is because, according to the lineage rules, landowners were obliged to lease their farmland to their full brothers if they needed it. In fact, kinsmen had the responsibility to take care of and help one another. Farmers would pay their rent to the landowners in the form of food or grain after harvesting. Elderly villagers recall that, if the farmland could yield six dan of grains per mu a year, they would hand over two dan as rent, keeping four dan for household use. If yield was poor, the rent could be adjusted down accordingly, e.g. 30% or 40% of the total yield as rent.

Landowners also had to follow lineage rules when it came to selling farmland. If one had to sell his farmland because of financial difficulties, he had to inform his kinsmen first to ascertain if they wanted to buy it. Only if none of them showed interest could he

47 sell the land to someone of a different kinship group. Besides, one could not sell but only lease out the ancestral property.

When the Communist Party took over China in 1949, Lo Village, like other villages throughout China, underwent unprecedented change. In 1951, Land Reform took place.

The aim of this reform was to ensure that everyone had his own farmland. The government confiscated the landlords' farmland and reallocated it to those who had not owned any land in the past. This reform had little impact on villagers who used to rent farmland as they continued to use farming to earn a living. The only difference being that instead of paying the rent to the landlords, they paid it to the Communist Government.

Land Reform had little effect on small landlords either, as they had no spare farmland for lease. During the reform they could still work on their own farmland as they only needed to pay part of the harvest to the government. Land Reform had the greatest impact on rich landlords as they could no longer own farmland, and had to start working on the land instead of earning their living by collecting rent.

Three years after the Land Reform, the village government encouraged Lo villagers to set up mutual aid groups among themselves. Families with more labor force were encouraged to help those with fewer to complete their tasks once they had finished their own farming.

During the Land Reform period, apart from paying a proportion of the harvest to the

48 government as public grain, farmers could choose either to sell the remaining harvest to the government or keep it for themselves. After 1954, Lo Village launched the

Lower-level Agricultural Cooperatives Policy which moved the village towards collectivism. This means that the government collected the harvest from all the farmland and then distributed it to the villagers. The criterion for distribution was based on the number of farm workers per family in relation to the area of land worked by that family.

A year later, due to the country's progress on the path to collectivism, Lo Village's lower-level cooperatives became the high-level agricultural cooperatives. Six cooperatives were formed in the village on the basis of dividing the village into equal areas, and as a result the need to distribute food according to farmland area was replaced by distribution solely in terms of the numbers of workers. In 1958, People's Communes were set up throughout the country, with Lo Village as a brigade of the Cheung Lok

Commune. Lo Brigade comprised six production teams which were in fact the former high-level cooperatives. The workpoint system was fully implemented during the people's commune period where workpoints scored by villagers were the result of the evaluation of their work done everyday in their production team. Every day the work of each person was evaluated by their production team, and each person could get about 10 points per day. Those who worked hard might obtain more than 10 points, while those who did less might get fewer than 10 points. Each person could accumulate about 3000

49 points per year, which could be translated into money by the production brigade at the end of the year at a rate of about 10 points for several cents of renminbi. The highest exchange rate was 10 points for eighty cents to one dollar of renminbi. The annual income for each worker was around RMB$300. However, this was not actual income as everyone would receive 35 }in of basic food which was deducted from their total workpoints for the year.

Therefore, if a family of four had only one person working in the fields, after deducting the basic food for four people, this family might have no annual income at all and indeed they would suffer the following year from the overdraw of food since they would be charged for supplementary food provided by the government.

During the period of the Great Leap Forward, under the influence of collectivism, like other villages, Lo Village improved the villagers' collective consciousness by instigating 'dai-guo-fan' (food prepared in a large canteen cauldron) where villagers could dine anytime in the village's collective dining hall. In addition, Lo Village adopted new farming methods that had been introduced by the central government, which aimed at increasing agricultural yields. These however, failed, resulting in food shortages and making prosperity and a new social order, mere dreams. Elderly villagers can still recall the difficult times of 1960. In addition to the Great Leap Forward, China was in debt to the Soviet Union. As a result the government demanded that the people give more food to the state. Consequently, the people of Lo Village suffered from starvation like those in

50 other villages throughout the country. In 1962, because of starvation, many chose to go to exile from Guangdong Province with many villagers from Lo Village managing to flee to

Hong Kong. It was during the Cultural Revolution of 1966 that Lo Village residents experienced their most difficult times. It was not until the Rural Economic Reform of

1978 that their lives began to improve.

After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, the Communist

Party did not merely transform the traditional economic structure in the rural area, the

Party also instigated a political movement against the traditional "feudal culture". Lo

Village's traditional religious activities such as ancestor worship, the practice ofjeng shui

(geomancy) and horoscope were completely forbidden. Ten years after the Communist

Party took control Lo villagers were still allowed to buy incense sticks to worship their ancestors at home. Towards the end of 1960s, however, during the Cultural Revolution, all religious practices were forbidden. Even during Spring and Autumn festivals, villagers could only visit their ancestors' graves secretly and perform very simple worship ceremonies. If they had been discovered, they would have been purged by the village government.

Under the government's political purge against feudalism, the Lo's genealogical book was burnt; the main ancestral hall of worship of the Lo 's pioneer ancestor was initially turned into a meeting place for the villagers and eventually demolished in 1957.

51 Of the 20 branch halls in the village, the majority were pulled down. Those which were not demolished became residential homes to accommodate those who had previously lived in straw huts. The government even encouraged poor villagers to denounce the rich ones resulting in the intensification of long standing conflicts between branches of the Lo lineage and rich Lo people being denounced as landlords or local tyrants. According to elderly villagers, the descendants of Ancestor Tak, who had always been leaders in the village prior to 1949, received the most severe denouncement and eventually lost their position of leadership under this political regime. For the villagers of Lo lineage, the political movement had not only failed to dissolve traditional lineage values but served to further intensify the internal conflicts between the branches of the Lo lineage.

To some extent, the anti-feudal policies of the political regime's movement had on the one hand contributed to the continuation of internal struggle within the lineage and on the other hand, the economic collectivization movements had sustained the traditional family structure. Under the Land Reform Policy, although the land was owned by the state, little impact was felt by the villagers except the rich ones, as villagers still had user rights over the arable land. Moreover, the economic structure was not much different from what it had been before 1949.

During the process of collectivization, especially from the stage of setting up agricultural cooperatives to the stage of the people's commune, however, there was a

52 fundamental change. All agricultural products now belonged to the production team and households no longer had farmland under their own management. All livestock such as chickens, geese, and pigs now had to be reared by the production team. Anyone who tried to rear any thing on their own was classified as "practicing capitalist activities", with the result that villagers could only receive income from the production team. The village was effectively being run like a large factory, with villagers getting rewards based on their performance. The only difference was that a factory paid each worker whereas in Lo

Village, the production team paid the head, who was always the father, of the family. As a direct result, it would appear that parents still had financial control over the family. Thus the policy of economic collectivization did not completely change the traditional family structure of Lo Village.

In May 1950, in addition to the implementation of anti-feudal activities, the government promulgated a newly formulated Marriage Law in order to remove the traditional marriage system which it regarded as feudal. In 1952, a work team came to Lo

Village to promote the new Marriage Law and to encourage the freedom to choose one's own spouse. Despite the Marriage Law having been promoted since the 1950s, the villagers continued to rely on match-makers to organize marriages for their sons and daughters right up until the 1970s. According to some of the villagers, there was never any endogamous marriage, that is marriage between people of the same surname before

53 1949. It was not until the 1960's, after the promulgation of the Marriage Law, that the first endogamous marriage took place, however, these were rare and it was not until the 1980's that their number increased.

In the early 1950's, the Chinese government established the Women's Federation and sent work teams to Lo Village to promote communist feminism and to establish women's organization which gave guidance on how to oppose unreasonable traditional practices. For example, a woman who had been treated miserably by her mother-in-law, would be encouraged to speak up and fight back by making complaints to the village government. The Women's Federation also taught women to be independent and not to rely on other people. Married couples who could afford to live independently, were encouraged to move away from the husband's parental home. Failing this, they should strive to have an independent living area within the husband's parental home in order to avoid parental control. The promotion of feminism failed to bring to the women in the village a complete change of their status. However, when the elder women recalled this reform, they thought that compared to their situation before 1949, their status and rights had improved.

2

54 It was only after Mao's death in 1976 that the collective economic policy was changed and the commune system failed to materialize. In addition, the workpoint system of production teams was disbanded and was replaced with the policy of allocating farmland to every household. In Lo Village, every villager could receive an average of about 2 mu of farmland, with the State only asking for a hundred kilogrammes of the yield from the harvest of each mu of farmland for public grain. Each household could rear their own livestock such as chickens, geese, ducks, and pigs. The policy of distributing farmland to households was similar to the Land Reform of the 1950s. After 1979, villagers were even allowed to work outside the village as long as they paid RMB$20 to their production team every month. Since agricultural economic collectivization was completely dissolved after 1980, however, villagers could choose their own jobs, making such payments to the production team a thing of the past.

At the end of 1978, China started her Rural Economic Reforms and Opening Policy, resulting in some factories from Hong Kong beginning to move to the Pearl River Delta for development purposes. It was at this time that a plastics factory from Hong Kong moved into Lo Village, followed in 1979 by a textile factory from Hong Kong. Villagers working in the factories could initially earn between RMB$70 to 90 rising to RMB$120 after 3 months, making it more profitable to work in the factories than on the land, leading

55 to competition for factory jobs.

In 1988, the number of factories established in Lo Village had risen to eight sparking a labour force shortage. Since then, increasing numbers of outside workers from other provinces have begun working in Lo Village. Initially, there were about 500, earning wages similar to workers from Lo Village. Local workers, however, have enjoyed better promotion prospects.

As the number of factories continued to increase after 1988, the village government began to collect farmland from the production teams for factory construction, with about

300 mu of farmland being collected that year at the cost of about RMB$1 00 for each mu of land collected. In 1991, the requisition of farmland reached its peak, with almost half of the available farmland being collected for factory construction. No price for land collection was announced by the government. Households only received payment once the factory had paid rent to the production team. In 1992 of Lo Village's six production teams, teams 3 to 6 had sold all their arable farmland, either for factory construction or for fishponds and by 1996 only one-third of arable farmland remained, the majority of which was rented by workers from other provinces.

During the collection of farmland in 1991, villagers were very dissatisfied with the village government because they did not receive the profits gained from land sales, neither was the price for the land collected made public. Early in 1992, some villagers

56 prepared banners to demonstrate in the village about this, however, when the village government found out about this incident, it quashed the villagers' anger by intimidation and bribery. Many such incidents happened over this period in other Pearl River Delta villages as well.

In 1991, the village government began to re-develop the southern area of farmland into an industrial district. In 1993, there were about ten factories in the industrial district, as well as around ten small-scale shops mainly selling clothes and other commodities. In addition, there were three simple restaurants and a small cinema. Each evening after working hours, the streets and the shops were crowded with outside workers and probably due to the lack of other places for entertainment. Every night before the start of a movie, the area near the small cinema was besieged with people.

By 1993, the number of factories in Lo Village had increased to twenty and the population of outside workers from other provinces had also increased to more than ten thousand. The village government was still pressing on with construction projects in the industrial district to the south, with farmland near the factory district having become construction sites between 1993 and 1994. Later, factories were built one by one in this area By 1996, the area ofthe industrial district had increased several times. At the same time, the village government moved all the factories from the northeast of the residential district to the southern industrial district. In that year, the number of factories increased to

57 more than 60 and also the population of the outside workers from other provinces increased to 30,000, of which 70% were female.

At the beginning of 1996, however, the number of factories moving into the village decreased considerably and in 1997, the deterioration of Hong Kong's economy had a direct impact on development across the Pearl River Delta. The number of foreign investors decreased considerably in Cheung Lok Town. Despite this, however, farmland around Lo Village continued to be filled and leveled for factory. In fact by 1998, only about 2,000 mu of farmland remained. The fmancial melt down in Asia of 1997 did have a dramatic effect on investment with only one factory moving into the village in that year.

It was not until 1999 that the number of factories setting up in Lo Village started to increase slowly and by early 2000, the number of factories was more than 70. Most of the factories which moved into Lo Village during these two years were not labour intensive industries, so for this reason, the population of outside workers from other provinces remained constant at around 30,000.

3

Before 1996, there was a 700 meter long cement road linking Lo Village's industrial

58 district with its residential district, with the fannland along the road having been filled and leveled. A simple sports ground had been built to the east of the fannland. In 1997, about RMB$700,000 was invested by the Lo Village government to expand and complete the road between the industrial district and the residential district, with a further

RMB$1.5 million being invested to construct two more roads the following year. One was a two-way triple-lane motorway which links the industrial district to the highway network to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Zhuhai, the other was a two-way double-lane motorway which links the residential district to the same highway network. The two roads were completed at the end of 1999 and provide substantial advantages in terms of transportation links between the industrial district and the residential district and with the other places outside the village.

In 1997, with an investment of around RMB$2.5 million the simple sports ground between the industrial district and the residential district was re-built into the Lo Village

Recreation and Sports Center, with various facilities being completed in 1999 and 2000 respectively. The center opened early in 2000.

Facilities include a turfed soccer pitch, a basketball court, a tennis court, swimming pools, an indoor gymnasium, a library, an exhibition hall, an indoor activity room, a cinema and an open-air theatre. The area of the soccer pitch is not very large but spot lights were installed, making it suitable for soccer matches. Each year, two soccer

59 tournaments are held here, with up to 50 teams participating. On each side of the soccer pitch are the basketball court and the tennis court which is quite mediocre due to a lack of interest in tennis. The swimming pools include a children's pool and a 30-meter swimming pool. The swimming pools are mainly used by the outside workers as the villagers believe that pool hygiene is not what it should be. The water did appear rather murky.

Next to the swimming pools is the indoor gymnasium with an area of about

5,000m2 and a seating capacity of 1200. It is used for holding basketball and badminton matches. On either side of the gymnasium, electronic score boards have been installed.

The cost of renting the gymnasium is very expensive, e.g. to hold a basketball match in the gymnasium would cost RMB$300 per hour.

The library has almost 20,000 books, therefore, an electronic alann system was installed to prevent books from being stolen. Adjacent to the library is a study room with a capacity for 100 people. It provides readers with more than 30 different newspapers and magazines. According to the library staff, the major users of the library and the study room are the outside workers from other provinces.

The facilities of the indoor gymnasium include 6 table-tennis tables and 10 British and American Billiards tables which are free of charge. In the evening, the indoor gymnasium is packed with outside workers.

60 The cinema has an area of about 2,000 square metres, with a seating capacity of about 900. Aside from basic facilities such as air-conditioning, the audio-visual system is also very advanced, being a Dolby surround sound system. The movies shown are mainly the latest Chinese and foreign movies, at a costs of RMB$5 to RMB$8 per ticket. The purpose of installing an advanced audio-visual system was not just for the showing of movies but also for hosting meetings and some factories have made use of this facility.

Next to the Recreation Center is Lo Village Cultural Square with an area of30,000 square metres, constructed at a cost of RMB$7 million. The Cultural Square is a place where villagers and the outside workers spend their leisure time. In the Square, there are flower-beds and the Lo Village Open-Air Theatre. Programs such as theatrical festivals, singing contests and karaoke contests are arranged for the outside workers in the Theatre.

In 1999, at the western side of the cement road, the Lo Village Market was built in

2 an area of 16,000m • It replaced the simple market located in the residential district. In area it is larger than the market in Cheung Lok Town, with a capacity of 500 stands and more than 50 shops. The shops are two-storey buildings with the upper floor for accommodation, each covering an area of 50 square metres. Rentals for the shops and the stands are allocated by open bidding, the minimum rent for a stand being RMB$250 and for a shop RMB$500 to RMB$800. The open bidding attracted bids from both local villagers and outside workers with the effect that a stand went for about RMB$500 to

61 RMB$800 and a shop for up to RMB$2,000. Within a month all the stands and shops were rented. Based on these rental figures, the income the Market gained from rents alone in the first year was about RMB$2 million. After the Market opened in June 2000, it became apparent that supply outstripped demand, resulting in many stand-holders going out of business in little over a month. When the Lo Village government realized that trading in the new market was slow, they decided to force the seventy factory canteens to buy food from the Market.

Next to the Market is a three-storey kindergarten covering an area of about 12,000 square metres built to replace the old kindergarten in the village. The equipment and facilities necessary to the kindergarten were installed to a high standard, and it opened its door for the new term in September 2000.

In the early 1990's RMB$1 million was spent on the construction of Lo Village

Primary School, however, in 2000 a further RMB$4 million was earmarked for the expansion of the school. This was in direct response to a new primary school with more modem facilities such as a lecture hall, computer laboratory and recital hall, having been built in a neighboring village in 1996. This school was regarded by the Provincial

Education Department as a first rate primary school in the province. To save face, therefore, Lo Village Primary School was to build two more five-storey buildings - a science building and an education building, in order to become the primary school with

62 the most advanced facilities in the district. There are to be computers installed in the

Science building to develop computer science, and in addition, there is to be a sports

2 ground with an area of3,400m •

Although the factory district has been expanded and its development planned as well, with many recreation facilities having been built in the village, the treatment of outside workers from other provinces has not improved. Despite the fact that some of these outside workers have better educational qualifications and are more able, their promotion prospects are poorer than those of the local workers. This is because in the factories almost all the senior staffs are local villagers and they will promote villagers first.

On the salary front, a factory worker's starting salary in 1996 had remained similar to that of 1993, which was RMB$300 per month. Since 1997, as a result of the deteriorating economic conditions, the monthly salary has remained at between

RMB$300 and RMB$400, yet cost of living in the Pearl River Delta had soared. For example, between 1993 and 1996, the price of a plate of rice in a restaurant in Lo Village increased from RMB$3 to RMB$5.

The treatment of the local workers has been much better than that of workers from other provinces. A village factory worker might start in a junior position, however, after a few months, he/she could expect to be promoted to be a production line supervisor or a

63 JUniOr supervisor, superv1smg outside workers. Nevertheless, promotion to factory director, manager or senior supervisor still depends on family ties. The opportunity to reach senior positions is greater for males than for females. All factory directors in more than seventy factories in Lo Village are male villagers. Most of the senior supervisors are also males whereas females are more likely to be junior supervisors.

After the Rural Economic Reform, apart from working in factories, villagers were free to run various kinds of business, and so some of the villagers contracted out fishponds, some ran pig farms and others fruit farms. The industrialization of Lo Village brought with it many investment opportunities. As farmland was filled and levelled and factories constructed, the expansion of the industrial district provided the villagers with many opportunities for running small businesses within the industrial district. Many villagers opened various kinds of shops, for example, grocery stores, and clothes shops, as well as restaurants.

During the establishment of the People's Communes, the villagers in Lo Village lived in misery, and it was not until the implementation of the Rural Economic Reform, that the villagers' living conditions began to improve. For example, before 1979, of the

600 households in the village, only a few had electric rice cookers. Now, almost every household has essential domestic electrical appliances, and some affluent villagers not only have had their houses luxuriously renovated but also have two or three expensive

64 imported cars.

As a result of the Rural Economic Reform, economic development in Lo Village boomed. In 1979, the average income per person was only RMB$230, but by 1996, the total output value of industry and agriculture in Lo Village was RMB$148,890,000, with net profit of RMB$35,180,000 and the average income per person had risen to

RMB$16,000. In 1997, although economic development slowed down in Lo Village, the total output value of its industry and its agriculture was RMB$167,600,000; the net profit was RMB$40,280,000 and the average income per person was RMB$17,854. By 1999, the total output value of the industry and agriculture had increased to RMB$221,270,000; the net profit was RMB$52,070,000 and the average income per person was

RMB$22,798, or an increase of nearly one hundred times over 1979.

Although net profits were very high between 1996 to 1998, each villager only received an annual dividend of about RMB$4,000 from the collective investment in Lo

Village. At the end of 1999, the dividend was increased to about RMB$7,000. It has been suggested that the reason for this increase was that the Party branch secretary wanted to settle the villagers' dissatisfaction with his bribery. At the end of 1998, after the village committee elections, the villagers went to the Central Government to accuse the Party branch secretary, who had been elected to the position ofVillage Committee Chairman, of bribery. In order to calm the situation, the Party branch secretary doubJed the year-end

65 dividend for the villagers.

Conditions for economic development in Lo Village were ideal, yet investment opportunities lay in the hands of the Party branch secretary and members of the village government. For example, the secretary and the cadres awarded the contracts for filling and leveling the farmland and of factory construction to a construction company which they owned themselves. This situation meant that even though villagers had enough capital to invest, in order to gain lucrative business contracts they had to rely on nepotism, otherwise they would not be given any support by the village government. In Lo Village, those who could get rich within a few years were the cadres of the village government or their relatives. Other villagers had to rely on the support offered by wealthy Hong Kong relatives in order to get rich, few other opportunities existed. The situation was similar in other villagers. However, in comparison with those in the neighbouring villages, the opportunities of having equal access to investment in Lo Village were more limited.

Rural Economic Reform and the open policies not only encouraged a free economy in Lo Village, but also brought about a revival of lineage activities. After 1979, before the political environment became more lax due to economic development, ancestor worship and the memorial ceremonies of Spring and Autumn festivals began to appear. In the early 1980's, during the memorial ceremonies seasons of Spring and Autumn, some branches of the Lo Jineage gathered all their male members together to visit their

66 ancestors' graves and take part in ancestor worship. Those who had emigrated illegally to

Hong Kong in the past would also come back to participate in these activities. In addition to worshipping their own branch's ancestors, members of the Lo lineage would gather all the male members and visit their first ancestor's grave.

Around 1984, a group of senior Los discussed the rebuilding of the main ancestral hall which had been demolished. This idea was supported by Lo descendents in Hong

Kong who, during the planning of the rebuilding of the ancestral hall, gathered

HK$180,000 within a few months in 1985. This was augmented by those in Lo Village who gathered RMB$20,000. During the preparation stage, the Party branch secretary of

Lo Village opposed the plan. He was called Mok Chun-keung whose family had been in

Lo Village for three generations only. The group ofLo elders knew that the rebuilding of ancestral halls also took place in other villages so they insisted on their plan. Finally, the rebuilding project started in 1986 and was completed in 1987. On the opening day, Lo lineages from other villages came to Lo Village to offer their congratulations on the completion of the ancestral hall.

When the rebuilding project was completed, there-compilation ofLo genealogical records, which had been burnt during the Cultural Revolution, began. Since the original records had been burnt, family records which had been hidden by members of the lineage branches and those kept by members who had emigrated illegally to Hong Kong had to be

67 relied upon. These family records were collected and reorganized. In addition to organizing these family records, each household was visited and information about the new generation ofLo family's male members from 1949, was recorded.

After the rebuilding of their ancestral hall and the reorganization of their genealogical record, the elders in the village planned to establish a Lo Fraternity Club, which was to be used for the gathering of Los from Hong Kong and other Lo villagers of leisurely pursuits. In recognition ofthe expansion ofLo lineage's power in Lo Village, the secretary proposed to name the club "Lo Village Fraternity Club". Despite the fact that the name of the club was not the Lo Fraternity Club, the committee members were all Lo lineage members.

Although lineage activities bloomed again, few youngsters participated as most of the young villagers seemed uninterested in such activities, whereas among some of the more enthusiastic elders, there was often conflict over positions of importance which discouraged other supportive elders.

4

At the end of the 1980's, in the wake of economic development, the sex trade

68 appeared in Cheung Lok Town and in other villages, and flourished in the early 1990's.

Such activities took place in salons, karaoke night clubs, coffee shops, and massage parlours. After the Cheung Lok Road, which stretches from Cheung Lok Town to Lo

Village, was expanded into a two-way triple-lane motorway, the number of karaoke night clubs increased from 6 to more than 20. In a famous karaoke night club in Cheung Lok

Town, there were more than 1,000 "mistresses" at its peak. In these places, most of the guests were businessmen or technicians from Hong Kong or overseas. Later, these places became the major places of entertainment for local males, with the more affluent villagers going to karaoke night clubs to spend their leisure time while those on lower incomes would go to salons seeking sex.

In Lo Village, males, both young and old, made use of these places in their leisure time, some of them spending five days a week there seeking sexual gratification. Most affluent villagers would keep a mistress and some would keep even two or three. Even some factory supervisor on a monthly salary ofRMB$5,000 or RMB$6,000 would keep a mistress. Mistress were mainly from other provinces and had initially come to Lo Village as outside workers, but were tempted by the money available from the sex trade and either augmented their salaries or quit their factory jobs to become mistresses.

At the end of 1997, after more than 10 years of development, coupled with the influence of the Asian financial crisis, the economic development in Lo Village had

69 calmed down. Various kinds of business have suffered as a result of the financial crisis

and the opportunity of getting rich overnight became rare and even finding a job became harder. There have been signs of economic revival since 1999, but further reforms may be needed for villagers to feel the benefits.

70 CHAPTER3

THE LINEAGE OF LO

A famous British social anthropologist, Maurice Freedman, points out that

segmentation of the lineages in southeastern China is functional, maintaining that:

"The essential point about the Chinese case is that political and economic

power generated either within or outside the lineage itself, urges certain

groups to differentiate themselves as segments and provides them with the

material means to persist as separate entities through long periods of time-

as long, that is to say, as their common property is held intact."1

Some historians and Chinese anthropologists,2 however, argue that Freedman's

functional approach fails to spell out the essential features of the Chinese lineage. By

analyzing the fission and fusion of the Lo lineage before 1949, the aim of this chapter is

1 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung (London: Athlone Press, 1966), 39. 2 Chi-nam Chen, Jia Zu Yu She Hui: Tai Wan He Zhong Guo She Hui Yan Jiu De Ji Chu Li Nian (Lineage and Society: The Fundamental Ideas of Taiwan and China Social Research) (Tai Bei: Lian Jing Chu Ban Shi Ye Gong Si, 1990); Patricia Bucldy Ebrey, "The Early Stages in the Development of Descent Group Organization," in Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, ed. Patricia Buckely Ebrey and James L. Watson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 29; P. Steven Sangren, "Traditional Chinese Corporations: Beyond Kinship," Journal ofAsia Studies 43 (1984): 391-415; David Faure, "The Lineage as a Cultural Invention: The Case of the Pearl River Delta," Modern China 15 (1989): 14-36. 71 to contend that the native perspective of the Chinese anthropologists and the historians and the functional approach of the British school of social anthropology are not mutually exclusive but complementary in approaching Chinese lineage. By integrating these two approaches, it serves to understand the communicative as well as the instrumental aspect of the Chinese lineage in the countryside before 1949. In what follows, the Lo lineage will be examined.

Lo Village has a population of approximately 2000 and the majority shares the surname Lo. There are also some ten other surnames represented in the village. This is common in southeastern China as most villages are inhabited completely or predominantly by people of a single surname. 3 According to the Lo genealogy and the villagers' memories, 4 the place of Lo origin was Shandong, with their ancestors moving and settling down in Jiangxi. In the year of the establishment of Jian Long of the North

Sung Dynasty (around 960 A.D.), they moved to Shashui village in Zhu Ji Xiang, Nan

3 Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China (London: Athlone, 1958), 2. 4 As Faure points out "fictitious claims built into written genealogies in the pursuit of political interests counteract the accuracy of these documents as records of vital statistics." See David Faure, ''The Written and the Unwritten: The Political Agenda of the Written Genealogy," in Family Process and Political Process in Modern Chinese History, Part 1 {Taipei: Institute of Modern History, Academia Sinica, 1992), 263. Even though there may be the issue of accuracy when the genealogy is used as a record of vital statistics, written and unwritten genealogy records may also be viewed as "a set of claims to origin and relationships, a charter, a map of dispersion, a framework for wide-ranging social organization, a blueprint for action," and a political statement as well. Therefore, the genealogical book of the Lo lineage will be used for understanding the above aspects of the lineage. See Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, 31. 72 Xiong, Guangdong. The first Lo ancestor5 in Lo village was Wai-yuet who was the

governor of Dongguang Province during the period of Shao Xing of the Sung Dynasty

(around 1130 A.D.). As governor, he travelled to Lo Village and found it a pleasant

place and decided to retire there. In the genealogy, it is recorded that "Wai-yuet in his

old age built Ningxi Study House and Pu Dao Temple to foster the next generation to

build up scholarly temperament."6 From Wai-yuet to the present there have been twenty

generations stretching over 800 years.

After Wai-yuet had settled in Lo Village, members of the Lo lineage, moved to

other places in Guandong and a number of segments of Lo lineage were established

throughout the Pearl River Delta. For example, Kin-yuen of the fifth generation moved

to Xiangshan, today' s Zhongshan County, to take up the position of Salt Transportation

Officer for Guangdong, and became the main ancestor of the Lo's ofYakou, Zhongshan.

Yu-Long, Kei-Gall and Sup-tak moved to Jietou, Chung Pak: Tong and Wai-sin

respectively and the Jui of the ninth generation, also called Sing-Urn, took the position

of Station Officer at Fujian. They consequently became the pioneer ancestors of those

places. Since the Rural Economic Reform of 1979, when the people of Lo Village

became richer, Lo villagers began contacting their lineage members in other villages

5 For the emergence of the concept of first ancestor or pioneer ancestor in southern China, see David Faure, The Structure of Chinese Rural Society: Lineage and Village in the Eastern New Territories (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986), 4-5; Allen Chun, "The Lineage-Village Complex in Southeastern China: A Long Footnote in the Anthropology of Kinship," Current Anthropology 37 (1996): 429-50. 73 and places. Now they hold joint-village gatherings 7 every Lunar New Year or during festivals such as Spring and Autumn Ancestors' Sacrifice.

The Lo's of Lo Village are mostly descendants of Kwun-lan (1389-1456 A.D.), the ancestor of the eighth generation. Kwun-lan had seven sons, the eldest, Wan; the second, Leung; the third, Jui; and the fourth to seventh were respectively Ching, Foon,

Kong and Hou. Wan had five sons, but only the eldest and the third sons had descendants. His eldest son, Sing, had six sons and they became the largest segment of the Los. The third son had few descendants. Leung had five sons as well, but only the third son, Yik, and the fifth, Fong, had descendants. In the genealogical record, their family sizes were far smaller than that of Wan's descendants. Since Kwun-lan's third son took the position of Station Master of Fujian and moved there, there is no information on his descendants available. The fourth and the seventh sons, according to the record of genealogy, had no descendants. The Lo's of Lo Village are, therefore, mainly descended from the first and secondfang ofKwun-lan. Fanl is a genealogical concept concerning the relationship between a father and his sons. For example, if a

6 The Introduction of the Lo's Genealogy. 7 The grouping of joint-village lineages on the basis of the ancestors of these lineages being descended agnatically from a common ancestor is called a higher-order lineage. See Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, 20-1; See also James Watson, "Chinese Kinship reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research," The China Quarterly 92 (1982): 608. 8 For the details of the conceptfang, see Chi-nam Chen, Jia Zu Yu She Hu, 129-213. 74 father has two sons, then he has two fangs. The concept of fang will be examined thoroughly in relation to Lo lineage in the later section.

Among the six fangs of Wan's eldest son, Sing, only the first fang, Chi, had no descendants. (See Figure 1, p. 105) The second fang, Him, had the largest number of descendants. One of Him's descendants, Wui-tong (fifteenth generation), had six sons and he had the most male descendants and land among Him's fangs. Two of these descendants were even rich landlords in Lo Village before 1949.

The information on the descendants of the third fang, Yeung, is not recorded in the genealogy, but other villagers do not recall him having many descendants. Some information may have been lost during the Cultural Revolution as there is little recorded.

The fourth fang, Ot, also had few descendants and the information of its thirteenth to nineteenth generations was lost.

Although the descendants of the fifth fang, Shau, were fewer than the second fang, its two segments were the most powerful in the village around the period from the end of the Ching Dynasty to the start of People's Republic of China. Shau's son, Ying-kei of the twelfth generation, had five sons. His third son, Sheung-kwai had three grandsons,

Wui-dian, Wui-mok and Wui-ho of the fifteenth generation. They were the third fang which had the largest number of male descendants and was the most powerful ofShau's segments. The grandson of Wui-dian's son, Wan-Tong, that is, Lin of the eighteenth

75 generation, and Lin's second son, Wan of the nineteenth generation, were presented scholars (Chin-shih) in the age ofKang Xi (around 1720 A.D.) and Qian Long (around

1760 A.D.) of the Ching Dynasty. Lin was appointed as the county governor of Shing

City, Sichuan, while Wan was appointed as the county governor of Pingliang Town,

Gansu Province. The name of "both father-and-son were presented scholars" meant that

Wui-dian branch was held in high esteem and their power in the village was enormous.

Even today the Wui-dian branch is influential in the village. Tak of the eighteenth generation, was descended from Wui-mok and was a presented martial arts scholar. All four of his sons were recommended men (Chu-jen), making the Tak branch no less powerful than the Wui-dian branch. Wui-dian had many descendants but none achieved any great fame.

Examination of the genealogical book reveals that the number of people in the sixth fang, Lam, was not initially small, however, as they were the descendants of the last concubine of Sing, they often suffered bullying by the other fangs. According to some elderly villagers, the descendant of the second, third, fourth and fifth fangs frequently joined together to bully the descendant of the sixth fang, making Lam the weakest of Sing's fang. Nevertheless, during the period of the Cultural Revolution,

Hing-wai of the twenty-third generation of Lam became the Party branch secretary of

Lo Village.

76 The grandson ofWan's third son, Yu, that is, Yu-Chuk of the eleventh generation, had more than 60 male descendants.

Kwun-lan's (eighth generation) second son, Leung, had six sons, but only the third son, Yik, and the fifth son, Fong, had descendants. In the genealogical book, the record of Yik's descendants after the thirteenth generation was missing. In 1993, however, the information on the descendants of the twenty-second generation was added. The fang ofFong is a little larger than the fang ofYik, however, when compared with Kwun-Lan's first son, Wan, his descendants are far more numerous.

According to the genealogy and the recollections of the older villagers, several Lo ancestors were officials during the Ming and Ching Dynasties.9 For example, Wai-yuet was the governor of Dongguan county; Chung-pak (fourth generation) was the Salt

Executive of Guandong; Sing-Urn (the ninth generation), was the Station Master of

Fujian; Wu of the twelfth generation was a presented scholar; Kwan of the sixteenth generation was appointed a Confucian official in Guangdong. There were also presented scholars in the seventeenth to nineteenth generations. Their descendants proudly pointed out that, "Nine had distinctions in five generations of licentiates; eight out of ten who studied literature became famous." Being presented scholars and serving as an officer in the government of the Ming and Ching Dynasties brought honour to the whole lineage.

77 In most of the villages in the area around the Pearl River Delta, whenever an

ancestor was honoured as a recommended man or a presented scholar, if wealthy, his

descendants would build an ancestral hall to commemorate and commend his

achievement. 10 This also served to enhance the reputation of the family. It was also

11 common for rich people to build ancestral halls to commemorate their ancestors • In Lo

Village, apart from the Lo' s main ancestral hall, there were some twenty other branch

ancestral halls built to commemorate those ancestors who had gained degrees and

became scholars or had been highly respected.

The son of Ying-kei of the twelfth generation, for example, who passed the

provincial examination and was a recommended man, built the Ying-kei ancestral hall.

Although the three grandsons ofYing-kei's third son, (Wui-dian, Wui-mok and Wui-ho)

had failed the provincial examination, their descendants built the Wui-dian, Wui-mok

and Wui-ho ancestral halls in their honours.

9 Genealogies always had the records introducing the lineage members who were imperial officials. See Patricia Bucldy Ebrey, "The Early Stages in the Development of Descent Group Organization," 50. 1°For the custom of the building of an ancestral hall when holding an office, see Keith Hazelton, "Patrilines and the Development of Localized Lineages: The Wu of Hsin-ning City, Hui-chou, to 1528," in Kinship and Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, 150-1; David Faure, "The Lineage as a Cultural Invention: The Case of the Pearl River Delta," 7. 11 See Jack Potter, Capitalism and the Chinese Peasant: Social and Economic Change in a Hong Kong Village (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), 24-6; Maurice Freedman, "Ritual Aspects of Chinese Kinship," in The Study of Chinese Society: Essay by Maurice Freedman selected and introduced by G. William Skinner (Taipei: SMC Publishing Inc., 1994[1979]), 277-80. 78 The Lo main ancestral hall and the twenty branch ancestral halls were distributed

to poor villagers for residential use or deliberately damaged during the period of Land

Reform and the Cultural Revolution.

Before 1949, apart from being used to commemorate ancestors or to enhance a

family's reputation, the branch halls of Lo Village were also used for the Spring and

Autumn ancestral sacrifices or for various celebrations or funeral ceremonies.12 Apart from worshipping the first ancestor in the main ancestral hall and at the main ancestral grave, Los from different fangs or segments would worship at the ancestral graves and ancestral halls of the fangs or segments to which they belonged. Other celebrations and events such as wedding banquets would also take place in the ancestral halls.

Celebrations related to the birth of a male child would include the lighting of an oil lamp13 and the giving of pork14 to male lineage members. A birth banquet would also take place in the ancestral hall. Rules governing activities like worshipping ancestors or holding wedding and birth banquets in ancestral halls, are quite clear. From those rules, one is able to see how ancestral halls relate to the matter of fission and fusion of

12 This kind of practice started in the Sung Period. See Patricia Bucldy Ebrey, "The Early Stages in the Development of Descent Group Organization," 24-8. 13 On the ritual of lighting an oil lamp in ancestral halls, see James Watson, "Chinese Kinship reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research," 598. 14 On the ritual of the giving of pork to male lineage members, see Hugh Baker, A Chinese Village: Sheung Shui (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968), 62; James Watson, Emigration and the Chinese Lineage: The Mans in Hong Kong and London (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975), 210. 79 lineages and this will be discussed later. It is important, however, to first clarify the concept offang.

Fang is a genealogical concept concerning the relationship between a father and his sons in Chinese families. 15 For example, if a father Z has three sons named A, B, and C, this means he has three fangs, and each son being entitled to one-third of father

Z's property. If A has three sons D, E, and F; and B has a sonG; and C has two sons H, and I, then we may say that A has three fangs, B has one fang and C has two fangs respectively. Eachfang of A will be entitled to one-third of A's property; the fang ofB will be entitled to all of B 's property; and each fang of C will be entitled to one-half of

C's property. With regard to Z, his Afang now includes A and A's three sons, with each son being entitled to one-ninth of Z's property; his B fang includes Band B's son

G, who is entitled to one-third of Z's property; and C fang includes C and C's two sons, each of whom is entitled to one-sixth ofZ's property. 16

If Z is to be considered an ancestor, he must have had three fangs of descendants, descended from fangs A, B and C. It could therefore be said that Z' s descendants were split into three segments. Each fang of Z's descendants is entitled to one-third of his ancestral property, if there is any. In return eachfang is responsible for one-third of the costs of ancestor worship.

15 See Chi-nam Chen, Jia Zu Yu She Hu, 129-213. 16 Ibid, 134-6. 80 If C is to be considered an ancestor, then ancestor worship is the responsibility of the members ofC'sfangs, that isH and !fangs alone. The D, E, F and Gfang members do not have any responsibility for C's ancestral worship. When the descendants ofC are going to hold a birth or a wedding banquet, members from H and I fangs will be considered as family members and have priority of invitation. D, E, F and G fangs will not be considered family members and sometimes may not be invited.

In southeastern China and particularly in the Pearl River Delta, however, when Z or C are considered ancestors and form a lineage or lineage branch they will always have a connection to an ancestral hall. This can be seen in the case of the Lo lineage in

Lo Village, an example of which will now be examined.

Tak ofthe eighteenth generation had four fangs. One family ofthe thirdfang gave birth to a boy. In order to celebrate the birth of a male descendant, the family went to the Tak ancestral hall for the ceremony of lighting an oil lamp to mark the arrival of a new male member of this fang of Tak. They also held a banquet in the Tak ancestral hall and gave pork to every male member of the four fangs of Tak. If they had not performed these duties, the boy would not be considered a new member of the Tak branch and hence would not be eligible to a share of Tak ancestral properties. Even though this family was poor, it was important that they tried their best to meet these lineage obligations. In case of the birth banquet, representatives of the four fangs ofTak

81 must be invited first before other relatives and friends, otherwise, the family would be accused of confusion in terms of differentiating between family members and outsiders. 17 Members of Ancestor Tak pointed out that the four fangs of Tak were one family and so it was necessary to invite members of the Tak family first to any banquet held in the Tak ancestral hall. Poor families could invite the elders only of each fang as representatives, whereas rich families were expected to invite every member of each of the four fangs first and also members of the fangs under the four fangs. When it comes to inviting other relatives or friends, it is not necessary to first invite descendants of the brothers of Ancestor Tak, i.e. representatives of the Yee and Y an fang. The difference, therefore, between Tak family members and outsiders is determined by whether or not a person belongs to a fang of Ancestor Tak.

It would have been possible for the family to perform these lineage duties and hold the birth banquet in the ancestral hall of the great-grandfather of Tak (fifteenth generation), Wui-mok. If the two ceremonies had taken place there, the number of people involved would have been larger because the family would also have to invite representatives of the three fangs of Wui-mok and of the fangs under these three fangs

17 On the rural social relations of distinguishing outsiders and family members, see Xiaotong Fei, From the Soil: The Foundations ofChinese Society, trans. by Gary G. Hamilton and Wan Zheng, (California: University of California Press, 1992), 60-70; See also Thomas Metzger, "The Western Concept of the Civil Society in the Context of Chinese," Hoover Essays No. 21, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace (Stanford: Stanford University, 1998), 12-17; Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1984), 56. 82 before they could they invite other relatives or friends. This alternative is usually only used by rich families because of the cost. Those who hold the birth ceremonies in the

Wui-mok ancestral hall only do so because of the large amount of property and land associated with the Wui-mok ancestral hall of which their child would be entitled to a share due to the ceremonies having been performed there. In reality, however, although the property would be very plentiful, after eighteen generations the descendants of

Ancestor Wui-mok are also plentiful. So it may not be as profitable as it might seem.

Those who particularly want to be generous and hold a large banquet to which they can invite all their relatives and friends may use the Tak ancestral hall instead of Wui-mok hall. The same is true for wedding banquets.

From these birth ceremonies the influence of ancestral halls on segments of the lineage becomes apparent. Let us look at ancestor worship in Lo Village. At the annual

Ching Ming and Chung Yeung Festivals, villagers go to worship at their ancestors' graves. One or two weeks before these two festivals, Lo villagers send representatives from each fang or segment to the main ancestor's grave to worship, followed by the worship of their own fang or segment. The same conditions for a birth banquet apply for wedding banquets. For example, every year descendants of the four fangs of Ancestor

Tak arrange for the male members of each fang to go to the graves of Ancestor Tak and his father to worship, and then also to the Tak ancestral hall to worship there. After that,

83 representatives of Ancestor Tak together with representatives of the three fangs of Wui- mok, Tak's great-grandfather, go to Ancestor Wui-mok's grave to worship. This is

followed by worship at the graves and ancestral halls of the ancestor ofWui-mok; Ying- kei, of his father, Shau, and of Shau's ancestor, Kwun-lan. It is only on the day of the

Ching Ming and Chung Yeung festivals that villagers go to the graves of their deceased fathers or grandfathers and worship them.

From the holding of birth and wedding banquets to the processes of worshipping the ancestors of each segment, it is clear that the segments are related to the ancestral halls. The relationship between segmentation of the Lo lineage and the establishment of ancestral halls can be further illustrated by the relationship between the three descendants X, Y, and Z of the twenty-second generation ofWui-mok in Figure 1.

In Figure 1, descendants of Hon, that is X of the twenty-second generation, were regarded as descendants of Wui-mok as he was the only ancestor with an ancestral hall.

As for the descendants of Luk of the third fang, Z, his ancestors had built an ancestral hall for Tak of the eighteenth, so Z belongs to the Tak branch, who was also a descendant of Ancestor Wui-mok. If we take Ancestor Wui-mok as the unit of segment, then X and Z belonged to the same segment, that is the Wui-mok branch. If, however, we take Ancestor Tak as the unit of segment, then X and Z do not belong to the same segment, and Z and X will not consider themselves as belonging to the same family. In

84 Figure 1, Y and Z come from the third fang ofWui-mok, but if the segments are further differentiated, Y is a member of the first fang of Luk and Z is a member of the third fang of Luk. Although they both belong to the third fang of the Wui-mok branch, if Z considers himself as belonging to the Tak branch, then Y becomes an outsider.

The above field data which reveals the process of segmentation of the Lo lineage is to some extent similar to the research findings of the coastal areas of south China by

Freedman, Potter, Baker, and Watson, 18 but different from that of the Chinese anthropologist Chen Chi-nam's understanding. 19 As Chen commits himself to the native perspective, he fails to see the importance of the establishment of the ancestral hall in the formation of lineage branches. An elaboration ofFreedman's functional perspective will be undertaken before turning to Chen's position.

Freedman et al explain Chinese family structure from a functional perspective. In their interpretation, the process of segmentation of a family is functional and based on property. If a family lacks ancestral property or ancestral trust, then the segmentation process would not take place. 20 He also mentions that:

18 Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China; Hugh Baker, A Chinese Village; Hugh Baker, Chinese Family and Kinship (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979); Jack Potter, Capitalism and the Chinese Peasant; James Watson, "Chinese Kinship Reconsidered: Anthropological Perspective on Historical Research," 589-622. 19 Chi-narn Chen, Jia Zu Yu She Hui, chap. 4. 20 Hugh Baker, A Chinese Village, 99; James Watson, "Chinese Kinship Reconsidered: Anthropological Perspective on Historical Research," 594. 85 "The segmentary order of a Chinese lineage, as we now know, is typically

asymmetrical. Segments well enough endowed to own halls stand out

against both coordinate segments that cannot afford halls and groups of

agnates that lack the means even to be organized into segments."21

Chen thinks that Freedman's view is that without ancestral property the qualification of a family member cannot be recognized; without property or an ancestral hall, one almost cannot call a segment or a fang a branch. 22 This means that the formation of ancestral property means the formation of a sub lineage or a lineage branch; the establishment of ancestral property is the establishment of a branch and it is also the basis for segmentation. In other words, the rules governing the inter-relationship of branches as revealed by ceremonies are entirely based on resource considerations rather than on genealogical details.Z3 To Chen, such an understanding ignores the indigenous perspective and cannot provide a clear picture of the structure of the Chinese family. 24

21 Maurice Freedman, "Ritual Aspects of Chinese Kinship," 278. 22 For more on the relationship of ancestral property and the formation of lineage or lineage branch, see Hung Baker, A Chinese Village; Jack Potter, "Land and Lineage in Traditional China," in Family and Kinship in Chinese Society, ed. Maurice Freedman (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970); See Selina Ching Chan, "Selling the Ancestors' Land," Modern China 27 (2001): 62. 23 Apart from Chen, Rawski and Naquin also consider that it is genealogy rather than the ancestral property that brought the kinsmen together to form lineage or lineage branch. See Evelyn S. Rawski, "The Ma Landlords of Yang-chia-kou in Late Ch'ing and Republican China," in Kinship and Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, 245-73; Susan Naquin, "Two Descent Groups in North China: The Wangs of Yung-p'ing Prefecture, 1500-1800," in Kinship and Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, 210-44. Of a similar viewpoint, see also Keith Hazelton, "Patrilines and the Development of Localized Lineages: The Wu of Hsin-ning City, Hui-chou, to 1528," 157. 24 Chi-nam Chen, Jia Zu Yu She Hui, 190. 86 Chen asserts that since Freedman's view puts the emphasis on functional factors, he has then proposed the theory of "asymmetric segments" when he studies Chinese lineage. In

Figure 2 25 (see p. 106), Freedman shows that he believes that AI and A2 are symmetrical segments; whereas B 1 and B 1a are asymmetric segments because:

"In B a segment B 1 has emerged which is not balanced against any B2. This

has come because the members now forming B 1 wished to mark out their

separate identity from their other agnates in B and, having the resources,

established their own ancestral hall to bring their new segment into

existence."26

To Chen, this is a flawed understanding and in what follows, Chen's analysis of segmentation will be elaborated. According to Chen, B 1 or B 1a do not build up contrasting relationships with other fangs of the same generation, rather they contrast with each brother:fang.Z7 If B has two sons, B1 and B2, according to the genealogical principles of fang division, B 1 and B2 can be said to be symmetric fangs as they are fangs of the same father B, even ifB1 has an ancestral hall. (See Figure 3 in p. 106)

It is clear here that Chen's analysis is based on the principle that fang formation is a genealogical concept and he uses Baker, Potter and Watson's field data to show that

25 Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China, 49. 26 Ibid, 49. For more on Freedman's theory of segmentation and its modification, see Jack Potter, Capitalism and the Chinese Peasant; Jack Potter, "Land and Lineage in Traditional China," 121-38.

87 his view is closer to reality than Freedman's. Chen finds it difficult to understand why

most Western scholars support Freedman's theory of"asymmetric segments". From the

data we have collected in Lo Village, it seems that the principles of the fang division

process are closer to Chen's theory offang and family. For example, in Figure I, the six

sons of Sing formed six fangs in accordance with their order of birth. The fact that their

mothers were wives or concubines did not matter here. The sons of the six fangs of Sing,

again in accordance with this principle, formed their own fangs with the exception of

Chi (who had no descendants). The second fang, Him, had five fangs; Yeung had one;

Ot had three; Shau two and Lam four. It seems that the formation of fang in each

generation is not what Freedman called an "asymmetric segment", rather this matches

with Chen's theory offang and family. The genealogical data28 from a village in Sheung

Shui, Hong Kong, obtained by Baker, apparently is similar to that of Lo Village and

also matches Chen's explanation.

In the matter of segmentation, however, Freedman's explanation is more

convincing and is closer to historical and social reality. In Figure I, the descendants of

the twenty-second generation, Y and Z, in accordance with the principles of fang

formation, come from the first fang and third fang of Luk respectively. In accordance with the principles of segmentation, however, we can clearly see that Z belongs to

27 Chi-nam Chen, Jia Zu Yu She Hui: Tai Wan He Zhong Guo She Hui Yan Jiu De Ji Chu Li Nian, 197-8. 88 Ancestor Tak and Ancestor Wui-mok while Y belongs to Ancestor Wui-mok only.

According to the principles of segmentation from Ancestor Wui-mok, Y and Z belong to the same branch or to the same family as it is sometimes !mown. In relation to

Ancestor Tak, Y and Z do not belong to the same family. In previous discussions relating to the structural relation between ancestral halls and ancestral activities such as

Spring and Autumn sacrifices and wedding and birth banquets, we can see that the Los differentiate family members and outsiders according to the principles of segmentation.

For example, in Figure 1, when Z wants to hold a birth banquet in the Tak ancestral hall,

Y becomes an outsider in terms of guest status.

In Lo Village, if one considers the principles offang formation, it is as Chen says, symmetric; if however one considers the principles of segment division, the relationship between X, Y and Z seems to clearly reveal "asymmetric segments" in support of

Freedman. In the course of the segmentation of Lo lineage, ancestral halls often serve as an essential indicator. Put another way, if the members of a fang have not built an ancestral hall, they do not form a branch, as each branch within the Lo lineage has built its own ancestral hall. The grandson of the last fang of Wui-dian, that is, Lin of the eighteenth generation, and his son were both presented scholar and were men of status and influence in the village in that time. After the death of Lin, his son, Wan, bought a

28 See Hugh Baker, A Chinese Village, 114. 89 huge amount of wood and marble and planned to build a large ancestral hall in honour of Lin. However, somebody reported that Wan was a corrupt officer to the government and as a result he failed to build the ancestral hall for Lin. Because Wan failed to build the ancestral hall for his father, even though the fang of Lin was powerful and enjoyed the reputation of "Both father and son were both presented scholars", people today still say that they belong to Ancestor Wui-dian, that is the Wui-dian branch. Thus even though there is no genealogical relationship between the building of an ancestral hall and the formation of a lineage branch, the establishment of an ancestral hall is essential to the process of segmentation. As Chen seems to take only the native perspective and uses the genealogical rule for formation of fang as the only criterion to understand the process of segmentation, he thus fails to capture the importance in historical reality the establishment of an ancestral hall to the formation of a lineage branch.

From the field data collected in Lo Village, two preliminary conclusions for the understanding of the issue of lineage segmentation can be drawn. First, segmentation of lineage is different from fang formation. It seems that there are no internal genealogical rules governing the formation of a branch. From the genealogical book found in Lo village, there did not appear to be any rules on the issue of segmentation. It seems that one cannot understand or explain segmentation through the principles of genealogy. In

Lo Village, only through interviews and observation could a clear picture of the

90 structure of segmentation within the Lo's lineage be gained. Second, a close relationship exists between lineage segmentation and ancestral halls or ancestral property. This is revealed by the segmentation of the Lo lineage of Lo Village. If this point is correct, then segmentation cannot be explained from a genealogical perspective as Chen maintains, but rather it can be explained from a functional perspective.

This paper does not completely support the functional view of Freedman nor reject the genealogical viewpoint of Chen, rather it aims to point out that the indigenous perspective of fang and lineage of Chen cannot give a complete explanation for the structure of Chinese lineage, especially regarding segmentation. On the other hand,

Freedman et al cannot explain all the characteristics of Chinese families. For example, most of their work does not touch on the problem offang formation and sometimes they confuse the concept offang and branch, where a branch can be considered as a fang, but a fang does not necessarily mean a branch. On the issue of segmentation, however, their data does support their point of view. Nonetheless, Chen thinks that their understanding is flawed and he rejects their opinions for the following reasons.

First of all, Chen deals with segmentation problems simply using the genealogical concept offang from a native perspective. He and most of the Chinese anthropologists seldom touch on the concept of branch. He refuses to admit that the establishment of ancestral halls or property is the determining factor for segmentation, maintaining that

91 such a factor is not consistent with the rules of lineage. In other words, he rejects all

non-genealogical factors. This perspective, however, can help him clarify many problems of the internal rules of Chinese lineage, but on the other hand, causes him to

neglect some important phenomena, like Freedman's "asymmetric segmentation".

According to the field data from Lo Village, using the establishment of ancestral halls

as the reference point for segmentation is clearly supported by the lineage structure of

the Lo's. More importantly, the Lo members are clearer about which branch they belong to than which fang they belong to. This is because activities such as Spring and Autumn sacrifices, wedding banquets, and birth banquets all use the branch as the unit to

differentiate family members and outsiders. As lineage activities are mainly determined by the branch the Los are more used to branch membership rather than to fang membership. Such a phenomenon, to Chen, cannot reflect the internal rules of lineage, thus he neglects such an important material discovery by Western anthropologists.29

The internal rules offang formation that he is concerned with seem to be the only ideal rules of Chinese lineage. In an ideal situation, therefore, lineage fission or fusion should be governed by these internal genealogical rules which caused the formation of the ideal lineage structure; but in reality, lineage structure often varies in accordance with some

29 Since Chen Chi-nam puts too much emphasis on the indigenized genealogical concept, other than neglecting the importance of the field data collected by Freedman, Baker and Potter, he also strongly criticizes the data on ancestor worship collected by Emily Ahern in Kai-Nam located in the south of Taiwan. For more information about the research by Emily Ahern, see

92 non-genealogical factors, such as social and economic factors. 30 This may explain the variety of lineage structures in different provinces in China. 31

Bearing this in mind, another Chinese anthropologist, Li Yih-yuan employs the concept of power relations in addition to the genealogical explanation when studying the Chinese lineage structures and ceremonies. Power relations include lineage segmentation, competition, contention, and merging.32 To Chen, this concept is non- genealogical, but it helps deepen the understanding of lineage segmentation. Li points out that worship in ancestral halls strengthens the cohesion of the group, while containing factors of competition and disruption. 33 The concept of power relations, can to a certain extent, not only widen the explanatory power of Freedman's ideas on ancestral property and ancestral halls, but also deepen our understanding of lineage structure.

Emily Ahem, The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1973). 30 Burton Pasternak. Introduction to Kinship and Social Organization (N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1976): 120. 31 For instance, Ahem and Twitchett's works show that there are lineages without internal segmentation. See Denis Twitchett, "The Fan Clan's Charitable Estate, 1050-1760," in Confucianism in Action, ed. D. Nivison and A Wright (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1959); Emily Ahem, "Segmentation in Chinese Lineages: A View from Written Genealogies," American Ethnologist 3 (1976): 1-16. 32 Yih-yuan Li "Jia Zu Yu Lun Li," (Family and Ethics) in Wen Hua De Tu Xiang (Shang): Wen Hua Fa Zhan DeRen Lei Xue Tan Tao (Pictures of Culture (1): Anthropological Investigation on Cultural Development) (Tai Bei: Yun Chen Wen Hua, 1992). 33 Yih-yuan Li, "Jia Zu Yu Lun Li," 199. When discussing the issue of ancestor worshipping raised by Ahem, unlike Chi-nam Chen who criticizes Ahem's field data and suggests her explanations are unreasonable, Li tries to use the concept of power relations to further integrate Ahem's information into his scope of discussion so as to make a more comprehensive explanation of Chinese lineage activities. 93 Let us use the conflict of fang to illustrate the problem of power relations in the lineage of Lo. Take the sixth fang of the ancestor of the tenth generation, Sing, as an example. Sing has six sons, the first to the fifth of whom were given birth by his wife and the sixth, Lam, was from his concubine (see Figure 1). In accordance with the principles of fang, the mother's status was not an important factor to fang formation.

Thus all six sons formed six fangs, and Sing's properties should have been divided into six parts. The genealogy only shows information on fang formation, and thus cannot show any inequality, however, as previously mentioned the sixth fang Lam, who was born to a concubine was bullied by the other fangs. Elderly villagers who belonged mainly to the other fangs recalled conflict between the sixthfang and some of the other fangs. Members of the other five fangs joined together to bully people of the sixth fang on account of their being "concubine's son". As the sixth fang was outnumbered, many of its members escaped from Lo Village while those who remained continued to be bullied.

It is difficult to verify the truth of this as the story is not recorded in the genealogical book and the villagers cannot recall when it happened. However, we can understand something of the conflict from the record of the genealogical book. In the genealogy of the Lo's, the information on eachfang of Ancestor Sing is quite detailed.

When it comes to information on the sixth fang, Lam, however, only the names of his

94 four sons are recorded. Information on the descendants of the four sons is not recorded in the book. It simply says that the information on the twentieth generation is not accessible. Information on the twenty-second generation was recorded again after 1993 when the genealogy was recompiled. The genealogy was first re-edited during the lifetime of Mo-shuk of Qian Long period during the Ching Dynasty, but this book was lost after 1949. When the genealogy was re-compiled in 1993, the data which had been lost was mainly that of the period between Qian Long of the Ching Dynasty and 1949.

Lam's four sons had been born during the years of Mannik of the Ming Dynasty. It can be concluded, therefore, that the information on the sixth fang of Sing had not been recorded in the genealogy and this was not because the information was lost after 1949, but probably because of the loss of power of the sixth fang as a result of competition with the other fangs. In the genealogy ofthe Los, information on several relatively weak fangs or branches were not all recorded in the book either, but this does not mean that they had moved away from Lo Village, or that they had no descendants. For example, although descendants of Ancestor Leung of the ninth generation are still living in the village, information of their ancestors is not recorded in the genealogy in detail. That the information on the twentieth and following generations of the sixth fang of Ancestor

Sing, Lam, could be recorded in the genealogy again perhaps has something to do with

95 the fact that a member of the twenty-third generation became the Party branch secretary

ofLo Village in the 1960's.

There is no intention here to say that the father-son filiation which formed the

patrilineal structure would be affected if the groups of descendants had different

mothers, that is, that the mother-son filiation is also important in the process of

segmentation as in the case of the Nuer in African society. 34 The aim of looking at the

sixth fang of Sing was to point out that, apart from the functional perspective developed

by Freedman, the concept of power relations proposed by Li can also deepen our

understanding of the internal structure of lineage, e.g., inter:fang competition and

conflict seems to be able to lead to the omission of the data of a fang in a genealogical

Such power relations not only lead to inter:fang conflict, but also induce inter-

segment conflict as well. When interviewing elderly villagers about the relationship

between segments of Lo lineage, we heard stories about Ancestor Tak (the great-

grandson of Ancestor Wui-mok of the fifteenth generation) and Wan of the nineteenth

generation (the great-grandson of ancestor Wui-dian of the fifteenth generation) from

34 E. E. Evens-Pritchard, The Nuer (London: Oxford University, 1940), 247. 35 Records in the written genealogy sometimes reflect the political interests among the fangs. See Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, 42; David Faure, "The Written and the Unwritten: The Political Agenda of the Written Genealogy," 259-96. 96 the descendants of Ancestor Tak or Ancestor Wui-dian. The following story reveals the conflict of power between the two segments at that time.

Wan belonged to the Wui-dian branch. He and his father, Lin, were both presented scholars, but as previously mentioned, due to Wan's corruption he was unable to build an ancestral hall in honour of his father. Despite this Wan's status enabled the

Wui-dian branch to become the lineage's most renowned branch. As for Ancestor Tak, he belonged to the Ancestor Wui-mok branch. According to the genealogy, due to a variety of reasons, the status of the family of Ancestor Tak's father declined. Ancestor

Tak, who was the third born of his family, hated studying but loved martial arts very much when he was young. According to the descendants of Ancestor Tak, Tak and one of Wan's maids fell in love, but Wan accused Tak of harassing his maid. Due to the status of Wan and his father in the village, Tak was eventually taken to the county court.

Although Tak was not charged in the end, in view of the power of Wan and his father,

Tak's father thought that Tak could no longer stay in the village, and as a result, Tak left

Lo Village. He went to Guangxi and enlisted in the army of Ot Chung-tam. Later he sat in the imperial examination and became a presented martial arts scholar and consequently an officer in the army. Since his status had changed, when he returned to

Lo Village, his influence increased considerably and the power of the Wui-mok branch expanded. As a result of the conflict between Tak and Wan, the Wui-mok branch,

97 headed by Tak, and the Wui-dian branch, headed by Wan, discriminated against one

another and were always in competition. The four sons of Ancestor Tak gained the

status of recommended men through the provincial examination, while the six sons of

Wan did not gain anything. Thus the descendants of Tak often teased Wan's

descendants saying Wan had six worms, while they themselves had four dragons. Apart

from the competition between the two branches, they each vied for power in the village by various means.

In order to bring blessings on his descendants, in his old age Tak searched

everywhere for a place for his grave which was good in terms of feng shui. Finally he

found a suitable piece of land which faced three parallel mountains. These three parallel

mountains formed the shape of the Chinese character for "three". He told his sons to bury him in this place because of feng shui and to surround his grave with pillars of marble stone after he died so that together with the three parallel mountains opposite they would form the shape of the Chinese character "Master''. He hoped that such a

"Master" shaped grave would help his descendants become the leaders of the village and defeat the power Wan and of the Ancestor Wui-dian branch.36 In fact, before 1949, they had successfully gained the leading position among the Lo branches. Nevertheless,

36 On the issue of placing the dead to maximize the luck and good fortune of descendants, See James Watson, "Of Flesh and Bones: The Management of Death Pollution in Cantonese Society," in Death and the Regeneration of Life, ed. Maurice Bloch and Jonathan Pany (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 155-86. 98 the competition and conflict between the two segments continue into the present day through competition for the leading positions in village committee elections.

After burying Tak in the feng shui grave, his sons also built an ancestral hall to worship him. Building an ancestral hall for Ancestor Tak was important to the people of the four fangs of Tak. If the descendants of Tak were to successfully maintain their position in the village, each member of the whole segment of the Ancestor Wui-mok branch would be benefited.37 Although the Tak descendants possessed the most power among the segments of Wui-mok, it was the eldest members of the Wui-mok branch who would make decisions on their behalf Under such conditions, the four fangs of Tak could not maintain the status and interest which they sought. Building an ancestral hall allowed them to develop into the Tak branch, with the ability to maintain their own properties and strive for the status and interest they desired.

The conflict between the sixth fang of Ancestor Sing, and the other fangs and the struggle between Wan of Ancestor Wui-dian branch and Tak of Ancestor Wui-mok branch eventually set each of the branches up in competition. The building of an ancestral hall for their father by the four fangs of Tak, seems to reveal the power relations between fangs or branches within the Lo lineage, and this can help us to understand the process of segmentation of a lineage. The data collected reveals that,

99 lineage segmentation is often determined by the establishment of ancestral property or

an ancestral hall, suggesting that one cannot merely use genealogical rules to explain segmentation, otherwise, it is impossible to explain why the lineage of Lo in Lo Village developed more than twenty branches, nor can we understand such lineage structure as

"asymmetric segmentation" discussed by Freedman. Li' s concept of power relations can help us understand more about the diversified presentation of lineage structure, which seems to supplement the indigenous genealogical explanation. If Li's concept of power relations is further reduced, it can be understood as interest competition. The reason for the establishment of the Tak branch was obviously to protect the interest of the four fangs of Tak by avoiding sharing with the other fangs of the Wui-mok branch. The competition between Ancestor Tak and Wan of the Ancestor Wui-dian branch was also an interest competition in the village, because whoever had the power to make decisions could manipulate the resources of the village. That is why even today the two branches still compete for positions of power in the village. This point will be discussed in detail in the discussion of the revival of Lo lineage after the Rural Economic Reform in

Chapter 7. The cause of conflict between the six fangs of Ancestor Sing cannot be understood as problems of competition for resources, as there is little reliable information about the cause, however, the division of property between fangs often

37 Ebrey maintains that the ancestral hall appears to be a key feature of more developed descent groups. See Patricia Buckly Ebrey, "The Early Stages in the Development of Descent Group 100 leads to conflict between fangs in the village. The genealogical rules for dividing property fairly according to fangs seems to be an ideal set of rules, which means that the internal structure of Chinese lineage can only work according to these rules if conflicts of interest do not exist. When there is conflict of interest this can easily cause changes to the lineage structure.

The genealogical concept of Chinese lineage and some non-genealogical factors, such as social and economic interest factors, have produced tensions that affect the structure of Chinese lineage. Thus, in using Habennas' s framework for understanding

Chinese lineage, it seems that Freedman and other western anthropologists, because they are an observer's perspectives of Chinese culture, work more on the functional side of Chinese lineage. They believe "[o ]nee a lineage has been established, it can survive as long as members find that the bonds of common descent are useful in a political or economic sense."38 Thus the development of group consciousness among local agnates is primarily related to economic and political factors. 39 The historians and Chinese anthropologists seem to understand the Chinese lineage from the participant's perspective and work more on the internal genealogical rules of lineage. 40 It seems,

Organization," 55. 38 James Watson, "Chinese Kinship reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research," 596. 39 1bid, 595-608; See also Mann Jones, "Finance in Ningpo: The Ch'ien Chuang (Native Banks}, 1750-1880," in Economic Organization in Chinese Society, ed. W.E. Willmont (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972). 4° Chi-nam Chen, Jia Zu Yu She Hui, 129-213; Keith Hazelton, "Patrilines and the Development of Localized Lineages: The Wu of Hsin-ning City, Hui-chou, to 1528," 137-69; Evelyn S. 101 however, that neither perspective alone can provide an accurate account of Chinese lineage. The native perspective only focuses on the internal genealogical rules of lineage and considers corporate holdings as secondary or an "unintentional" cultural invention. 41 This perspective therefore fails to address the issue of the structural response of lineage to challenges from the economic and political environment from a macro point of view, nor can they capture the instrumental aspect, put forward by Li, of lineage members on the micro level when facing change. The observer perspective, on the other hand, cannot provide a deeper understanding of the genealogical rules of

Chinese lineage and fails to articulate clearly its internal rules. In addition such observer's perspective may not be able to understand the communicative aspect of the lifeworld of Chinese lineage as it experienced structural changes such as the economic modernization of China.

These two approaches may not be mutually exclusive but complementary to each other. As Watson understands, "a lineage consists of a set of ideas, or ideological constructs, which exist in people's heads, [i]t is also tied to notions of property, relations of production."42 Thus, genealogical rules provide the basis of understanding

Rawski, "The Ma Landlords ofYang-chia-kou in Late Ch'ing and Republican China," 245-73; Susan Naquin, "Two Descent Groups in North China: The Wangs of Yung-p'ing Prefecture, 1500-1800," 210-44. 41 David Faure, ''The Lineage as a Cultural Invention: The Case of the Pearl River Delta," 4-36; Patricia Buckly Ebrey, "The Early Stages in the Development of Descent Group Organization," 16-61. 42 James Watson, "Chinese Kinship reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research," 597. 102 both the sets of ideas or ideological constructs for the development of the group consciousness and the social relations such as the differentiation between outsiders and family members of Chinese lineage. On the other hand, the analysis of the economic and political factors affecting the structural aspects of lineage, such as segmentation, provides the understanding of the function of material reproduction in rural society.

Integration of these two approaches will then lead to the understanding of the communicative aspect and the instrumental aspect and their interactive relation to lineage. In short, the analysis of the pre-Liberation Lo lineage reveals that the analytical framework of system and lifeworld gives us a better understanding of Chinese lineage.

After 1949, the socialist movement launched by the Communist government in

China banned all the lineage activities in the countryside. According to the above framework, it seems that the transformation of the political system will inevitably lead to a change in the lifeworld. Some anthropologists,43 however, point out that the anti- feudal campaign was not successful. Wolf maintains that "collectivization has found itself deeply embedded in kinship in that sometimes production teams are made up of same surname people who would once have counted themselves as members of the

43 Sulamith H. Potter and Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants: The Anthropology of a Revolution (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990); Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983); Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983);

103 same lineage."44 They come to the conclusion that socialist ideology and patriarchal

culture are not contradictory.45

In order to have a deeper understanding about why the change in political system

has not successfully brought change to the lineage culture, in the next Chapter, the story

of an elderly villager who was born and grew up before 1949, will be discussed.

Hopefully, this will explain the persistence of the lineage culture during the period of

political turmoil and the resurgence oflineage activities after 1979 through the subject's

subjective perspective.

Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985). 44 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 151. 45 Ibid, 261; Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China, 266 104 Kwun-lan 8th

Wan I Sing I I I Lam Shau Ot Yeung Him Chi I Ying-kei

Wui-ho Wui-mok Wui-dian Chu-tong

Luk Hon

I I Figure 1 I I Tr Yay I I I I I z y X

105 A B

AI A2 B

Bia

Figure 246

A B

1=11 AI A2 B2

Bia Bib

Figure 3

46 Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China, 49. 106 CHAPTER4

THE STORY OF LO IDNG-NAM

Margery Wolf points out that the "ideology of the men's family remains strong in

[rural] China even though the formal manifestations of the men's family's macro

structure, the lineage," was forbidden during the collectivization era. 1 Some, such as

Judith Stacey, even maintain that the ideology of Chinese family and patriarchy has

been reinforced by the socialist transformation in China? Despite the fact that the deep

structure of traditional patrilineal system has survived socialist revolution, the Rural

Economic Reform has brought about significant changes in patriarchal values such as

marriage and family life. 3

1 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), 141. 2 Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983); Emily Honig and Gail Hershatter, Personal Voices (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988); Sulamith H. Potter and Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants: The Anthropology of a Revolution (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990); Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983); Deborah Davis, "Urban Households: Supplicants to Socialist State," in China Familes in the Post Mao Era, ed. Deborah Davis and Steven Harrell (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 50-76; and also Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," in China Familes in the Post Mao Era, 103-36. 3 Isabelle Thireau, "Recent Changes in a Guangdong Village," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 19/20 (1988): 289-31 0; Minchuan Yang, "Reshaping Peasant Culture and Community: Rural Industrialization in a Chinese Village," Modern China 20 {1994): 157-179. 107 In order to depict these changes, the stories of an elderly, a middle-aged, and a young villagers will be discussed in this Chapter and Chapters 5 and 6 respectively.

These three cases are part of the product of the extensive fieldwork spanned seven years

(1994 to 2000) in Lo Village. Through participant observation and in-depth interview in these years, the villagers' own perceptions and interpretations of changing social life have been documented and analyzed in terms of Habermas' framework of system and lifeworld and based upon which a comprehensive picture about the impact of the Rural

Economic Reform on the traditional lineage system has been established. In order to present this picture vividly, the stories of villagers from three different aged cohorts are hence chosen deliberately to reveal how ideas and attitudes towards spouse selection, courtship, and marriage have been transformed since the reform took place in 1979.

Despite the fact that the stories are the three villagers' personal accounts, their ideas and attitudes towards marriage and related matters will be discussed thoroughly in relation to their contemporaries so as to reveal succinctly the fact that they are not particular cases but the common examples of their respective generations. Besides, these common examples are chosen carefully from the analyzed data, they are indeed the theorized product instead of the unrefined materials of three individuals.

108 1 Lo Hing-nam

This Chapter is about an elderly villager, named Lo Hing-nam, who grew up and

married before Liberation took place. This case study serves two purposes. Through

examining his experience of married life, and his attitudes on marriage and courtship, it

is intended to reveal firstly that pre-Liberation family ideology are persistent and deeply

influenced his generation, despite the fact that they had experienced thirty years of

socialist transformation. In the second place, it is also hoped that the pre-Liberation

family norms and values, which Lo Hing-nam seriously commits to, can serve as a reference for understanding how rural economic reform transforms these norms and

values in the case studies of middle-aged and young villagers in Chapters 5 and 6.

When I first met Lo Hing-nam he was in his barbershop. At that time I was going round meeting elderly Lo villagers in order to understand their family history. Miss Lee, who worked in the grocery in front of the house where I was staying, told me that I should look for Lo Hing-nam if I wanted to find someone who was familiar with the Lo family of Lo Village. She also told me that he was among the most enthusiastic persons in terms of lineage affairs in the village. I asked her for a briefbackground ofLo Ring- nam and where I could find him, and then requested her to take me to his barbershop in order to introduce me to him.

109 Lo Hing-nam' s barbershop was in fact the third shop to the right of where I was staying. The shop was very small, only about eight square metres. When I arrived there were two or three elderly men sitting on a long bench in the shop, waiting to have their hair cut. Lo Hing-nam was cutting the hair of an elderly villager. He was sitting on an ancient barber's chair which looked quite worn but still solid.

After Miss Lee had introduced us, I gave Lo Hing-nam my card and stated the purpose of my visit. As he was attending to his customer, I had to sit and wait for him to finish, hoping that I might get the chance to talk with him about Lo ancestral developments and so enhance my understanding.

Lo Hing-nam's barbershop was simply furnished, with two long benches along one wall and two smaller benches near the main entrance and a table in the corner, with a Chinese chess set on it. Hanging on the wall in front of the ancient barber's chair were two old mirrors. Nailed beneath the mirrors was a shelf for storing scissors, knives and other hair cutting equipment. The floor was covered with strands of hair and cigarette butts as well as chicken droppings, giving the impression of dirtiness. On the two-leaf door at the entrance a pair of Spring Festival posters were pasted.

Lo Hing-nam was sixty-five years old and about five feet and five inches tall. He was quite plump with swarthy skin. On the left side of his neck was a deep scar. I later asked how he got it, but he told me that he could not even remember how he was hurt, it

110 seemed to him that he had always had the scar. He was also lame in the left leg,

however, this was hardly noticeable if he walked slowly.

He belongs to the fourth fang of the Tak branch. He was the elder of two brothers,

his brother being ten years junior. Lo Hing-nam told me that he was actually adopted

and that he has no knowledge of his original name or his place of birth. As Watson

points out "[t]here are only two ways that a man can claim membership: by birth or by

adoption in infancy.'..t It is traditional in Chinese families, as pointed out by Freedman

and other anthropologists, that if a child is allowed to be adopted by the senior members

of the family, his name will be entered into the family's genealogy, "he becomes in

every respect the son of his foster father."5 Lo Hing-nam's father had obtained such

permission from the senior members of his family before adopting Lo Hing-nam,

therefore, his name was entered into the Lo genealogical records and, hence, his

position legalized.

When Lo Hing-nam was a child, his family was relatively poor as his adoptive

father (Lo Hing-nam never used the term "foster father" when referring to his foster

father) was not a rich villager. From his vague memories of childhood Lo Hing-nam can

4 James Watson, "Chinese Kinship reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research," The China Quarterly 92 (1982): 598. For the rules of adoption, see also James Watson, "Agnates and Outsiders: Adoption in a Chinese Lineage," Man 10 (1975): 293-360. 5 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and society: Fukien and Kwangtung (London: Athlone Press, 1966), 49; Hugh Baker, A Chinese Village: Sheung Shui (California: Stanford University Press, 1968), 49-50; David K Jordan, Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestor: The Folk Religion of Taiwanese Village (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 91; Sulamith H. Potter and Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants, 8. 111 still remember a period when their family had hardly enough money to satisfy basic

needs for food and clothing. 6 Despite the poor conditions, his father treated him quite

well and consequently, at the time he did not know he was adopted.

When Lo Hing-nam was about ten years old, however, everything changed

following the birth of his younger brother. His father gave all his love and care to his

younger brother and Lo Hing-nam was neglected by his family. For example, he recalls

that he was only allowed to complete primary one, while his younger brother attended

school for more than ten years. I thought initially his brother would at least have

attained senior middle school level, but he had actually only graduated from primary

school having had to repeat a number of grades. Lo Hing-nam complained a little to his

father about this, saying:

"If I had the chance to study more, I would not be as poor as I am now, having

worked as a barber for over forty years. If only I had graduated from primary school, I

could have learnt more characters and words, and could have had a better understanding of local affairs. Why did I have to end up like this, working like an ignorant animal, knowing nothing, understanding nothing?"

"In 194 7, because my father thought I was a cripple, he arranged for me to be apprenticed to a barber in Hau Kai Town. My father always told our relatives that this

6 For the lives of Guangdong people before 1949, see Ezra Vogel, Canton under Communism: Programs and Politics in a Provincial Capital, 1949-1968 (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 112 was the best arrangement for me, despite the fact that they thought that I should be

allowed to receive more schooling and not be apprenticed to a barber."

As a result of being apprenticed7 to the barber in Hau Kai Town in 1947, LoRing-

nam had nothing more to do with his father's paddy fields and land. It was only during

the process of collectivization that Lo Hing-nam followed his production team to work

in the paddy fields. Despite the fact that Lo Hing-nam never owned any paddy fields or

land, and that his only experience of the land was as a teenager during the

collectivization period, Lo Hing-nam was very discontented with the Lo Village's

policy of selling land for industrial use. Each time he talked about the village's

reformation policies, especially the on-going policy of selling off land to merchants,

leaving fewer and fewer paddy fields for fanning, he showed great indignation. 8

2 Lo Hing-nam's Marriage

1969), 12-37. 7 For the practice of apprenticeship before 1949 in China, see Rubie Watson, "Wives, Concubines, and Maids: Servitude and Kinship in the Hong Kong Region, 1900-1940," in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, ed. Rubie S.Watson & Patricia Buckley Ebrey (Calif.: University of California Press, 1991), 234; see also James Watson, "Transaction in People: The Chinese Market in Slaves, Servants and Heirs," in Asian and African Systems of Slavery, ed. James Watson (Berkeley: University of California press, 1980). 8 When villagers grow old, they will consider farmland as more important. See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 110. 113 Lo Hing-nam married in 1949, at the age of 19. His marriage was arranged by his parents,9 and took place during his apprenticeship to the Hau Kai Town barber. After his arrival in Hau Kai Town, Lo Hing-nam promised the master barber that he would stay in Hau Kai Town and serve his three-year apprenticeship before returning to work in Lo

Village. Communications between the two places were poor in those days with the 30 kilometre journey normally being made on foot.

However, early in the tenth month of the Lunar Calendar, Lo Hing-nam received a letter from his father asking him to return to Lo Village. So, after obtaining leave from his master, Lo Hing-nam immediately hurried back to Lo Village. When he arrived home, he was surprised to find that the reason for his father's request was to participate in his own marriage. All the preparations and arrangements required for the marriage had been completed and arranged for him. His father had bought him a new bed, a new table and chairs, and new household furniture. Furthermore, his father had decorated the bridal chamber, in preparation for the marriage which was to take place the day after Lo

Hing-nam' s return. 10

9 For arranged marriage before 1949, see Arthur Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang, Marriage and Adoption in China, 1945-1945 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1980,), 70-81; Janice E. Stockard, Daughters ofthe Canton Delta: Marriage Patterns and Economic Strategies in South China, 1860-1930 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1989), chap. 5; Elizabeth Johnson, "Women and Childrearing in Kwun Mun Hau Village," in Women in Chinese Society, ed. Margery Wolf and Roxane Witke (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1975), 224-5. 10 On marriage rituals before 1949, see Arthur Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang, Marriage and Adoption in China, 70-81. 114 Lo Hing-nam did not want to marry at such a young age because he had not yet completed his apprenticeship and so was not a qualified barber. He felt that he was not yet able to financially support a family, besides, he had never even seen his bride-to-be, and so, he was not very happy with his father's sudden arrangement.

The ability to financially support himself was a major issue for Lo Hing-nam. He felt that because he was only his father's adopted child, he had not been given the chance of schooling. Moreover, his father had made it clear that he would not inherit any of the family's paddy fields or land. In addition, he had been apprenticed to the barber in Hau Kai Town. While he was still young, therefore, Lo Hing-nam had known that he would struggle financially and so from the outset he wholeheartedly wanted to serve his three year apprenticeship so that he would be able to earn a living as a barber.

His father's sudden decision for him to marry was a difficult one for Lo Hing-nam because he knew he would not be able to offer financial security to his family due to his incomplete apprenticeship as well as his having no land to cultivate. He also worried that his trade could not guarantee as much income as a farmer might earn. Though living conditions were poor in Lo Village, he emphasized that villagers would not die of starvation if they had their farmland, however, if a barber had no business, he would not even have rice to eat. Additionally, he felt that his father might only take care of his younger brother, and that he might not get his father's support if he had financial

115 difficulties. The burden of feeding a wife and children in such poor conditions he

believed, would put too much pressure on him. His father's decision, therefore, caused

Lo Hing-nam great distress.

The financial factor was only one reason why Lo Hing-nam did not want to marry

at an early age, in addition, he felt uncomfortable marrying a girl he had never met

before, along with all the prepared marriage arrangements. It was not completely true

that Lo Hing-nam had never met his wife, however, in fact, they had lived under the

same roof for a while as teenagers; his wife having been bought for him as his child-

bride when he was thirteen years old. She had previously lived in Nam Chak Village to

the south of Lo Village. Her family was even poorer than Lo Hing-nam's so she was

sold to them as his child-bride. II At first Lo Hing-nam, not being mature enough to

understand the situation, had played with her quite frequently. Later on, however, when

he found out that she had been bought as his child-bride, he no longer played with her

because he was embarrassed by the situation.

The purchase of a child-bride for one's son was a very common practice in poor

2 villages before the Liberation. Some anthropologists, for example Fei Xiao-tong, I point

11 Buying a child-bride is considered by Arthur Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang as a kind of minor marriage in China before 1949. On minor marriage and child-brides, see Arthur Wolf and Chieh-shan Huang, Marriage and Adoption in China, 82-93; Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 12-3; Arthur Wolf, "The Women of Hai-shan: A Demographic Portrait," in Women in Chinese Society, 104-6; Sidney D. Gamble, Tiu Hsien: A North China Rural Community (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1968), 28 and 384. 12 Xiaotong Fei, Jiang Cun Jing Ji: Zhong Guo Nong Cun De Sheng Huo (The Economy of Jiang Village: The Village Life in China) (Xiang Gang: Zhong Hua Shu Ju Xiang Gang Fen Ju, 116 out that the financial situations of some farming families were quite bleak. Because, a son's marriage arrangements could cost a great deal of money, most families chose to buy a child-bride for their sons to save on future expenses and to increase the family's labour force. If a family was poor, it was also very likely that the age at which a son could marry would be deferred. Obviously, Lo Hing-nam realized that his family was quite poor, and that this was the reason his parents had bought him a child-bride when he was only thirteen years old.

Lo Hing-nam could vaguely remember that his child-bride slipped away after living with his family for two to three years. She made her way to Hong Kong all by herself, to work and live there on her own. In those days, however, making a living in

Hong Kong was no easier than in Lo Village and consequently, after several years, when she had grown up, she came back to Nam Chak Village. Her parents had died and so she lived with relatives. There were many matchmakers representing other families to propose marriage to her, but she rejected them all because she knew that she had been engaged to somebody in Lo Village when she was very young. In response to this, a

1987}, 55. Besides Xiaotong Fei, others like A. P. Wolf and C. Huang, Marriage and Adoption in China; Jack Goody, The Oriental, The Ancient and the Primitive (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 29-30; and Croll also points out that before the Liberation, only families that were poor financially would consider getting a child-bride for their sons. See Elisabeth Croll, From Heaven to Earth: Images and Experiences of Development in China (London: Routledge, 1994), 168-9. After the Liberation in 1949, the Communist Party thought that the child-bride system was in fact a business transaction and had it prohibited. Though the child-bride system was criticized as being solely for economic purposes, Fei pointed out that this type of marriage system often softened the sharp conflicts between mother-in-law and

117 matchmaker went to Lo Village, and according to Lo Hing-nam, it was perhaps only

then that his father learnt of her return, and so immediately arranged the marriage, even

though Lo Hing-nam had not yet completed his apprenticeship in Hau Kai Town. Lo

Hing-nam had not seen his wife since she had slipped away to Hong Kong. So he had

no knowledge of her character and appearance since she had grown-up and he felt that

he did not know her.

Despite his misgivings, it was clear to Lo Hing-nam on his return to Lo Village,

that out of respect for his father, it would be impossible for him to refuse to go ahead

with the marriage.

Lo Hing-nam emphasized: "How could I object? What could I do when

everything had been prepared? Besides, in our generation, we dare not oppose our

fathers' decisions. How could I dare to override my father's order? A father had

overwhelming paternal power, and I did not even dare to complain about the situation."

In fact it was commonplace before 1949 for the fathers or the patriarchs to dictate the

lives ofthe young. 13

daughter-in-law. This was because the daughter-in-law was brought up by the mother-in-law, and hence the daughter-in-law could be more attached to her. 13 On discussions of the power of the patriarch before 1949, see Margery Wolf, The House of Lim: A Study of a Chinese Family (New York: Appleton-Century -Crofts, 1968), 36-44; Ping-ti Ho, The Ladder of Success in Imperial China (New York: Science Editions, 1964); Yung-teh Chow, Social Mobility in China (New York: Atherton Press, 1966); Yueh-hwa Lin, The Golden Wing (London: Kegan Paul, 1947). 118 Thus on the fifteenth day of the tenth month of the Lunar Calendar, Lo Hing-nam was married. Three days after the ceremony, however, he had to pack up his luggage and hurry back to Hau Kai Town. Even though he had just got married, he kept his promise to his barber master and went back to Hau Kai Town to finish his three-year apprenticeship. During that period, he took leave occasionally and returned home to see his father and his wife.

The practice of arranged marriages generally prevailed before the Liberation.

According to the arranged marriage system, parents would ask a matchmaker to introduce marriage partners to their sons or daughters. The matchmaker would infonn both sets of parents on the other family's history and background. If both sets of parents were satisfied, the groom's family would request the matchmaker to pass them the bride-to-be's "Ba-Zi" (i.e. eight Chinese characters denoting the time, date, month and year of birth) to see if they matched with that of the groom. 14 This was to see if the betrothed were well matched according to the principles of fate. The matching of the betrothed's "Ba-Zi" was a prerequisite in spouse selection. Well matched "Ba-Zi" implied that the couple would lead a harmonious life. 15 In addition to the matching of

14 This is a common practice in rural China. See Maurice Freedman, "Ritual Aspects of Chinese Kinship and Marriage," in Family and Kinship in Chinese Society, ed. Maurice Freedman (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970), 181; Francis L.K. Hsu, Under the Ancestors' Shadow: Chinese Culture and Personality (New York: Columbia University Press, 1948), 85. 15 The Chinese believe that having a match in "Ba-Zi" will result in family harmony. See Yih­ yuan Li, "In Search of Equilibrium and Harmony: On the Basic Values Orientations of Traditional Chinese Peasants," in Home Bound: Studies in East Asian Society, ed. Chie Nakane and Chien Chiao (Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, 1992), 130-1; See also 119 the individual's "Ba-Zi", the bridegroom's family would also check if the bride's "Ba-

Zi" matched with that of the family. If they were not well matched, the bride might not be able to live harmoniously with her parents-in-law when she married into the family.

This consideration reveals that marriage was not simply an affair between a man and a woman, but was a family issue. The intention to marry would then be confirmed if there was a good match of "Ba-Zi". The groom's family would then send "San Shu Liu Li"

(i.e. betrothal gifts) to the bride's family. 16 If the bride's family accepted the gifts, it meant that they accepted the bridegroom's marriage proposal and could no longer make any objection, otherwise, they would be prosecuted for reneging on their promise.

Finally, both sets of parents would choose a propitious hour on a propitious day to perform the marriage ceremony. 17

In Lo Village, before Liberation, under Kuomintang rule, arranged marriages were supposed to be blind marriages. Some parents, after deciding for their son, however, would sometimes let him have a look at his bride-to-be to see if the chosen girl's appearance was pleasing to him. The custom of allowing the betrothed to have a look at each other was called "double looking"(Xiang Qin). Although they might not have been given the chance to object even if they thought the other party was not good enough or

Majorie Topley, "Cosmic Antagonisms: A Mother-Child Syndrome," in Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, ed. Arthur Wolf (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 241. 16 Maurice Freedman, "Ritual Aspects of Chinese Kinship and Marriage," 181-3.

120 did not suit them, they still thought that to be granted the chance to meet each other was better than nothing, as at least they had an idea of what the other looked like. The degree of participation by sons and daughters in their own marriage decision increased after the introduction of the practice of "double looking", compared with that of blind marriages. 18

Senior Lo villagers pointed out that in the process of "double looking" there was no actual criteria for selecting one's spouse and that for the most part selection was based on appearance alone. One elderly villager recounts that he participated in "double looking" two or three times. After having a look at his proposed marriage partners he felt he did not like them and so he rejected them all, yet he could not actually find any concrete reason for doing so. His only feeling was that the other parties failed to please him visually. After one or two rejections, his father began to scold him, accusing him of being too choosy, so he had no alternative but to accept his present wife. He felt that in the process of selection, he had set no criterion except that of a pleasing appearance.

When recalling the selection of his spouse, the elderly villager said that later, after

17 Francis L.K. Hsu, Under the Ancestors' Shadow, 85-6; see also William L. Parish & Martin K. Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 156. 18 The practice of "Double looking" is very common in southeast China, see Sulamith H. Potter and Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants, 203. 121 further thought on the subject, he felt that the marriage partner's conduct and character were more important than their appearance. 19

Under the arranged marriage system, the comprehension of the marriage partner's conduct was crucial in making a spouse selection. Before "double looking" the matchmaker would present a detailed family history to both families. Once the parents felt satisfied, they would seek to further understand the other party's family background.

All senior villagers believed that only families with good backgrounds could nurture good children. Similarly, if there were problems with the family's background, for example, if the parents were known to have poor conduct, they would have children with bad conduct.

In the selection of a daughter-in-law, the ability to endure humiliation was of great importance. If a daughter-in-law was unable to endure humiliation, the number of quarrels within the family would inevitably increase. Furthermore, it was believed that if the girl's mother was able to endure humiliation, the daughter would also be able to do so, the belief being that mothers had the most influence over daughters. This explains why the senior villagers indicated that they usually tried to understand the other party's family background through their relatives and friends, paying special attention to the conduct of the girl's mother. Additionally, they maintained that girls should not be

19 See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 172. In Wolfs work, she also mentions that it is common that the elder villagers think that the young men do not lmow how to choose their 122 arrogant. If a girl was too arrogant, she would steal the limelight from her husband, furthermore girls should be docile and willing to be trained. Putting conduct to one side, the possession of a healthy body was also very important, as a wife had to handle all the household affairs and work. 20 Most importantly, however, girls with good health would be fertile, and the ability to give birth in order to perpetuate the husband's blood line was of the highest priority in the selection of a wife for the traditional family. Honorable conduct without accompanying good health added no credit in spouse selection. These, therefore, were the criteria for bride selection in traditional Chinese society, particularly in a peasant village.

Lo Hing-nam was generally positive about the arranged marriages and the criteria for spouse selection on the one hand, yet on the other hand, he felt that young people today are luckier in that they could choose their spouses freely. Today, even though in some cases marriage partners are still introduced by parents through matchmakers, the betrothed are given the chance to learn more about the type of person their proposed spouses are, or even to object to their parents' decisions. In Guangdong, "young people

wives even if they have the chance to do so. 20 As Jankowiak says, an ideal wife should be, "a woman who is beautiful, tall, healthy, soft, kind, well mannered, loyal, virtuous, and one who is skilled in domestic crafts (e.g., sewing, cooking, and so forth) and can take care of children." See William R. Jankowiak, Sex, Death and Hierarchy in A Chinese City (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 166-7; see also Francis L.K. Hsu, Americans and Chinese: Passage to Differences, 3rd ed. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1953), 147; Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 234; In Johnson's work, she also mentions that a wife should be submissive, healthy, and hardworking. See also Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 19. 123 have often claimed greater independence in ... marriage" after 1978. 21 Lo Hing-nam, taking himself as an example, was not given the chance to know or to gain a better understanding of his wife before their marriage, and he always maintained that knowing a little is better than knowing nothing at all. In other words, being granted some autonomy was better than none. In fact, Lo Hing-nam observed the changes in Lo

Village generation by generation over a forty year period after the Liberation and he could not help but express his feeling about the fact that the younger generation is gaining increasing autonomy in spouse selection.22 It is fair to say that he was unable to express his opinion clearly, but one can still detect, when talking with him, his admiration for today' s youngsters who are given the freedom to choose their partners.

For example, Lo Hing-nam once said,

''The present situation is of course better than before. They can decide on their own."

In fact, Lo Hing-nam was not the only one with such views; nearly all villagers of his generation felt that the youngsters of today are more fortunate than they had been because they are given the freedom to choose for themselves.

21 Isabelle Thireau, "Recent Changes in a Guangdong Village," 305. 22 On increasing autonomy in spouse selection, see also Martin King Whyte, "Changes of Mate Choice in Chengdu," in Chinese Society on the Eve of Tiananmen: The Impact of Reform, ed. Deborah Davis and Ezra F. Vogel (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), 181-213. 124 Lo Hing-nam also expressed his opinions on marital problems of Lo Village's younger generation in the 1990's. Despite the fact that elders like Lo Hing-nam think that youngsters nowadays have more freedom to choose their own spouses, they do not entirely agree with the freedom to date and marry. In addition, they do not think that their arranged marriage system of "marrying according to the approval of the parents and the words of the matchmaker" was inferior to today' s system of free marriage. On the contrary, they feel that contemporary marriages are less stable and less reliable than those of their generation. 23 Lo Hing-nam pointed out that, though the youngsters are definitely freer today than in his generation, he feels that the so-called "free love" and

"dating" are unreliable and do not help in the process of spouse selection. He stated that:

"Dating could only lead to 'infatuation'. One became so infatuated with the lover that one could not understand their conduct and character."

Lo Hing-nam commented that the so called "free love" of the youngsters provided only limited means of obtaining deeper mutual understanding, which is why he believes that this type of marriage is unreliable. He believes that due to the lack of a comprehensive understanding of the intended spouse, there would be more problems after marriage. The fact that couples nowadays frequently quarrel and speak of divorce is all due to the lack of a thorough mutual understanding. In addition, he feels that

23 fu fact, divorce was nearly impossible in the countryside before 1949 since marriage was supposed to be forever. See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 164 and 236. 125 although youngsters could enjoy "free love", he pointed out that the kind of freedom preferred by youngsters goes too far. They are too free and get divorced too easily after becoming discontented with a husband or wife.

It was obvious that most of the older generation feel that the freedom to choose one's marital partner is highly praiseworthy. On the other hand, they still believe that the arranged marriage system was more reliable than the modem one. They think that relations built on free dating could not bring about thorough understanding between the two parties. Hence Lo Hing-nam used the word "infatuation" in describing the so-called

"free love" of today. He pointed out:

"Freedom in marriage is good, but it also has many problems."

The older generation is to a great extent influenced by its belief in loyalty in marriage and the concept of pre-Liberation familial culture. Firstly, arranged marriage was not based on emotional attachment in maintaining the marital relationship. "Finding someone that will make the young man happy must remain a secondary issue, no matter how important it may seem to him."24 Arranged marriage in itself had to satisfy the normative requirements of familial culture, therefore, in the selection of a spouse, the

"Ba-Zi" of the bride and groom had to be well-matched. Furthermore, the conduct of both parties had to be well understood. In selecting a wife, men still believed firmly that

24 Margery Wolf, Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972), 108. 126 one should have a thorough understanding of a woman's character, such as her ability to

endure humiliation. From the men's perspective, this selection criterion was of a higher

priority than the so-called "free love" or "emotional attachment". The requirements on

the female's conduct clearly indicated that men were pursuing the traditional familial

life-style and the patriarchal ethic of "male dominates, female follows". As great

attention was paid to ethical relations in traditional families, they had been striving to

fulfill all of these normative requirements in the selection of a spouse. Most of the time,

these requirements made the selectors override any emotional perceptions of "like" and

"dislike". As Potter and Potter point out:

"A... cultural factor influencing the formation of marriages . . . is the shared

assumption that a person's feelings are not a legitimate basis for social action of any

kind; thus, an emotional attachment is not in itself a legitimate basis for a marriage." 25

For example, in the process of "double looking", the bridegroom might not be attracted to the girl's appearance or vice versa, but this was not important. What was more crucial was that they understood if the bride's conduct made her capable ofbeing a good future daughter-in-law and wife according to traditional family standards. Some of the old men ofLo Hing-nam's generation pointed out that though their marriages had been arranged by their parents, they thought that their marriages had been perfectly

25 See Sulamith H. Potter and Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants: The Anthropology of a Revolution, 200. 127 good; husbands and wives could associate quite "hannoniously and friendly". 26 At a deeper level, "harmoniously and friendly'' actually referred to husbands and wives living according to the ethical requirements of traditional families: they were able to produce a new generation,27 to perpetuate the family, and husbands and wives could co- operate in order to maintain the means oflivelihood for the family. 28

3 Married Life

When Lo Hing-nam returned to Hau Kai Town, his primary objective was to finish the last year of his apprenticeship. However, after only three months, he received a letter from his wife telling him that she was going to Hong Kong to find a job there.

Whenever Lo Hing-nam mentioned this he was full of indignation.

"Actually in the three months following our marriage, the total time we could spend together had been less than ten days. She said she would leave and then left. What could I do? I first planned to let her find a job in Hong Kong after I had finished my apprenticeship, but she insisted on going immediately. What else could I do?"

26 Francis L.K. Hsu, Americans and Chinese. 27 From the Chinese point of view, one of marriage's major functions is to extend the husband's family line, see Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 140.

128 The more he talked about this the more indignant he became. With his eyes open wide he began to stammer.

"She wanted to leave. What could I do? And what should I have done! Alas, this was the fate of this poor wretch."

When recalling and describing these past events, Lo Hing-nam showed a degree of resignation.

Immediately after their marriage, Lo Hing-nam's wife had stayed in the Village.

Since Lo Hing-nam had no farmland, she could not earn her living by farming. Also, she could not find a job in the village, making life for her quite precarious. When Lo

Hing-nam recalled the early days of his marriage, he said he was not ignorant of her hardship in Lo Village. All along he was unhappy with his wife's decision to leave him after just three months and make a living alone in Hong Kong. Although he had never told his wife of his discontentment, his tone of voice and his facial expressions showed his dissatisfaction with her decision. He believed that he should have sole authority over his wife's decision. 29 Despite this, however, he still attributed his wife's departure to his poverty.

28 On the husband and wife relationship of the pre-Liberation Chinese family, see Francis L.K. Hsu, Rugged Individualism Reconsidered: Essays in Psychological Anthropology (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1983), 220-32. 29 Concerning a husband's authority over his wife, see also Francis L.K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour" in China in Crisis: Chinese Heritage and the Communist Political System, vol. 1, bk. 2, ed. Ho Ping-ti & Tsou Tang, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), 584-7. 129 He complained not only about his wife's decision but also about his own impoverished situation:

"At that time my major problem was a financial one. Maybe after our marriage when she found out that I had no fannland and was an apprentice barber, she thought that our family did not have good prospects for the future." At these words, he stopped for a while and stared ahead with a blank expression.

"Perhaps she discovered I was lame in one leg. If I had a better financial status, maybe we would not have ended up in this situation."

Although he had mentioned that he was lame, he still thought that poverty was the main cause for his wife's departure. After his wife left Lo Village, Lo Hing-nam served out his apprenticeship before returning to Lo Village to work as a barber.

"What other jobs can I do? At that time all I knew was hard work. I worked from morning till night shaving people's heads. I hoped I could earn enough money so that when my wife came back, we could have a better standard of living. Alas, how much can one get from shaving heads? Actually shaving heads has no prospects at all. No matter how hard you work, you will never earn much money!"

Lo Hing-nam always stressed that, "money goes with land." Without land, one could never make a living. As a boy, Lo Hing-nam had experienced the days when

China was invaded by the Japanese and famine hit many rural areas. He could still

130 clearly recall the painful experiences of villagers who had no farmland for cultivation searching for food wherever they could. His family had land, however, and so they were able to survive. These memories made Lo Hing-nam put even more weight on the importance of land, but ironically he was given none. Instead, he was sent to be apprenticed to a barber. All in all his sense of security had been eroded and to make matters worse, his job in the village was considered to be low and degrading, further confirming his feeling that his future life would be full of difficulties and hardship.

This was reflected in the name-calling he had to endure where, Lo Hing-nam was derisively called "Hair Cutting Nam" or "Hair Cutting man". Sometimes people would say to him:

"Hair Cutting Nam, it is quite true that you are incapable, working as a bumpkin barber for the rest of your life!"

When he was ridiculed in this manner, he could do nothing but sigh sorrowfully or sometimes he would reproach himself:

"What is the point of being a bumpkin barber? It has no prospects at all!"

Having been a barber for over forty years, in a career with no prospects, and having endured the ridicule that went with it, coupled with his wife's decision to leave him to work in Hong Kong, had all clearly added to Lo Hing-nam's sense of inferiority.

131 When the Land Reform Movement began in Lo Village in 1952, poor farmers who previously had no farmland were assigned land for cultivation according to the number of family members. 30 Because Lo Hing-nam was a barber, however, he had not been assigned any farmland and could only continue to make a living by cutting hair.

Land Reform improved the living conditions of poor farmers, making it less difficult for them to earn a modest living if they worked hard. At that time, however, Lo Hing-nam was still having a hard life, because he was excluded from the benefits Land Reform brought.

The following year, Lo Hing-nam's wife wrote to him saying that earning a living in Hong Kong was too laborious and that she wanted to move back to Lo Village. She returned in 1953 and eventually gave birth to a son. She lived in Lo Village for four more years, and in 1957, returned to work in Hong Kong. In those four years, living conditions were poor and quarrels were frequent between Lo Hing-nam and his wife, however, from Lo Hing-nam's perspective at least he had his wife back, and she had borne him a child. Hence, in comparison to his present lonely life, Lo Hing-nam thought that he was happier during that period of his life. He recalls:

30 In fact the Agrarian Refonn Law was in place in June 1950. On more information on the Land Reform Movement in Guangdong, see Ezra Vogel, Canton under Communism, 91-124. 132 "In those years (from1953 to 1954) we were having a hard time and quarreled

very frequently. It was difficult to earn a living, but I could say that we were happy in

those days."

In 1954, Lo Village adhered to the Party line and began to follow the road to a collective economy. 31 Lo Hing-nam was assigned to continue his career as a barber, and his wife was assigned to cultivate farmland. 32 Because the system of collective cultivation was established inside the village, the amount of grain that could be assigned to Lo Hing-nam and his wife was very small, no matter how hard the villagers worked.

Living conditions for all the villagers were poorer than during the period of Land

Reform and Lo Hing-nam and his family suffered too.

In 1957, Lo Hing-nam's wife decided once again to leave Lo Village to find work in Hong Kong.

"In 1957, she told me that she wanted to go to Hong Kong to find a job. Alas, there was no other choice. We had a very hard life here and I had to let her go. Because she had obtained a Hong Kong Identity Card from her previous stay in Hong Kong, her application to work there was easily approved."

31 In 1954, lower-level agricultural cooperative units were formed. In the cooperative units, "daily work was no longer under the direction of an individual household but rather was organized and assigned by [cooperative unit] leaders." See Ezra Vogel, Canton under Communism, 142-6. 32 For the issue that women were brought into productive labour outside the family, see Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 157-77; See also Patricia D. Beaver, Hon Lihui and Wang Xue, "Rural Chinese Women: Two Faces of Economic Reform," Modern China 21 (1995): 205-32. 133 Lo Hing-nam's face showed signs of helplessness when recalling the memory of his wife's second departure. He also uttered frequent sighs and groans and attributed her departure to his own inability to support his family. This time, however, he did not display the indignation he had shown when talking about her first departure. After all, the whole village was having a hard time in 1957 and his wife's decision to leave was due to there being no alternative. 33

Based solely on Lo Hing-nam' s account, at first I thought that it was the increasing hardship of earning a living in the village that drove his wife to search for work in Hong Kong again. I later learnt from other villagers, however, that there were other reasons that made his wife leave Lo Village, which Lo Hing-nam was perhaps unaware of. Some old villagers who disliked him said he had a bad temper and always scolded and beat his wife and that this was the reason his wife had left for Hong Kong.

Even those who were more sympathetic towards Lo Hing-nam agreed that he had a hot temper, admitting that he frequently scolded his wife whenever he was dissatisfied.

They felt, though, that quarrels between husbands and wives were very common in the village, especially during hard times. They have an idiom which states: "to a destitute couple nothing goes well". Couples tend to have more conflicts in difficult times, but

33 As Vogel points out, "[o ]n the economic front, the hopes for rapid progress following socialist transformation were dashed in 1956 and 1957. By early 1957 this created a mood which leaders later described as one of gloom and despair over economic performance." See Ezra Vogel, Canton under Communism, 220. 134 perhaps it was because Lo Hing-nam had a bad temper that they quarreled more frequently than others.

I had first-hand experience of Lo Hing-nam's bad temper when on one occasion while I was chatting with him, an old lady brought her grandson to Lo Hing-nam's shop for a haircut. While Lo Hing-nam was attending to the boy, the old lady complained that she had a larger electricity bill than her neighbour. Lo Hing-nam thought that she should not make a comparison because each household had different electrical appliances, but the old lady pointed out that there was no difference. They both had a television, a refrigerator and an air conditioning unit, hence her query as to why she had to pay more.

Before the old lady could complete her sentence, however, Lo Hing-nam became irritated and shouted,

"Actually you can't compare! Why do you compare? Each has their own electrical appliances."

It seemed that he had not listened to the point the old lady was making, and had simply concluded that she did not know how to calculate her bill accurately. The old lady felt annoyed and said,

"Both are the same. What is the difference?"

Lo Hing-nam, feeling that she was being insistent, immediately got angry, staring at the old lady, and pointing at her with scissors in hand, saying,

135 "Different is different! Different is different! This comparison is wrong!"

The old lady, after being scolded by him with a loud and gruff voice, refuted him muttering,

"What's wrong with it? Why am I incorrect?"

Lo Hing-nam, on hearing this, became even more enraged and, with his fingers still pointing at her, berated her in stentorian tones,

"You, making such a comparison, are wrong! You are wrong! Wrong is wrong!"

When he got angry, his face became red, and he began to stutter. He could hardly utter the word "You". The old lady could not tolerate his temper and, dreading his fierce look, she turned away so as not to look at him any more. She did, however, continue murmuring, trying to refute him.

Lo Hing-nam had such a bad temper. Sometimes he would even quarrel with others over trivialities or simply insist on his own point of view, and in the process, his argument sometimes made little sense. It is not difficult to imagine from this image of

Lo Hing-nam how bad his wife must have felt when she had to live with him and tolerate his bad temper.

In addition to a bad temper, Lo Hing-nam, like many others, held a traditional view of women. Once I had a meal with him in a small family-run restaurant in Lo

136 Village. While we were eating, just by chance, we changed our topic of conversation to women. Lo Hing-nam said,

"After all, I think that women are not as smart as men. No matter what they do they cannot perform as well as men do."

"But Chairman Mao said 'Women hold up half the sky.'" I replied.

He was not very happy at this and answered, ''Though he did say that, in fact ... "

All of a sudden, the proprietress, a lady of around 30, sitting at another table chipped in, "All these sayings were to comfort the women. I also think it is true that women are not as capable as men." fu rural areas, women also believe that they can perform non-technical work only.34

Lo Hing-nam, finding that he had a supporter, continued his argument,

"That's right. This saying was to comfort women. Even if they could hold up half the sky, there are plenty of things which women are incapable of doing. Let's take cooking. Men can cook better than women ... "

He also quoted many other examples in which women could not perform as well as men. This incident shows that Lo Hing-nam also looked down women, like many other male villagers. During Mao's period, women's status was improved, but it seems

34 Wolf has a succinct elaboration of this point. See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 85. 137 that Lo Hing-nam still committed himself to pre-Liberation lineage values regarding

women's status.35

Lo Hing-nam's contempt of women together with his bad temper undoubtedly

caused conflict and quarrels between himself and his wife. Although he never felt that

he had been bad to his wife, he did not deny that he had frequently quarreled with her,

but he did not think this was one of the reasons for his wife returning to Hong Kong to

make a living. He insisted,

"There must be quarrels between husbands and wives. How could she leave for

that reason? It was only because we were too poor at the time, and it was better for her

to leave."

One old lady, a close friend of Lo Hing-nam's wife, had a different view on the

situation concerning the Los. She pointed out that Lo Hing-nam's wife was a woman of

good virtue and conduct, but that Lo Hing-nam' s mother was very harsh to her and

treated her like a servant. 36 Furthermore, after Lo Hing-nam's wife had given birth,

35 Both Margery Wolf and Judith Stacey argue that socialism and patriarchy are in fact compatible and hence the socialist revolution cannot transform the pre-Liberation patriarchal order in the countryside and the status of women remained unimproved. See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China, 261; For Stacey's work, see Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China, 266. 36 On the harsh treatment of daughters-in-law during the period of the 1950's, see Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China, 226. The harsh treatment of the parents-in-law towards the daughter-in-law during the period of collectivization indeed revealed the persistence of the pre-Liberation family values. On this issue, see Margery Wolf, Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan, 103-8. Besides, virilocal residence also resulted in the obvious incompatibility of the in-laws and consequently led to the sufferings ofthe daughter-in-law. On this issue of compatibility, see also Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 178. 138 earning a living in Lo Village became harder and harder as there was no nursery

provided by the cooperative unit.37 Apart from looking after the child, Lo Hing-nam's

wife had to work on the farmland she had been assigned to. Although working in paddy

fields was hard work, she still had to do the housework after she returned home. 38

Instead of empathizing with her, Lo Hing-nam scolded her frequently, rebuking her for

not finishing the housework, indeed sometimes he even scolded her for not doing the

work properly.39 The old lady did not think that Lo Hing-nam's wife had failed to fulfill

her duties or that she had not finished the housework properly, it was simply that the

tremendous amount of work involved in having to work on the land, take care of her

child and run the house was too much for her. According to the old lady, it was too

demanding for Lo Hing-nam's wife to simultaneously fulfill the roles of daughter-in-

law, wife, and worker. The truth was also that Lo Hing-nam was simply not content

with his wife. These factors, together with worsening living conditions in the village,

prompted her to leave Lo Village and return to Hong Kong to earn a living. 40

37 Without a nursery provided, the workload of women in Guangdong was doubled. See Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 109 and 173; William L. Parish & Martin K. Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, 81; Rae Blumberg, "Structural Factors Affecting Women's Status: A Cross-Cultural Paradigm," (Paper Presented at the International Sociological Association Meetings, Toronto, August 1974). 38 Women doing housework after returning from the paddy field was a common phenomenon during the period of collectivization. See Barbara Wolfe Jancar, Women under Communism (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1978), and also Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 173. 39 1n fact it was common that young women were beaten and tortured by their husbands in the 1950's and 1960's. See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 164. 40 Even though the Chinese Communist Party demanded an end to the subjugation of women after 1949, it seems that getting women into the paddy field did not entirely improve women's 139 It is clear from the old lady's account, that she not only disapproved of Lo Hing- nam's temper, but that she also thought that he had never understood the lowly position of his wife in his family. Moreover, she believed that Lo Hing-nam had made unreasonable demands on his wife. Being a woman, the old lady was, perhaps, better able to see things from Lo Hing-nam's wife's point of view and hence was able to interpret how she had felt at that time. Ultimately, she thought that Lo Hing-nam himself was responsible for his wife's second departure from Lo Village.

Lo Hing-nam's wife's experience was, in fact, not unique at all. Another old lady, recounting the unfair treatment of women after marriage, pointed out that in the old days, even when a girl married into a rich family, she still had to take full responsibility for all family matters, whether large or sma11.41 If she could not handle these properly, she would be regarded as not having been brought up properly. The fate of such a woman would be much worse if she married into a poor family. During the day she had to work in the paddy fields, and when she returned home, she had to do the housework.

Not only that, she had to serve her husband and parents-in-law as well, hence, being a wife was just like being a servant. Lo Hing-nam's wife's experience was in fact no

social status and produce equality of the sexes but served to put a greater burden to women in the areas. See William L. Parish & Martin K. Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, chap. 12; Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, chap. 4. 41 On the demands towards a daughter-in-law in the pre-Liberation or Ching period, see Susan Mann, "Grooming a Daughter for Marriage: Brides and Wives in the Mid-Ching Period," in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, 207. 140 different from that of other women. Nevertheless, Lo Hing-nam's bad temper had somehow worsened her situation.

Having grown up in a male-dominated village, Lo Hing-nam might not have thought that he had done anything unfair to his wife, neither might he have understood the hardship endured by his wife in her daily life. To him quarrels between husbands and wives were commonplace. The most he admitted to was that he had sometimes shouted at his wife in a gruff voice. Inequality within the marital relationship together with his bad temper had, however, made him worsen the situation unintentionally. Lo

Hing-nam believed that it had been the worsening living conditions in the village, plus his poor financial status that had forced his wife to return to Hong Kong which was why he always felt remorse at being destined to suffer. Undoubtedly, their financial situation was one of the main reasons why he could not live with his wife, but it was his character which gradually split them up when times became hard.

After his wife left Lo Village, Lo Hing-nam began to attempt to enter Hong Kong illegally, hoping that he could be reunited with his wife. Although Lo Hing-nam's wife had left him, she still wrote to him, saying that she could find him a comer under a staircase in Hong Kong where he could open up a barber's stall and earn a living.

"I started to steal into Hong Kong in December of that year. The pity was that despite many attempts, I was not ever successful, maybe because of my leg. I have been

141 in almost every prison in Dongguang. Sometimes I served one or two days. Sometimes I had to serve several months. On one occasion, a police officer, realizing I was trying to enter Hong Kong illegally, made fun of me and said that I was useless, not even able to make one successful attempt after trying so many times. Alas, people like me actually have no use at all!" He seemed depressed when he recalled these experiences and put the blame for his failure on his lame leg, which prevented nimble movement while walking.

From 1957 to 1978, through early manhood and middle-age, Lo Hing-nam continued to enter Hong Kong illegally, without a single success in twenty years. 42 This prevented him from enjoying a reunion with his wife and son in Hong Kong. No wonder that he felt discouraged!

Although he had failed to enter Hong Kong, every year his wife returned with their son to visit Lo Hing-nam in Lo Village. She could not stay long because of her job in Hong Kong, usually only for a few days before the Lunar New Year, before she had to return to Hong Kong to report for work. For over thirty years, Lo Hing-nam enjoyed only a three to five day long reunion with his wife and son each year. Although the time

42 It was common in that period of time that the people of Guangdong escaped to Hong Kong. "Dongguang officials estimated that 20 percent of their young people had escaped to Hong Kong in the decades before reforms began, primarily because there were so few local opportunities." See Ezra F. Vogel, One Step Ahead in China: Guangdong under Reform (Mas.: Harvard University Press, 1989), 176. 142 they could spend together was very short, at least he had the chance to meet with his wife, however, since 1990, Lo Hing-nam's wife has not returned to visit him.

Lo Hing-nam has always insisted that he does not know why his wife has stopped visiting him. He can only recall that in that year he had a quarrel with her over family matters and that since then his wife has not returned. Not for a moment has Lo Hing- nam thought that the quarrel could have that effect on his wife because the issues involved, he believes, are commonplace. I inquired about the matter time and again, but he said firmly that he did not know the reason for her failure to return. Later on, I learnt the whole story from a close friend of the Los.

The major cause of the quarrel was a dispute between Lo Hing-nam and his younger brother over their family's property. Lo Hing-nam's father had already arranged how to assign the property to his two sons several years before his death in

1990. He assigned the barbershop to Lo Hing-nam, and the family house to his younger brother, and in so doing he showed his favoritism for Lo Hing-nam's brother because the house was bigger than the barber shop and could be extended. At that time Lo Hing- nam accepted this unfair situation. But after the death of the father, Lo Hing-nam's brother and sister-in-law pointed out that because he was only adopted into the family he was not entitled to the ownership of the barbershop and they ordered him to move out. Lo Hing-nam's uncles and cousins then fought for him, accusing Lo Hing-nam's

143 younger brother of taking back the barbershop unfairly, citing the traditional practices of Lo Village where adopted sons had the right to inherit property from adoptive fathers. Only "Ji-pi-zai" (chicken thigh son) i.e. children of a mother's first marriage were not entitled to inherit the property of the mother's second husband. Therefore, according to the norms of the traditional Chinese family, Lo Hing-nam's younger brother was acting wrongly. 43 No matter how hard they tried to persuade him, however, he still insisted on taking back the barbershop. The uncles and cousins then encouraged

Lo Hing-nam to put the issue before the local court, and were backed up by his wife. Lo

Hing-nam, however, thought that if family matters were put before the court, the whole family could never live together in harmony again. 44 Consequently, Lo Hing-nam rejected their suggestion.

The barbershop was very important to Lo Hing-nam and his wife, as they planned to set it aside for their son when he got married in China since it was their only property. If his son was to get married, the only solution was to refurbish the barbershop as a home. Hence, it is not difficult to appreciate why the Los attached so much importance to the ownership of the barbershop. Yet Lo Hing-nam was willing to

43 On the norms of inheriting a father's property, see Chi-nam Chen, Jia Zu Yu She Hui: Tai Wan He Zhong Guo She Hui Yan Jiu De Ji Chu Li Nian (Lineage and Society), (Tai Bei: Lian Jing Chu Ban Shi Ye Gong Si, 1990), 131-6. 44 On the concept of harmony of family, see Yih-yuan Li, "In Search of Equilibrium and Harmony: On the Basic Value Orientations ofTraditional Chinese Peasants," 137-9. 144 withdraw his claim to ownership of the shop so as not to make his family affairs public.

Of course this upset his wife very much.

In reality Lo Hing-nam did not consider his son's marriage to be unimportant, but, from this situation one can see that in Lo Hing-nam's mind "family" not only comprised wife and son, but also included his younger brother's family. Lo Hing-nam believed that if he put this issue before the court, he was making "family affairs" public, and this was disgraceful. In addition, the ''whole family" would no longer be on good terms. This revealed that Lo Hing-nam gave "family'' affairs his priority.45 Eventually, his son did marry in China, but they did not return to Lo Village to perform the ceremony. In the meantime, through the effort of his kinsmen and by a variety of means, Lo Hing-nam was able to regain ownership of the barbershop.

Another of Lo Hing-nam's wife's close friend pointed out that his wife become very angry over this issue and that the quarrel they had was a serious one. When the old lady was recounting the quarrel between Lo Hing-nam and his wife, she imitated Lo

Hing-nam's facial expression and gestures when he was scolding people. Her eyes opened wide and she imitated his stutter.

45 Slote points out that "[t]he individual is not an 'I', rather he/she is an inextricable part of an encompassing 'we', and if one acts improperly, there is collective loss of face." See Walter H. Slote, "Psychocultural Dynamics within the Confucian Family," in Confucianism and the Family, ed. Walter H. Slote and George A. DeVos (New York: State University of New York Press, 1998), 44. 145 She stated that, "Ah Nam's temper is just like that of a cow. He scolded his wife loudly ... "

The old lady thought that Lo Hing-nam's wife did not return to Lo Village because of this dispute, because firstly, she did not want to see Lo Hing-nam' s younger brother and his sister-in-law again, and secondly, she had had a terrible quarrel with Lo

Hing-nam over the matter which made her unwilling to ever return to Lo Village.

Obviously, Lo Hing-nam's possession of the barbershop might have been lost if he had his way. As a result of this matter, Lo Hing-nam's son could not get married in

Lo Village. The reason for the quarrel was probably that Lo Hing-nam's wife was unhappy with the way Lo Hing-nam had managed the situation, and, not forgetting his temperamental nature, Lo Hing-nam was unable to accept comments from his wife on the way he handled things, so she inevitably received a sharp scolding. Lo Hing-nam did realize that this dispute had increased the conflict between him and his wife.

However, he mentioned rather indifferently that his wife was not very satisfied with his way of handling the affair.

Although he admitted that he has a bad temper, he was still unwilling to believe that the way he managed things and his manner towards his wife all contributed to his wife's decision never to return to Lo Village. Indeed, financial problems had twice caused his wife's departures from Lo Village. It would appear that his bad temper and

146 his persistence in maintaining the traditional "male dominates, female follows" attitude, made his wife even less tolerant of their impoverished state. Finally in 1990, as told by the elderly woman villager, due to Lo Hing-nam's bad temper and his persistent way of managing things, his wife felt that she could endure no more. She made a firm decision that she would never return to visit him, and from that time onward, Lo Hing-nam has felt very lonely.

4 Lo Hing-nam's hope

One day, when I was about to have my breakfast in a village restaurant, I saw Lo

Hing-nam coming happily towards me from some distance away. He looked full of vigour and cheer, and he was more smartly dressed than usual. He wore a new, grey

Chinese suit and a pair of new shoes. He came up to me, with a smile on his face, and said,

"Hello, have you eaten your breakfast? If not, I will treat you this morning."

It was because he was in such a good mood that I could not refuse, and so we went into the restaurant together and had our breakfast. I ordered two bowls of noodles,

147 and then sat down and asked Lo Hing-nam, "What happened to you? You look so happy today?"

"Yes! My son, my daughter-in-law and my two grand daughters came back a few days ago to spend the New Year holidays here. They have been staying here for two days."

While he was speaking, he had a smile on his face.

"My two grand daughters called me 'grandpa, grandpa'. I was very happy indeed.

This is the first time their whole family had come to visit me ... my two granddaughters; the elder one is four years old, and the younger one is already three. They are now touring Beijing. They asked me ifl would like to go with them."

"Then why didn't you go with them?" I asked casually.

"I'm old and the weather is cold so I didn't go. Besides, it would take a lot of money. My son is not rich. I am happy enough that they have come and given me a New

Year's greeting!" He smiled with contentment throughout the breakfast.

Lo Hing-nam's son had returned to China and married a girl in Dai Sha Town in

Dongguang. She had given birth to two daughters, but she had never brought along her two daughters to visit Lo Hing-nam in the past, and Lo Hing-nam had never been to Dai

Sha Town to visit his daughter-in-law and granddaughters. He thought that because he was the father, he should not take the initiative to visit his daughter-in-law. He did

148 admit, however, that if he had had a grandson, he would have gone to visit them.46 This time, his son had brought his wife and daughters and returned to Lo Village to give him a New Year's greeting, which definitely made him very happy.

Happiness brought by the family reunion during the New Year holiday did not last long. Lo Hing-nam was persistently troubled by the problems between him and his wife.

When there were no customers, he would sometimes sit by himself inside the barbershop, puffing his cigarette sadly and thinking about family matters.

Once I helped him take some bulky furniture to his house. When we were walking he said to me, "Last year (1994), I wanted to invite you to my home so that I could cook some food for you to eat, but my home actually does not look like a home. How could I invite you to come? It's not comfortable even just to sit for a while, not to mention to have dinner in. So I rejected the idea."

At first I thought it was because he lived alone, and, therefore, his house was in a mess, however, I later found out that what he meant by "home does not look like a home" did not refer to its physical appearance.

Lo Hing-nam lived on the south eastern side of Lo Village, which was the oldest residential district. The house that he lived in was very old. It was said that the house

46 On the issue that the socialist revolution failed to change the pre-Liberation patriarchal ideology of giving preference to a son, see Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China, 219; Rubie Watson, "Marriage and Gender Inequality," in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, 350; See also Elisabeth Croll, Endangered Daughters: Discrimination and Development in Asia (London: Routledge, 2000), 70-90. 149 was over one hundred years old. The house was very large, around ninety square metres

including a courtyard area, and comprises a central room and three bedrooms. There

was another family living in the house, who were relatives of his wife. Lo Hing-nam

lived in the room which was to the left of the front door. The room was around one

hundred square feet, but had no window, therefore, whenever you entered the room you

had to tum on the light, otherwise, you would be in complete darkness. Although his room was not very large, all his belongings were neatly arranged. It did not look like what he described as "does not look like a home". Inside his room were a bed and a wardrobe, both of traditional style. Beside his bed was a desk, on which was an ash tray

full of cigarette ash and butts. On the other side of the desk were several framed photographs of his son and his grand daughters, and ofLo Hing-nam and his wife taken when they were young. The neat and tidy appearance of the room prompted me to ask why he always said that his home "does not look like a home".

"I did not mean that my home physically does not look like a home. What I meant was that my family is flawed. My wife, my child, and I are not living together. I am all alone in the house. Do you think this is what a home is like? Bad fate. No way out. It had been like this for many years. My wife and my child no longer stay with me."

150 Indeed, Lo Hing-nam still adheres to the pre-Liberation idea that having a complete and harmonious family is a kind ofblessing.47

Each time he mentioned that he was living alone and that his wife was not living with him, one could not help feeling pity for the loneliness he had experienced in his life. After he had arranged the furniture, he told me to take a seat and then he made a pot of tea for me. When I was drinking the tea, I looked at the photographs that were lying on his desk. When he saw me pick up the picture of him together with his wife, he told me that the woman in the photograph was his wife. He also told me, with a smile on his face, that his wife was quite beautiful in her younger years. Then he took some more photographs from the desk drawer and showed them to me. Most of them were snapshots of his son. He also took out an old plastic bag which was neatly wrapped, containing photographs of him and his wife taken together when they were young.

These few photographs were all he had besides the one on the desk and, although the colour had begun to fade, there was no trace of damage. It seemed that the photographs had been carefully kept and he recalled when these were taken and even trivial matters about them while he was showing them to me.

He very much hoped on the one hand that he could persuade his wife to come back, but on the other hand, he also worried that he would feel uncomfortable she did.

47 Yih-yuan Li, Wen Hua De Tu Xiang (Xia): Zong Jiao Yu Qun Zu De Wen Hua Guan Cha (Picture of Culture (2): Cultural Observation of Religion and Clan) (Taipei: Yun Chen Wen 151 He therefore told me that he would rearrange the furniture in his home. While he was telling me these things, he led me into the neighboring small room, and further elaborated that he would put some of the old furniture into this small room. He then returned to his own bedroom and told me in detail how he would rearrange the furniture of this room, hoping that this would make his wife feel more comfortable if she lived in this room. When he sat down and lighted a cigarette, however, Lo Hing-nam, who had been in high spirits a moment ago, abruptly became very depressed.

"Only if she came back would I make these changes. Alas, I don't even know when she will come back!"

Actually Lo Hing-nam did not just sit and wait. He told me that he always tried to learn from his son the reason why his wife did not come back. He also asked his son to help him persuade his wife to return and visit him, but even his son could offer no solution to his plight. His son told him that he had to be patient and wait for a suitable time.

At the beginning of 1995, Lo Hing-nam told me that he would find an excuse to make a call to Hong Kong to talk with his wife. He prepared to make a call to her in

March because his daughter-in-law's birthday fell in that month. He would take this opportunity to call in order to ask her if she would come back. If he did not succeed at

Hua, 1992), 64-94. 152 this attempt, he would try again in October because his son's birthday was in October.

Indeed, Lo Hing-nam told me that he had previously made telephone calls to Hong

Kong to talk with his wife, but his wife did not want to speak to him. Nevertheless, he was determined to keep on trying.

After March 1995, I visited Lo Hing-nam's barbershop and found him sitting there alone, so I asked him if he had made any telephone call to Hong Kong. He answered disappointedly, "It is no use ifl called or not!" Then he fell silent. I waited for some time before he continued; "I called her last month. She knew it was me and asked me what the matter was. Before I finished what I had to say she said, 'Is there anything special?' And then she hung up." I asked him if he would try again, but he answered quite passively, "I may not do that again. She doesn't want to speak to me. It doesn't matter whether she comes back or not. So many years have passed!" He did not look at me when he was saying these words. His eyes were full of disappointment and loss, and he gazed blankly at the market in front of his barbershop.

Lo Hing-nam's marriage had been arranged by his parents and the days he spent with his wife after the marriage were very few. Over the years, they had spent more time apart than together, yet he still eagerly hoped that his wife would return and live with him. Perhaps this was the result ofhis belief in the traditional marriage system.48

48 On the traditional ideas of marriage, see Francis L. K. Hsu, Americans and Chinese, 144-155; Chi-nam Chen, Wen Hua De Gui Ji (Xza Ce): Hun Yin Jia Zu Yu She Hui (The Locus of 153 In this Chapter, it is clear that Lo Hing-nam's insistence on pre-Liberation family

practices can be seen in several ways. Despite the fact that Lo Hing-nam and other

elderly villagers experienced a series of anti-feudalism measures, his views on spouse

selection, marriage and family life show his adherence to traditional lineage values. This

adherence shows that, unlike what some scholars have claimed in their studies, 49 the

thirty years of political reform seem to have been unable to shake the villagers'

attachment to the traditional values. The socialist reform failed to transform the

traditional family ideology. 50

Regarding marriage, he and other elderly people maintain that the traditional

method of choosing a spouse is the key to a successful marriage, where marriage is seen

as a function of the whole family rather than simply of the couple. They believe that the

aim of marriage is to continue the family bloodline. 51 This view of marriage is oriented

to the family's well-being where the personal likes and dislikes of the individual are

Culture: Marriage, Lineage and Society) (Taipei: Yun Chen Wen Hua Shi Ye Gu Fen You Xian Gong Si, 1990), 39-42. 49 See Helen Siu, Agents and Victims in South China: Accomplices in Rural Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 189-211. 50 On this idea, see Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed; Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China; Emily Honig and Gail Hershatter, Personal Voices; Sulamith H. Potter and Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants: The Anthropology of a Revolution; Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China; Deborah Davis, "Urban Households: Supplicants to Socialist State," 50-76; and also Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," 103-136. 51 Margery Wolf, Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan, 14. 154 suppressed for the collective welfare of the family which is more important. Regarding the husband-wife relationship, he still adheres to the traditional gender relations; women are subordinate to men. As Wolf argues, the Chinese socialist revolutionaries "did hope to relieve women ... of the patriarchal burden but were defeated because they did not recognize their cultural blinders."52 As a result, his patriarchal attitude in a way has made his wife decide to stay away from him forever. On family life, however, Lo Hing- nam believes in the pre-Liberation ideas that marriage is forever and that a complete and harmonious family life is of supreme importance, therefore he feels very unhappy about his wife's decision not to return to Lo Village. All these practices that Lo Hing-nam adheres to reveal the basic features of the pre-Liberation Chinese family developed by

Fei53 and Hsu54 and discussed in Chapter 1.

52 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 261. 53 Xiaotong Fei, From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society, trans. by Gary G. Hamilton and Wan Zheng (California: University of California Press, 1992); Xiaotong Fei, Peasant Life in China: A Field Study of Country Life in the Yangtze Valley (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1939). 54 Francis L. K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour" and Americans and Chinese. 155 CHAPTERS

A MIDDLE-AGED VILLAGER

In Lo Hing-nam's case, he was born and grew up before 1949. This may explain to some extent why he and his generation adhere to the pre-Liberation family ideology.

This Chapter turns to a middle-aged villager, named So Yiu-kong. He was born in the

1950's when China was going down the road to collectivization. During his teenage years, there were anti-feudalist movements against the pre-Liberation family ideology.

In his twenties, the Rural Economic Reform Policy began to take place. Through examining his attitudes on marriage and courtship, and his experience of married life, it is hoped that his story can reveal that villagers of the middle-aged cohort still adhered strongly to traditional values even though they had experienced two tides of social change.

1 So Yiu-kong

156 So Yiu-kong was born in 1955 and married in 1979, the year when rural economic reform began to take place. 1 His wife came from Nam Chak Village which is to the south of Lo Village. So Yiu-kong has a son and a daughter. His son, Shi-chun began secondary school in 1993, while his daughter Wai-ling started in 1995. So Yiu-kong drives a motorcycle taking passengers to and from Lo Village.

Soon after starting work in Lo Village, I had to go to Cheung Lok Town to photocopy some documents so I hired a motorcycle to take me to Cheung Lok Town and So Yiu-kong was the driver. When we arrived, So Yiu-kong charged me fifteen dollars. I met So Yiu-kong again a couple of days later. When he saw me, he recognized me immediately. "Hi, Hong Kong guy! Are you going to Cheung Lok Town again?" he asked with a smile.

The next time I went to Cheung Lok Town, So Yiu-kong only charged me ten dollars. I was surprised and asked him why the lower fare.

"It's normal practice to charge ten dollars for trips from village to town," he told me plainly.

1 On major changes since the rural economic reform took place, see William L. Parish, ed., Chinese Rural Development: The Great Transformation (Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe, 1985); K. Griffin, ed., Institutional Reform and Economic Development in the Chinese Countryside (London: Macmillan, 1984); E. Perry and C. Wong, The Political Economy of Reform on Post-Mao China (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1985); Jorgen Delman, Clemens S. Ostergaard, and Flemming Christiansen, eds., Remaking Peasant China: Problems of Rural Development and Institutions at the Start ofthe 1990's (Aarhus: Aarhus University Press, 1990); Robert F. Ash, "The Evolution of Agricultural Policy," The China Quarterly, 116 (1988): 529-55. 157 When I complained about the earlier fare he looked embarrassed and said, "I didn't know you at that time. Besides, you are from Hong Kong and who else can we fool other than Hong Kong guys?"

Later I discovered that the other motorcycle drivers also behaved in the same way, always charging higher prices to strangers. The only difference was that So Yiu-kong charged more than the others.

It was 1994 and So Yiu-kong's son Shi-chun was in Form Two at secondary school. One day when I visited So Yiu-kong, Shi-chun was studying for a politics lesson. There was a question on the book asking whether a good citizen should put national interest above personal interest.

So Yiu-kong, who was sitting beside Shi-chun, said, "Of course personal interest is more important! Silly boy. Don't you think so?"

Shi-chun was a bit embarrassed and murmured, "I can't put an answer like that in my exam paper."

So Yiu-kong continued, "I didn't mean for you to use my words in your answer! I just wanted to explain to you!"

He smiled at me derisively and said, "How can you make money from learning this stuffl" While he was saying this, he smoked and shook his head.2

2 Richard Madsen points out that "[villagers] are unwilling to listen to leaders who speak to 158 So Yiu-kong was very entrepreneurial and was always thinking of ways to make money. Whenever he stood with furrowed brow, smoking a cigarette, deep in thought waiting for walk-in clients beneath the old banyan tree, he was probably planning how to invest his money. He often thought about forming a partnership with his younger brother to buy a truck for the transportation of mud used in construction, or whether instead, he should raise enough capital to open a fish pond. Often he complained that when he had raised enough money to buy a truck, the price had already risen due to speculation.

The Rural Economic Reform had created many opportunities for the villagers to make money. 3 Many had taken the opportunity to make their fortune. However, owing to his lack of capital and lack of influential kinship connections,4 So Yiu-kong had to watch enviously while others became rich. He would often say, "If I had money to

them about common goals for which they ought to sacrifice their immediate interests." See Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 256. 3 Since 1979, Guangdong, particularly the Pearl River Delta has become fully incorporated into the global economy and hence has provided opportunities for the local villagers. See Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," in Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era, ed. Deborah Davis and Steven Harrell (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 104-8; Graham E. Johnson, "The Production Responsibility System in Chinese Agriculture: Some Examples from Guangdong," Pacific Affairs 55 {1982): 430-52; Yang Dali, "Patterns of China's Regional Development Strategy," The China Quarterly 122 (1990): 248. 4 Kinship connections have become sources of investment since 1979. See Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," 121; Anita Chan, Richard P. Madsen, and Jonathan Unger, Chen Village Under Mao and Deng, expanded and updated edition (California: University of California Press, 1992); Elisabeth Croll, "New Peasant Family Reforms in Rural China," The Journal ofPeasant Studies 14 (1987): 483. 159 invest, I could have made better investment plans than theirs and made more money than they did!" After that he would provide a detailed analysis of his investment plan and how he would profit. From the investment strategies described by So Yiu-kong, one could see that he favoured risky schemes.

Gambling was common in Lo Village and there were at least two secret gambling places in the village. Gamblers ranged from teenagers to elderly men, with most of them playing "Tian-Jiu" (Chinese Bridge). So Yiu-kong also liked gambling. If business was slack, he would usually go to play "Tian-Jiu".

He had his own pet phrase: "When business is slack, you'd better go to bet."

Sometimes he would be so attracted to gambling that he would temporarily close his business, because even at peak times he could only make three thousand dollars a month.

Despite his low income, So Yiu-kong played for high stakes, betting fifty or one hundred dollars at each throw. Sometimes the stakes could be as high as two or three hundred dollars. Once I saw him lose over seven hundred dollars within a couple of minutes. He told me that around the end of the Lunar New Year in 1993, he lost over ten thousand dollars in half a day. Consequently, he did not have any money to spend during New Year.

In addition to gambling, So Yiu-kong was also fond of visiting prostitutes. When business was slack, he would sit talking to other motorcycle drivers. Most of the time

160 they talked about sex and prostitutes. They discussed which karaoke bar had the greatest number of girls, and which had more beautiful girls, or which karaoke bar had new recruits. So Yiu-kong sometimes described the prostitutes he had visited including their looks and performance in bed. He often boasted that many women were attracted to him and wanted to be his "mistress". He said that some women were even willing to have sex with him without asking for money, but So Yiu-kong was not rich, neither was he handsome or tall. He was clearly exaggerating his attractiveness.

He often told me, "To me, a woman is like a softdrinks can or a piece of chewing gum. You throw the can away or spit out the gum once you're finished with it."

Although So Yiu-kong often visited prostitutes and had chauvinist ideas about women, he was very caring towards his wife. He would make a special effort to accompany his wife to the factory to report for work and would accompany her home again. Once his wife had fallen ill and he seemed very worried. Besides taking her to the doctor, he also consulted a geomancer (/eng shui master) regarding his house to discover if this was the cause of the illness. He told me that if the cause of illness had been geomantic, he would have removed all the things that brought bad luck for fear that his wife might fall ill again. It is common for villagers to believe that feng shui would have an effect on one's health.5

5 The belief that feng shui affects health is indeed the belief in the harmony of the system of 161 So Yiu-kong chose his own wife and they had a courtship before their marriage.

Although So Yiu-kong loved his wife, their relationship was different from that of modem young couples, being the traditional husband-wife relationship.

2 Courtship and Marriage

Long before meeting his wife, So Yiu-kong had fallen in love with another young woman. The romance happened after he graduated from secondary school when he was about eighteen years old. It was 1973 and Lo Village still worked a collective farming system. The whole village was divided into six production teams and So Yiu-kong belonged to the third production team (hereafter referred to as the ''third team"). His position was platoon leader of the local village army in the era of collectivization, which was equivalent to supervisor. While he was serving in the third team, he fell in love with a young woman in the same team.

The Marriage Law had been in place for twenty years at the time So Yiu-kong fell

spatial relations and the human organism. The concept of this kind of folk religious belief is thoroughly dealt in Yih-yuan Li, "In Search of Equilibrium and Harmony: On the Basic Values Orientations of Traditional Chinese Peasants," in Home Bound: Studies in East Asian Society, ed. Chie Nakane and Chien Chiao {Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, 1992), 127-47. 162 in love. 6 From that time, the country encouraged free love and freedom to choose a spouse.7 In Lo Village, however, few young people around So Yin-kong's age were

able to make such choices as So Yiu-kong did. So Yiu-kong told me that most of his co-workers in the third team did not have the courage to initiate relationships with the girls in their team. Most of them were introduced to their wives by matchmakers. 8

Some of So Yin-kong's friends pointed out that when they were of a marriageable age, the village production brigade system still operated. They had to work in the paddy field for three shifts each day, starting at eight o'clock in the morning and finishing at six in the evening. Almost every night, they also had to gather at the production brigade's office for a meeting. Therefore, they had neither the time nor the opportunity to meet girls from other villages. Even if they had spare time, it was not possible for them to date such girls because they were not very familiar with other villagers and dared not make friends without an introduction. They explained that the atmosphere at that time was different from today as the gap between male and female was very wide

6 PRC Marriage Law, 1950. 7 Concerning the Marriage Law Campaign in 1953, see Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983), 138-53; Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), 145; Patricia D. Beaver, Hon Lihui and Wang Xue, "Rural Chinese Women: Two Faces of Economic Reform," Modern China 21 (1995): 207; and Phyllis Andors, The Unfinished Liberation of Chinese Women, 1940-1980 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983). 8 In the 1980's, young people continued to rely on matchmakers. See B. Pasternak. Marriage and Fertility in Tianjin, China: Fifty Years of Transition (Honolulu: East-West Population Institute, 1986). 163 and they dared not speak to strangers ofthe opposite sex.9 As a result, it was difficult to find a potential spouse. 10

Moreover, most of the villagers in Lo Village had the surname Lo, and although the Marriage Law permitted lineage endogamy, 11 parents generally would not allow their sons to marry girls with the same surname and especially not if they came from the same village. 12 As a result, the possibility that Lo villagers could find a partner in marriage was greatly reduced. In addition to the parental prohibition of intermarriage between people of the same surname, some parents even thought that finding marriage partners from within the village was inappropriate. 13 This was because the proximity of families living in the village might lead to unnecessary problems if the couple quarreled

9 In rural areas, girls and boys were often segregated and it was a traditional custom that boys and girls should not talk to each other individually. See William L. Parish & Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 169-72; Sulamith H. Potter and Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants: The Anthropology ofa Revolution (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 190; Jack Chen, A Year in Upper Felicity: Life in a Village during the Cultural Revolution (New York: Macmillan, 1973), 72-8; Janet Salaff, "Institutionalized Motivation for Fertility Limitation," in Women in China: Studies in Socialism, ed. Marilyn Young (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1973). 1° Concerning the difficulties of finding a potential spouse during the collective era, see Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 209; As Pepper points out "senior middle schools, run at the Commune level, do provide such opportunities [of finding potential spouse], but only a minority of rural youth attend senior middle school." See Suzanne Pepper, "Education and Revolution: The Chinese Model Revised," Asia Survey 18 (1978): 847-90. 11 Article 5 of Chapter II of PRC Marriage Law promulgated in 1950 states that: No man or woman shall be allowed to marry in any of the following instances: (a) where the man and woman are lineal relatives by blood or where the man and woman are brother and sister born of the same parents or where the man and woman are half-brother and half-sister. The question of prohibiting marriage between collateral relatives by blood (up to the fifth degree of relationship) is to be determined by custom. See M.J. Meijer, Marriage Law and Policy in the Chinese People's Republic (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1971 ), 300. 12 See William L. Parish & Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, 171.

164 and both families became involved. 14

Some parents did allow their sons to date girls of different surnames from the same village. However, if it was found that a male team member spoke more frequently to a certain female team member, it would soon tum into gossip and spread throughout the production team. 15 Because young people at that time were not as open-minded as they are today, they would feel embarrassed if they were ridiculed. As a result, most of the boys did not have the courage to form friendships or to date girls from the same village and so they were obliged to ask for the help of matchmakers. Though arranged marriages in the 1980's sharply declined, "real choosing was done by parents or relatives and the proposed spouses [were] not well known to each other."16

In fact, villagers of So Yiu-kong's age were willing to choose their own marriage partners. The only reason they were unable to find marriage partners was because they faced the afore-mentioned problems. Therefore, although the government had launched the Marriage Law twenty years previously, the number of cases like So Yiu-kong's where young people could get to know members of the opposite sex by themselves and

13 Ibid, 171. 14 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 156; Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 208. 15 Ying-ch'ao Teng, "Report on the Marriage Law ofthe People's Republic of China," Renmin Rihpao (People's Daily) May 24, 1950; Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 118. 16 Johnson calls this "semi-arranged marriage." See Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 209; Concerning this issue, see also Janet Salaff, "The Emerging Conjugal Relationship in the People's Republic of China," Journal ofMa"iage and the Family 35 (1973), 705-15; Jack Chen, A Year in Upper Felicity, 72-8. 165 fall in love were very few .17

There was a greater possibility for So Yiu-kong of finding a marriage partner in the village than for most men because his surname was not Lo. In addition, it could be said that So Yiu-kong had greater courage than his peers as he was not afraid to be held up to ridicule by others because he got to know his first girlfriend in the production team he belonged to.

On one occasion So Yiu-kong talked about his first romance to me.

"When I met her, I was the platoon leader of the third team and I was responsible for the management of team work. I loved her very much at that time, but I didn't know what attracted me most to her!" In fact, he had forgotten he had once told me that the girl was quite pretty.

"Maybe its fate! Every day I wanted to see her. We were always together when we were off duty. Sometimes we went to the cinema in the town. But this was not very often. This was because transport at that time (around 1974) was not as convenient as today. It took more than half an hour to go down town on foot. We would often spend our leisure time in the paddy fields or grassland, or have a moonlight walk to watch the stars."

17 Whyte points out that though "there was a substantial increase in freedom of mate choice, the level did not increase significantly after 1960." See Martin King Whyte, "Changes of Mate Choice in Chengdu," in Chinese Society on the Eve of Tiananmen: The Impact of Reform, ed. Deborah Davis and Ezra F. Vogel (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), 181-214. 166 He also joked, "We thought that we hadn't been exposed to the sunlight sufficiently during daytime to tan ourselves!"

I could tell from So Yiu-kong's facial expressions that he had been quite fond of this girl. However, in the end he did not marry her.

"Actually I don't even know why it turned out like that. For a period of time, I didn't date her, and she didn't date me either and that was the end of it." As he spoke, his brows were furrowed and he scratched his head wondering how the whole affair turned out as it had. This surprised me and I questioned him closely about why he ceased dating her for a time.

He recalled that at one time, he was asked by the production team to work in another place outside the village for about six months. When he returned, he went directly to his girlfriend's home, but when he entered her house, he saw that she was receiving a man. When he first mentioned this incident, he described the scene without emotion.

"When she saw me, she asked me to sit together with them. But under the circumstances, I just sat for a while and left. I never saw her after that."

After asking several times why he had not gone to find out from her what was happening he began to describe his feeling. This time, however, he did not appear indifferent as there were traces of emotion in his voice.

167 "Maybe it was because I hadn't seen her for six months. That was why I went to her house as soon as I returned. I was very angry when I found that there was a man in her house. That's why I didn't try to fmd her again." As he had been very angry at that time, he decided never to see her again.

Then he started to describe what actually happened. "Her parents knew that we had fallen in love. Despite this, they still asked a matchmaker to find a marriage partner for her. She participated in 'double looking' whenever the matchmaker found her a prospective marriage partner, but she declined them one by one. Later on I found out that the man I met in her house had also been introduced by the matchmaker. That day they had been engaging in 'double looking'."

So Yiu-kong's tone and facial expression showed that he was quite unhappy that his girlfriend had not refused to participate in the "double looking" arranged by her parents. Indeed, to So Yiu-kong, "courtship ... does not take place until after a couple has formally promised to marry,"18 hence he thought that his girlfriend should have refused "double looking".

He continued, "I thought 'If that guy was not her new boyfriend, or if he was introduced by the matchmaker, she ought to have come up to me and explained the whole situation.' If she really loved me and cared about me, she should have come up to

18 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 165; Elisabeth Croll, The Politics of Marriage in

168 me immediately. But she didn't."

Although in the end he found out that the man had been merely engaged in

"double looking" that day, he still felt aggrieved when he recalled the incident. He believed that he did not have a good reason to get in touch with her and that it had been up to his girlfriend to come to him and explain what had been happening.

"As things turned out like that, what else could I do? All I could do was not get in touch! It would have been nonsense for me to find her and ask if she still loved me!" He added contemptuously. "It would have been a great disgrace for me if that man had really been her boyfriend."

"In the end, I found out she hadn't fallen in love with this man. One day I happened to meet her by accident. She asked me why I hadn't dated her since the time I had gone to her home. I had, however, already met my wife. Later, I heard that she knew I had a new girlfriend. Not long after that she also got a new boyfriend who was introduced by a matchmaker. In the end she married a man from a neighbouring village." It seemed that he regretted how this romance had ended, however, he did not regret that he had not taken the initiative to find her and ask for details of the whole story.

It was several months after he had broken up with his girlfriend that So Yiu-kong

Contemporary China (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1981), 57. 169 met his wife, Chan Siu-chun, who lived in a village situated to the south of Lo Village.

So Yiu-kong got to know Siu-chun's elder brother at a wedding feast and later on they became good friends. Once, So Yiu-kong had gone to Siu-chun's brother's new house and found that much of his household furniture had not yet been moved in and that all the things were in a mess. So Yiu-kong had stayed late into the night to help him unpack all his belongings and tidy up his house. They worked till late evening until everything was settled. As it was late evening and there were no street lamps at that time (around 1977), Siu-chun had lent him a torch and from then on they began to form an attachment to one another.

So Yiu-kong could still vividly remember that when Siu Chun gave him the torch, he had said to her, "I'm off1 I don't know when I can return this torch to you." He said that Siu-chun had replied, "You don't need to hurry. You can bring it back to me the next time you come to see us."

He wore a knowing smile when he described the scene, "Anybody would have known what she meant. Hal Hal And you can guess what happened next, can't you?"

After that So Yiu-kong frequently went to Siu-chun's house and, each time, he stayed very late, thereby having an excuse to borrow again the torch that he had come to return! After lending and borrowing the torch several times, they began to fall in love.

So Yiu-kong believed that the reason Siu-chun had lent him the torch was to drop a hint

170 that she wanted him to come back to see her. So Yiu-kong also liked her very much. He thought that she had a kind and gentle character, and was nice to other people.

They married two years after they started dating. During that period, So Yiu-kong sometimes had to work away from the village for very long periods handling the third team's work. Sometimes he was too busy to see her, but he always told her in advance.

He did not, however, tell her when to expect him back. So Yiu-kong thought that since

Siu-chun lived far away from him, unlike his ex-girlfriend, he could not see her often and did not know what she was doing. Therefore, he did not want to give her advance notice that he was coming to see her. He wanted to pay her unexpected visits to see what she was doing.

"When I was with my ex-girlfriend, I was the platoon leader of the third team and hence, I could assign my ex-girlfriend to my team. This way, I could know her daily routine and what she did, but with Siu-chun it was quite different. She lived quite far away. Sometimes we could not see each other for a long time. I could not keep watch over her. Therefore, I had to pay unexpected visits to her to see what she was doing." I was quite surprised that So Yiu-kong used the phrase "keep watch over".

"Sometimes I sounded her out and said, 'A few days ago I saw you going along with a strange man.' I would watch her reaction to see if I could detect any nervousness.

Nervousness would mean that she was going out with the other man." Perhaps So

171 Yiu-kong had learnt from the experience of his first love that if he left his girlfriend alone even for a short period of time, she would probably get to know another man, or a matchmaker would initiate a "double looking".

So Yiu-kong also probed into her mind and temper. "Sometimes I would ask her to go with me to the cinema on a certain evening and when that night came, I would say

I didn't have the time and couldn't go to see the movie. I just wanted to see her reaction, however, in general she would not get angry. She would say, 'If you don't have time, we can see it next time. Your job is more important. Besides, I've also got something else to do."'

So Yiu-kong thought that if Siu-chun got angry because of the sudden cancellation of the visit to the movies, she did not possess the characteristic of steadfastness and that he could not love nor marry a girl like that.

Although So Yiu-kong enjoyed the freedom to choose his spouse through dating, it was clear from the account of his romance that he was using pre-Liberation criteria and looking for a girl with an obedient character and powers of endurance. 19 In his first romance, So Yiu-kong expected his girlfriend to come to him to explain why there was a man in her house; he himself would not ask her because he thought he would be

19 The pre-Liberation criterion of a good wife was that she should be submissive, healthy, and hardworking. See also Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 19; See also Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 234. 172 disgraced. His thought processes reveal, to a certain extent, that he wanted to maintain male-domination in his relationships.20 The reason that he probed Siu-chun's mind and character over and over again was to confirm that she is gentle and docile.21 It seems, therefore, that his views on gender relations and his expectation of females were no different from those ofLo Hing-nam's generation.

So Yiu-kong's parents soon learnt that So Yiu-kong had fallen in love with a girl from the neighbouring village. As they have never seen his girlfriend before, they asked some relatives and friends to help them find out if this was true and if it was, to investigate the girl's background. In fact, this was the normal procedure for senior villagers to find daughters-in-law for their sons. They wanted to gain an understanding of the family background, character and health of their son's future spouse. So

Yiu-kong's parents found that their son had really fallen in love. They learnt that

Siu-chun's parents had passed away and that she lived with her elder sister, elder brother and a younger brother. They also found that she was short, thin and weak.

Having understood Siu-chun's background in detail, So Yiu-kong's parents, and in

2° Concerning the husband's authority over his wife, see also Francis L.K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour" in China in Crisis: Chinese Heritage and the Communist Political System, vol. 1, bk. 2, ed. Ho Ping-ti & Tsou Tang, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968), 584-7. 21 As Jankowiak says, an ideal wife should be, "a woman who is healthy, soft, kind, well mannered, loyal." See William R. Jankowiak, Sex, Death and Hierarchy in A Chinese City (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 166-7; See also Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 19; See also Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 234. In fact, during the period of pre-Liberation, it was also a mother's dream to find a docile daughter-in-law. Concerning this point, see Ida Pruitt, A Daughter of Han: The Autobiography

173 particular his mother, thought that she was not suitable to be their daughter-in-law. She even tried to convince him time and time again to end his relationship with her, and asked matchmakers to introduce other girls to him. 22 The reason they objected to

Siu-chun was that she was quite physically weak. If she did marry So Yiu-kong, they were worried, on one hand, that she might not be fertile enough to give birth to children to carry on the family name, and on the other she might not be able to take care of all the housework and work in the paddy fields too, as they believed that marriage was a way to add hands in the field. 23

Even in the late 1970's when the Marriage Law had been in place for over twenty years, most older parents wanted to take control of spouse selection and the marriage affairs for their children.24 They expected a virtuous daughter-in-law to be obedient to her father and mother-in-law and her husband. She also had to be in good health and be fertile. These were particularly important to mothers. When fulfilling the role of

ofa Chinese Working Woman (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967), 32-3. 22 Even though the Marriage Law was promulgated in 1950, parents not only influenced the marriage decision but also extended their influence to the actual introduction of a potential spouse. See Nancy Riley, "Interwoven Lives: Parents, Marriage, and Guanxi in China," Journal ofMarriage and the Family 56 (1994): 798; Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 163; Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 235-47. 23 Elisabeth Croll, "The Exchange of Women and Property: Marriage in Post-Revolutionary China," in Marriage and Inequality in China Society, ed. R. Hirschon (London: Croom Helm, 1984), 44-61; Elisabeth Croll, The Politics of Marriage in Contemporary China; William L. Parish, "Socialism and the Chinese Peasant Family," Journal of Asian Studies 24 (1975): 613-30; William L. Parish & Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, 187. 24 Nancy Riley, "Interwoven Lives: Parents, Marriage, and Guanxi in China," 798 and Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 155. 174 daughter-in-law, a woman had to have children to carry on her husbands' family name, as well as being responsible for running the house. 25 If her husband was poor, she even had to work in the paddy fields. After being practised for generations in the family, such a traditional value system had been engraved on parents' minds and had become the standard for choosing a virtuous daughter-in-law. When the sons were at the right age for marriage, most mothers would be more eager than fathers to find them a spouse.

They dearly hoped that they could find a daughter-in-law to succeed themselves in taking on the responsibilities of taking care of a husband, running the house and giving birth to children. Indeed, in rural society, many women wanted to retire as soon as they have a daughter-in-law to take their place in household chores. 26

In addition to So Yiu-kong's parents concern about Siu-chun's ability to assist in his work, So Yiu-kong's peers thought that he had made a wrong choice. They thought he would have a hard life if he married Siu-chun because he would have to take on the work of two. So Yiu-kong was not unaware that Siu-chun was thin and weak and knew that she had no experience of working in paddy fields because she had not been assigned such work by the brigade.

"At that time all (my family) advised me to think about it carefully because life would become harder for me ifl married her. But there was no way out, I liked her. You

25 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 228.

175 don't think about these things when you are dating a girl! At worst I would have to

work harder in the future," he mentioned casually.

Every time he mentioned his parent's and friend's comments that Siu-chun was

small and weak, however, he would add, "I also thought that she was weald Oh, but

actually she is very capable. After marriage she would cultivate the paddy fields assigned to two persons all by herself. Do you know how large that is? It's six mu. They even said, 'We can't tell from her appearance that your wife is so capable!"' When So

Yiu-kong said this, he was very proud that he had made the right choice.

Having overcome his parents' opposition, So Yiu-kong decided to marry in 1979.

At the time he was arranging his marriage, there was a tide of illegal emigration to

Hong Kong. 27 So Yiu-kong had tried to enter Hong Kong illegally but failed and now he had saved up enough money to cover the cost of making another attempt. It was, therefore, a difficult decision whether to get married or to attempt again to get into

Hong Kong.

"When I was preparing for marriage, I had conflicting feelings. One part of me did not want to get married. Maybe I did not think I loved her very dearly. Actually, I

26 Ibid, 190. 27 It was common in that period of time for the people of Guangdong to escape to Hong Kong. "Dongguang officials estimated that 20 percent of their young people had escaped to Hong Kong in the decades before reforms began, primarily because there were so few local opportunities." See Ezra F. Vogel, One Step Ahead in China: Guangdong under Reform (Mas.: Harvard University Press, 1989), 176. 176 don't know why I married her even now." When So Yiu-kong talked of this conflict he seemed to regret his decision.

Even now he frequently said that he did not love Siu-chun very much, and that he did not know why he married her. Although he had saved up some money, the amount was not enough for two people to enter Hong Kong. If he had successfully entered Hong

Kong after his marriage, he would have had to separate from his wife, so when he considered going to Hong Kong, he thought he should break up with Siu-chun before they get married.

"But I felt that she had had a sad life. Her parents had died when she was very young. She only had her elder brothers to take care of her. Since I had dated her for over two years, she would have been even more pitiable if I had left her then. I felt I would have done her a disservice if I had left her. In the end I decided not to go and gave the money I had saved to my younger brother for him to enter Hong Kong, and then I prepared for our marriage." When So Yiu-kong talked on this point, he laughed and asked me if he had been very silly. It seemed that even he could not understand the reason for his decision. Perhaps this indicates that So Yiu-kong had decided to take responsibility for his commitment to Siu-chun. As mentioned before, perhaps they believed that when courtship takes place, it indicates a promise of marriage. 28

28 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 165; Elisabeth Croll, The Politics of Marriage in 177 3 Life after Marriage

So Yiu-kong and Siu-chun eventually married in 1979. In that year, the country started promoting the Rural Economic Reform Policy. Lo Village, like other villages, began to launch a new policy of assigning paddy fields to individual households?9

Each member of the family was assigned a two to three mu paddy field. When the privatization of cultivation activities began, So Yiu-kong's family of two was assigned six mu. In addition, in 1980 villagers were allowed to leave the production brigade which they belonged to and engage in other jobs. 30 So Yiu-kong did not want to be left behind and so went to Cheung Lok Town to work as a porter, hoping that this would improve his standard of living. At that time, the daily wage was seven dollars. Not all the villagers who had been assigned paddy fields chose to work outside the village as So

Contemporary China, 57. 29 On the policy of contracting out the collectively-owned land to individual households, see Peter Nolan and Suzanne Paine, "Towards an Appraisal of the Impact of Rural Reform in China, 1978-1985," in The Re-emergence of the Chinese Peasantry, ed. Ashwani Saith (London: Croom Helm, 1987), 82; see also Graham E. Johnson, "Responsibility and Reform: Consequences of Recent Policy Changes in Rural South China," Contemporary Marxism 12/13 (1986): 144-62. 30 "Rural reforms allowed households to release excess labourers who flowed to jobs in the Inner Delta towns and cities." Concerning this policy, see Ezra F. Vogel, One Step Ahead in China, 172; See also Myron L. Cohen, "Family Management and Family Division in Contemporary China," The China Quarterly 130 (1992): 367; Martin King Whyte, "Introduction: Rural Economic Reforms and Chinese Family Patterns," The China Quarterly 130 (1992): 318. 178 Yiu-kong did. Only those families that had a surplus labour force could afford to have members working outside the village.

On hindsight, So Yiu-kong thought that his wife had helped him a lot, because she had managed the paddy fields all by herself which made it possible for So Yiu-kong to work outside the village to make more money. In fact, this was common in the Pearl

River Delta. 31

"It is clear that without her, life would have been very difficult for me. If she had not been able to manage the six mu paddy field so that I could work hard outside the village, I would have had to do the two jobs all by myself." So Yiu-kong pointed out that it was not just other women who would not be as capable of working as hard as his wife, but even some men would not have been capable of single handedly cultivating a

6 mu paddy field.

"One year after our marriage, she fell pregnant, but she still worked in the paddy fields. Do you know how hard it is to work in the paddy field? You have to remove all the grass and plough the field. A woman can only do so much work. I really don't know how she managed all the work." While talking about this, So Yiu-kong did not have his usual amused expression. He stared at me and continued, "She did not grumble! Not even one word!" So Yiu-kong pointed out that after finishing the work in the paddy

31 See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 138. 179 fields, his wife would prepare meals and do the housework. He thought that his wife

was better than other wives because she was competent and could bear hardship. It can

be said generally that women worked even harder after the reform. 32

In 1981, So Yiu-kong's wife gave birth to their first child. As their family now

had one more member, they were assigned nine mu of paddy field in 1982.33 Despite

this increased burden, So Yiu-kong's wife still cultivated the fields by herself and he

continued to work in the town. He explained:

"Then little Chun (Shi-chun) was born. She had to take care of him. She also had

to cultivate three mu more of paddy field allocated to Shi-chun. She could still cope."

When recalling this, So Yiu-kong's attitude became very honest and sincere. He

lowered his voice and emphasized that his wife had a difficult time. It seemed that he

felt quite apologetic about it. The manner in which So Yiu-kong spoke clearly revealed

his affection for his wife. This affection was quite similar to the type found between

most traditional couples who worked hard together to overcome hardship in life and to

fulfill their roles in the family. Their affection for each other developed out of mutual

32 Liu Fanrong, "A Hill Family Goes All Out," Women ofChina July (1983): 2; Elisabeth Croll, New Peasant Family Reforms in Rural China," The Journal of Peasants Studies 14 (1987): 482-3. 33 After 1979 the more family members the household had, the more land would be assigned to them. See Elisabeth Croll, "Introduction: Fertility and Family Size in China," in China's One-Child Policy, ed. Elisabeth Croll, Delia Davin and Perry Kane (London: Macmillan Press, 1985), 18. 180 assistance and support rather than emotional attachment. 34

In 1983, two years after their son was born, So Yiu-kong's wife gave birth to a

daughter. After giving birth, she had to cultivate twelve mu of field assigned by the production brigade during the day and in the evenings take care of the children and do the housework.

So Yiu-kong said that immediately after their marriage his parents still did not

like Siu-chun, however, they changed their minds when she demonstrated that she was capable of handling the difficult work of cultivating paddy fields. In addition, she was able to keep the house in perfect order. 35 They also thought that she was generous, not calculating and was obedient to them. Gradually his parents changed their opinion of her. In addition to her ability to work, she had given birth to a boy, hence, So

Yiu-kong's parents liked her even more, which showed that they still adhered to the pre-Liberation family values. 36

Once, So Yiu-kong invited me to have dinner at his house. This was the first time

I met his wife. His wife was quite different from his description. I remembered So

34 On this traditional type of husband-wife affection, see Francis L.K. Hsu, Rugged Individualism Reconsidered: Essays in Psychological Anthropology (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1983), 228-9. 35 Older women always watched their daughters-in-law doing household chores so as to see whether they lived up to the standard of being a good daughter-in-law. See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 221-37. 36 Though already in the 1980's, most villagers still considered that marriage should serve the function of extending the male's bloodline. See Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 10; Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 140; Margery Wolf, Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1972), 14. 181 Yiu-kong had said that she was short, thin and delicate and that these were the reasons why his parents had not liked her. So Yiu-kong's wife was indeed quite short, but she looked quite healthy. She had strong anns, and was even heavier than So Yiu-kong.

Later So Yiu-kong explained that at first his wife was very thin and small, however, the years of hard work in the paddy fields had strengthened her. She dressed very simply, wearing a pair of dark grey trousers and a light blue shirt, which I later found out, were her work and casual clothes. Her face was rounder than So Yiu-kong's, making her eyes look smaller. Her hair was not very long, only reaching her shoulders, which she wore tied up with a rubber band. When I first saw her, I thought she was older than So

Yiu-kong.

When So Yiu-kong's wife saw me, she greeted me politely, "Teacher, please take a seat! Would you like to have some porridge?"

After a brief exchange with her, I sat and chatted with So Yiu-kong, while she returned to the kitchen to prepare the fish porridge. After a while she came out with the porridge. While we were having the meal, she spoke very little, only asking me if I liked the food, which I told her tasted very good. She smiled happily at my response and said

"Really? Please come and have another meal if you have time." After that she spoke very little. In contrast So Yiu-kong described in detail how he had bought a kilogram of fish for the porridge, which made it so tasty. After we had finished eating, So

182 Yiu-kong's wife tidied up the dining table and went back to the kitchen, not staying to

chat with us.

At first, I thought the reason So Yiu-kong's wife spoke little to me was because I

was a stranger. After a time when I was more familiar with their family, she still

focused on her own work. Maybe this was typical behaviour of traditional peasant

women who busied themselves with housework and the daily routine. Receiving guests

was the husband's responsibility. This is the division of labour: "women stay indoors

and men are outdoors. "37

In So Yiu-kong's eyes Siu-chun was a good wife. She could work in the paddy

fields and was more capable than other women. Moreover, she could run the house

properly. Later when the paddy fields assigned to So Yiu-kong's family were withdrawn for building factories, their financial status suffered. With only So

Yiu-kong's job in town there was not enough to cover household expenses. With no paddy to cultivate, So Yiu-kong' s wife was not idle at home, but along with a number of women from poor families, she went to get a job in a factory. "Many female workers

[had] become very important contributors to household incomes." 38 With the development of rural industry, 39 many peasant households derived a part of their

37 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China, 192. 38 Minchuan Yang, "Reshaping Peasant Culture and Community: Rural Industrialization in a Chinese Village," Modern China 20 (1994): 172-3. 39 On rural industry, see William A. Byrd and Lin Qingsong, eds., China's Rural Industry: 183 income from non-agricultural economic activity.40 Despite the fact that she had to work overtime several times a week, she remained responsible for the housework after she returned from her workplace. I thought that even So Yiu-kong's wife would think that she had fulfilled her role as a wife and daughter-in-law. After meeting her and observing her figure and her attire, I remembered one occasion when So Yiu-kong discussed his criteria for a spouse.

"I'm most afraid of large and robust women. I can't help it even if she is pretty. I really hate women who are larger and more robust than me!" He spoke with a cigarette in his hand and a furrowed brow.

"Before I got married, my parents and friends liked to introduce some large and robust girls to me. Actually I do not like this type of girl!"

Before 1979 in the farming period, most of the peasants would prefer to marry a robust girl so that she could help them work in the paddy fields, indeed this was a standard required of a daughter-in-law at that time. That was why So Yiu-kong's parents and friends advised him to find a robust girl to be his wife, however, So

Yiu-kong did not like this type of girl and so he chose the small and thin Siu-chun.

After marriage, So Yiu-kong' s wife grew strong after taking on the work of cultivating

Structure, Development and Reform (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990); Ezra F. Vogel, One Step Ahead in China, 171-5. 40 This also happens in other villages. See Victor Nee and Sijin Su, "Industrial Change and Economic Growth in China: The View from the Villages," The Journal of Asian Studies 49

184 the paddy fields.

After Siu-chun gave up working in the paddy fields, she needed to work in the factory during the day and do overtime at night. In addition, she had the housework to do on her return. Siu-chun's case was common in Lo Village, or even in Pearl River

Delta.41 Compared with other peasant women who had better living conditions and did not need to go out to work, So Yiu-kong' s wife appears slovenly. Almost every time I saw her she was wearing her factory clothes which were usually dirty. Perhaps she did not have the time to wash them, but even during holidays she dressed very casually, and never dressed up or wore makeup.

No doubt, So Yiu-kong's wife's physique and slovenly appearance can be attributed to her family responsibilities. This was the traditional image of peasant women during times of poverty in Lo Village in the past. Moreover, So Yiu-kong's wife and some elder women may have believed that to be a virtuous wife, appearance was unimportant. This kind of notion is common in rural society.42

So Yiu-kong probably had mixed feelings about facing his wife with her robust figure dressed in such a way, but who worked hard without grumbling. Subjectively he

(1990): 3-25. 41 Siu-chun's case shows that women's burden has not been reduced since 1979. See Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 175; William L. Parish & Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, 204-5. 42 Francis L. K. Hsu, Americans & Chinese: Passage to Differences, 3rd ed. (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1981), 60-70. 185 did not like a large and robust wife yet his wife was capable of meeting the traditional

requirement of virtue and obedience. The fact that her figure had grown from thin and

small to large and robust revealed her commitment to the family. All these objective

facts had worked against his personal preference. Nevertheless, every time he

mentioned in casual conversation the hard days of toil in the paddy field, he recognized

his luck at having such a good wife.

In the 1990's, however, Lo Village was no longer a quiet village with poor living

standards. After undergoing economic reform for over ten years, the village had

experienced a lot of change. The young girls of the village no longer only wore dark

shirts and dark trousers as they had in the past. 43 They had begun to wear modem dress

due to the influence of the media. In addition, Cheung Lok Town had a plentiful supply

of goods and there were many shopping malls with boutiques, beauty shops and jewellers displaying a variety of products. Most modem female fashion items and all

types of accessories and makeup could be seen almost anywhere. Not only did the

young girls of the village begin to dress fashionably, but "young ladies" from more

affluent families also began to dress like this. Simple attire was no longer the

characteristic dress of village females, nor was simple attire expected of virtuous

43 On this traditional style of dress, see Yih-yuan Li, "Zhong Guo Ren De Jia Ting Yu Jia De Wen Hua (Chinese Family and Family Culture)," in Zhong Guo Ren: Guan Nian Yu Xing Wei (Chinese: Ideas and Behaviour), ed. Chong-yi Wen and Xin-huang Xiao (Tai Bei: Ju Liu Tu Shu Gong Si, 1988), 125-6; See also Francis L.K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese

186 women anywhere. Under such circumstances, So Yiu-kong's wife who dressed in such a simple way was thought to be even more outdated and plain.

As a result of many factories being built in Lo Village, a large number of women from other provinces moved to the village to provide labour for the factories.44 Such women were considered to be much more attractive than local girls and they, along with the karaoke hostesses, were more likely to dress fashionably and wear perfume and make-up. Most male villagers could not resist the temptation when faced with these females. So Yiu-kong, then around forty years old, could not resist the temptation either.

Every time he saw a pretty female labourer or karaoke mistress with lots of makeup, his eyes would follow them lustfully. Sometimes he would even address them obscenely.

In comparison to more affluent young women, So Yiu-kong's wife's attire was out-dated, and compared with women moving in from elsewhere, she looked even more plain. So Yiu-kong had never commented adversely about his wife's appearance, always saying that he was lucky and happy to have a good wife, yet he had always thought that he did not love her. He had always hoped he could keep a mistress like the

Behaviour," 584-7. 44 For the information that workers are largely women in the factories in Dongguang County, see Vogel, One Step Ahead in China, 177. Concerning the large number of female workers which flooded in from other provinces, see Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," 124; Yuen-fong Woon, "Labor Migration in the 1990s: Homeward Orientation of Migrants in the Pearl River Delta Region and Its Implication for Interior China," Modem China 25 (1999): 4 75-512; C. Cindy Fan, "Migration in a Socialist Transitional Economy: Heterogeneity, Socioeconomic and Spatial Characteristics of Migrants in China and Guangdong Province," International Migration Review 33 (1999): 950-83; Helen Siu, "The Politics ofMigration in a

187 more affluent villagers. Even before their marriage, So Yiu-kong had discovered that he did not love his wife without reservation. Present circumstances made it very easy for him to find a woman with a more pleasing appearance and figure than his wife to satisfy his desires. When his financial situation allowed, So Yiu-kong could easily find a more attractive woman from among the karaoke hostesses or the outside female labourers to be his mistress.45 As a result of this, So Yiu-kong's belief that he did not love his wife was reinforced. Despite her virtuous character and commitment to the family, So

Yiu-kong began to view his wife as inferior to other women, especially those from outside Lo Village. Even though he had this idea, he, however, never thought of divorcing his wife. Maybe he also adhered like Lo Hing-nam, to the pre-Liberation family value that marriage was supposed to be forever. 46

When So Yiu-kong started to work as a motorcycle driver, he drove his wife to and from her place of work. It was usual, when I talked with him until noon or late afternoon, for him to frequently look at his watch to see if it was time to pick up his wife from her work. At noon and dusk each day, as soon as she arrived home, So

Yiu-kong's wife would immediately start to prepare lunch and dinner for her husband

Market Town," in Chinese Society on the Eve ofTiananmen: The Impact ofReform, 61-82. 45 On the difference between a concubine and a mistress, see Rubie S. Watson "Wives, Concubines, and Maids: Servitude and Kinship in the Hong Kong Region, 1900-1940," in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, ed. Rubie S.Watson & Patricia Buckley Ebrey (Calif.: University of California Press, 1991), 242. 46 Concerning the pre-Liberation idea that marriage is forever, see Francis L.K. Hsu, Rugged Individualism Reconsidered, 229. 188 and children.

Although Siu-chun no longer needed to work in the paddy fields, she was very

busy during the day. She got up early every morning and went to the market place to

buy food for lunch and dinner. On her return she would make breakfast for So Yiu-kong

and her children, and then go to work. At noon, she had one hour for lunch and a rest,

however, within this hour, she was busy cooking. After the meal, she would tidy up the

dining table and hurry back to her workplace, without taking a rest. Four nights a week

Siu-chun worked overtime which meant she had to prepare dinner in the same hurried

way she prepared lunch. She was not able to have a proper rest until nine o'clock when

she got off-duty but even after she got home, she would always make snacks for her

husband and children. Having rested for a while, she would tidy up the house and wash

the clothes. Although So Yiu-kong' s family had a washing machine, his wife still had to

take the clothes out of the machine and get them ready for drying in the sun the

following morning. If she worked late she would leave the washing until the following

morning. Her days were spent working in the factory or doing housework, leaving very

little time for her to rest.

Although So Yiu-kong's wife managed to find time to do the housework each day, his house still appeared messy and dirty. At first I thought it was because of overcrowding. His flat was very small, covering an area of eleven square metres

189 including a bedroom and a lounge. All of So Yin-kong's furniture was worn and his house was very cluttered. Early in 1994, So Yin-kong's family had moved into a newly built two-storey house. The ground floor was fifty square metres which included a living room, a dining room, a bedroom and a kitchen. When they moved in all the walls were painted white and the floor of the living room was surfaced with cream porcelain clay. On entering the house, there was a sense of brightness and freshness. In the middle of the living room near the door was a new sofa and tea table. At the other end was a cabinet, beside which was a one and a half metre high refrigerator. All the furniture was clean and in good order. It was a commodious house, which gave a feeling of comfort.

After living there for a time, however, everything became dirty. The sofa in the living room was covered with dust and the dining table was covered with grease spots. A number of things were casually placed under the tea table. Although the kitchen was very large, all the tableware and utensils were in a mess and sometimes food was placed on the floor. Some of the bowls and chopsticks had grease residue on them even after being cleaned. Perhaps it was very difficult for Siu-chun to carry so much responsibility.

When I first arrived at So Yin-kong's new home and found his sofa very dirty, I felt very uneasy and found a piece of cloth to wipe off the dirt. Sometimes when So

Yiu-kong saw Shi-chun working and his daughter Wai-ling, just sitting, he would only

190 criticize Wai-ling for being lazy and not doing the housework to help her mother, as a

daughter is expected to.47

As So Yiu-kong ran a motorcycle business, his working hours were more flexible than his wife's, yet he did not do the housework for his wife.48 If he had no work

during the day, he would still sit in Lo Village's market place and chat with his friends

even though he knew that when his wife arrived home, she would be busy cooking meals for them and have no time to take a rest. Despite this he would not return home early to prepare the meals before he picked up his wife. In the evening, if nobody hired him to take them somewhere or if there was nobody to chat with, he would return home and sit on the sofa watching television. Sometimes So Yiu-kong might come home late because of work and his wife would keep some food for him. After eating, he would place the bowls and chopsticks into the washing basin, leaving these for his wife to wash up when she returned from the factory.

When we talked about his wife's heavy workload, So Yiu-kong would sometimes praise his wife for being very competent and then he would talk about the past, and describe how hard it had been for her to work in the paddy fields and take care of the housework at the same time. He would say that her work was much easier now.

47 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 128. 48 This is the sexual division oflabour common in the countryside. See Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 174; William L. Parish & Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, 204 and 244. 191 Sometimes he would say with a smile, "She can manage it herself. We need not help her." Sometimes he would blame Wai-ling, "Ah Ling is lazy. She does not help do the housework even if she finds the house very dirty. She only wants to go out and have fun." He never blamed Shi-chun his son for not helping his mother do the housework even referring to it derisively as ''women's work". He still had the patriarchal ideology of giving preference to a son. 49

On one occasion I went to So Yin-kong's house for dinner. After dinner I began to help his wife who was very busy, but she stopped me immediately. She spoke to me quite sharply, "You don't need to help! Absolutely not! I won't let other people, especially my guests do this work. This is our family's rule!" As she spoke, she forced me to put down the bowls and chopsticks. She obviously thought that cooking and cleaning up were her responsibility, therefore, the fact that So Yiu-kong did not help in the house seemed quite natural to her.

If Siu-chun was busy after a meal she would ask Wai-ling to help her, but

Wai-ling would get very bad tempered when asked to do the housework, especially because she saw her brother just sitting around watching television. Wai-ling usually ended up being punished by her parents for complaining.

49 On the pre-Liberation patriarchal ideology of giving preference to a son, see Elisabeth Croll, Endangered Daughters: Discrimination and Development in Asia (London: Routledge, 2000), 70-90. 192 After 1949, the Chinese Communist government tried to alter the traditional division of labour where males went out to work and females work in the home, which it considered discriminatory. At the time of the People's Commune and especially during the three years of the Great Leap Forward (1958-60), the government expected all female nationals to participate in all activities organised by the Commune just like males. To make this possible, the Commune provided public meals and laundry service to relieve women of the normal household chores. This attempt to reform working pattern had little effect on poor families, however, as it only served to increase the burden on women from these families. Before 1949, women from poor peasant families had to work in the paddy field in addition to doing housework. These reforms only institutionalized the participation of women in paddy field work without providing enough services to relieve them of their other duties. Moreover, the government had not put any effort into reforming the deep-rooted traditional value system of "male dominates, female follows". As a result, women had to work in paddy fields according to a time schedule, similar to working in a factory, and had to fit the housework around it. The result was that women had to work both outside and in the house. 50

In Chapter 4, it became clear that Lo Hing-nam's wife was similarly affected by the reform and that Lo Hing-nam failed to learn from the reform that women should be

5° For the suffering of women during the reform period, see Margery Wolf, Revolution

193 treated equally. On the contrary, he blamed his wife for not fulfilling her role as a wife, when the reality was that the amount of time and effort she could put into the family had decreased because she was expected to do the work she was assigned by the production brigade. It seems that women had a hard life after the Liberation and it was made more difficult for them to be virtuous and obedient wives.

As a result of the Rural Economic Reform, most of the female villagers left the paddy fields to work in the factories. After Liberation, the government did not take a lead in developing reforms on the division of labour between male and female, with the result that the traditional concept of it, was not altered by the economic reform. In So

Yiu-kong's case for example, he would not make any attempt to share his wife's work even though he saw her working very hard. His wife on the other hand would try her best to run the house even after a hard day's work. As Nee points out, "[t]he resurgence of the peasant household economy has the potential of restoring patriarchal authority in the Chinese peasant family.... Sexual division of labour is likely to return to the presocialist pattern as women leave collective labour to return to household labour."51

Women around the same age as So Yiu-kong's wife in Lo Village would generally agree with the traditional division of work between male and female. One day

Postponed, 79-110; Katie Curtin, Women in China (New York: Pathfinder Press, 1975), 40-1. 51 Victor Nee, "The Peasant Household Economy and Decollectivization in China," Journal of Asian and African Studies 21 (1986): 186 and 198. 194 when I was outside a grocery store, I heard a group of women aged around thirty or forty discussing this issue. They mentioned a woman in the village who was very competent in the factory and had been promoted to managerial level. She had resigned from the factory after getting married and focused her attention on fulfilling the role of a housewife. I asked them if they were really willing to sacrifice their career. One of them did not really listen to my question but expressed her opinion saying:

"A career woman still has a family, husband and children. Family is of course more important than career."

Some of the women agreed and added, "Working outside the home is the last resort. If the husband is competent, the woman should return to the home and act as mistress of the house. Besides, she can be more devoted to the care of her husband and children."

From their conversation, they seemed to admire a woman when she managed to be a factory manager, very much, however, they seemed to value her more for her decision to stop work and become a housewife. This was because they thought that it was better for a woman to stay at home rather than go out to work.

So Yiu-kong's wife may well have shared the opinions of this group of women. It was because of her family's poor financial status that she had to work in the factory and contribute financially to the household. So Yiu-kong's wife had thought about finding a

195 job which could enable her to work at home so that she could have more time for her husband and children, however, she continued to work in the factory because it paid more. So Yiu-kong's wife not only believed in the traditional concept of "male dominates, female follows", she was also willing to share her husband's responsibility to provide financial support for the family. In addition, she also expected her daughter

Wai-ling, to learn and practice this "traditional virtue".

When So Yiu-kong was interviewed he always said that he was not a chauvinistic man. He said that he would discuss important decisions with his wife.

He quoted an example. "At that time (1988), I wanted to buy a piece of land in town, while the prices were still very low, but my wife said that we were not moving to the town. She thought it was better to buy land in the village than to buy land in the town. So we bought the land in the village"

Later I found out that his main reason for arriving at such a decision was not his wife's comments but in fact So Yiu-kong himself was not convinced it was right to buy land in town. Moreover, the money he had was only sufficient to buy a very small piece of land, so, he gave up the idea of investing his money in town.

So Yiu-kong seemed to regret his decision and blamed his wife for his mistake.

"If only I had bought a piece of land in the town, I would have made much more money.

Sometimes women are prone to being short-sighted!"

196 In reality, So Yiu-kong rarely discussed their options with his wife and did not take her views into consideration. In 1995 when So Yiu-kong decided to build a new house, his wife hoped he would rent their flat to her colleagues at a low price after the house had been built. So Yiu-kong, however, was determined to make more money from renting the flat. He told me that he thought women's views were impractical.

When So Yiu-kong was faced with difficulties, he did not think there was any point in telling his wife. Once when we were having dim-sum, So Yiu-kong told me of the trouble he was having with a small investment.

"If even I can't think of a solution, you think my wife can?" He frowned and then smiled. It was clear that he looked down upon women.

"If even I can't solve the problem, how can my wife solve it?" So Yiu-kong's attitude was similar to that of Lo Hing-nam, if a man cannot do it, neither could a woman. So Yiu-kong pointed out that his wife was not capable of handling his problems anyway, so it was better not to let her know. He thought that if she knew it, she would worry, therefore, in general, he would not tell his wife when he faced difficulties.

Sometimes, he would discuss his problems with his (male) friends when they gathered together to chat.

Traditionally "male dominates, female follows" was emphasized and men and women had distinct social circles, meaning they would prefer to discuss their problems

197 with their friends. In terms of job ranking, despite the fact that women have had the opportunity to leave the paddy fields and engage in factory work and commercial activities, women are much more likely to be in low paid jobs, with only a few rising to managerial level. This is common in the countryside in Guangdong. 52 It seems that economic reform in the village has failed to change the concept of "female follows" and the position of women that was established long ago remains largely unchanged. So

Yiu-kong expressed his respect for his wife's opinions in contrast with Lo Hing-nam, who thought that women were not capable, however, So Yiu-kong' s behavior still showed that he adopted the traditional concept of"male dominates, female follows".

When So Yiu-kong's wife was not so busy, I tried to talk with her in order to gain a deeper understanding of the lives of the women of Lo Village, however, every time I tried to put my questions to her, her answers were brief and simple and I gathered very little information. At first I thought this was due to her introvert nature, however, I later found that this was not the case. Once she invited some of her colleagues round for a meal. In this situation she was completely different; talkative and lively in a way she never was even with So Yiu-kong. Indeed she was very hospitable, often inviting her colleagues for meals or barbecues.

Perhaps in a village, a husband and a wife will spend more time with their own

52 See Patricia D. Beaver, Hon Lihui and Wang Xue, "Rural Chinese Women: Two Faces of

198 friends, the husband with his kinsmen or his good friends and the wife with her female friends. In Lo Village, you could always see groups of male villagers of all ages gathered at the market place chatting with one another, sitting in front of the village shops, or gathered around the worn American-style snooker table playing snooker or gambling. Sometimes in front of the grocers, you might see a group of women gathered there chatting together.

Most elderly villagers, like So Yiu-kong's father went to the neighbouring village alone early in the morning to take some dim-sum. Inside the Chinese restaurants, elderly men could spend time with their peers when they had time, and it was impossible to find a woman among them.

Some retired men would prefer to stay at home for their lunch and dinner, but at other times you could find them either in the market place or in the Village Fraternity

Club. Some told me that if they felt tired, they would rather sleep on the sofa at the Club than go home because they thought that staying home was very boring.

There were few differences between So Yiu-kong's lifestyle and that of his parents' generation. So Yiu-kong would not go home when there was no work for him, just like the elderly villagers. He liked to chat with other motorcycle drivers under the big banyan tree where they gathered to await customers or, he would gather with other

Economic Reform," Modern China 21 (1995): 228. 199 drivers or villagers to gamble. It seemed that So Yiu-kong and his wife had much better relations with members of their own sex or social circle than with each other. Even when they did have free time to spend together at home they would rather watch television and talk very little. So Yiu-kong and his wife do not have much emotional attachment between them. In other words, their conjugal relationship is indeed

"demanded to be an emotionally distant and secondary one. "53 Their husband and wife

4 relationship is indeed very traditional. 5

In this Chapter, it is clear that even though So Yiu-kong was born and grew up at the time the Chinese Communist Party launched its anti-feudalism campaign, he seemed to uphold the traditional view on marriage, where marriage is oriented towards the collective welfare of the family. So Yiu-kong experienced courtship before getting married but he thinks like the other village elders who focus only on their own work after marriage. Married couples move in same sex circles and seldom communicate when they are at home, only talking about household duties. The husband-wife relationship that is based on emotional attachment has not been developed in So

Yiu-kong's marriage even though he chose his wife on his own. So Yiu-kong and his

53 Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 125. 54 Xiaotong Fei, From the Soil: The foundations of Chinese Society, a Translation of Fei Xiaotong's Xiangtu Zhongguo (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), 87-93; William L. Parish &Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, 214. 200 generation still adhere to the pre-Liberation values of marriage and family life.

With the thriving sex trade in Cheung Lok Town, So Yiu-kong like other men in

the village, considers "playing with women" a casual activity which is not a betrayal to his wife but merely a kind of preference. He considers that if his wife is not happy about this, she is placing unreasonable demands on him. His attitude towards women reveals,

as both Wolf and Stacey maintain, that the socialist revolution cannot transform the pre-Liberation patriarchal order in the countryside and the status of women remains

5 unimproved. 5 The combination of traditional values and the growth of the sex trade in

Lo Village over the past decades have even reinforced So Yiu-kong's traditional attitude to women.

Despite the fact that traditional values continue to influence on middle-aged villagers like So Yiu-kong, the implementation of the Rural Economic Reform Policy did, to some extent, change some of their views. So Yiu-kong clearly emphasized putting personal interests before collective interests. This emphasis on personal interests, has come as a result of economic reform, and creates tension between itself and the traditional values of the collective welfare of the family.

55 See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 261; For Stacey's work, see Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China, 266. 201 CHAPTER6

A MARRIAGE IN THE NINETIES

Moving to the 1990's, subsequent to economic development in China, various

shops and businesses such as hotels and restaurants can be found throughout Cheung Lok

Town. These businesses have provided employment opportunities for local villagers and

have attracted workers from other provinces. 1 The number of factories in Lo Village has

increased to over forty and as a result a number of shops have opened near the industrial

area to provide different goods to the workers. Around one third of the paddy fields in Lo

Village were retained for farming purposes, however, some of these fields are uncultivated, as village economy has gradually become non-agricultural. 2 Due to the changes in economic structure, the opportunity for males and females to meet in the workplace or at social functions has increased. The traditional restriction of communication between different sexes, which made people refrain from talking to a

1 These phenomena are common throughout the Pearl River Delta. See Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," in Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era, ed. Deborah Davis and Steven Harrell (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 124. 2 For more about this change in the Delta, see Victor Nee and Sijin Su, "Industrial Change and Economic Growth in China: The View from the Villages," The Journal of Asian Studies 49 (1990): 3-25. 202 member of the opposite sex, has begun to change. 3 Nowadays, young villagers can find their marriage partners with greater ease than in the past and the concept of courtship and marriage has undergone great change. Young villagers have more autonomy in choosing their marriage partners. 4 Some more elderly people such as Lo Hing-nam, however, have continued to adopt the traditional value system and the traditional standards in selecting spouses for their sons. As a result, the different selection criteria between the two generations have led to conflict. Generally speaking people who have been allowed to choose their own partners will have a more intimate husband and wife relationship. The husband-wife dyad gradually replaced the father-son dyad. 5 Husbands today are more concerned about their wives' feelings and so the traditional influence of a patriarchal culture has been weakened, 6 and the inequalities in social status between men and women may also have been slightly diminished. On the other hand, since prostitution has flourished since the 1990's, male villagers are always able to satisfy their sexual desires.

This has also brought about new changes to the relationship between men and women. In

3 See William L. Parish & Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), 169-72; Sularnith H. Potter and Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants: The Anthropology of a Revolution (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1990), 190; Jack Chen, A Year in Upper Felicity: Life in a Village during the Cultural Revolution (New York: Macmillan, 1973), 72-78; Janet Salaff, "Institutionalized Motivation for Fertility Limitation," in Women in China: Studies in Socialism, ed. Marilyn Young (Ann Arbor: Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, 1973). 4 Isabelle Thireau, "Recent Changes in a Guangdong Village," The Australian Journal ofChinese Affairs 19/20 (1988): 305. 5 On the concept of the father-son dyad, please refer to Francis L. K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour," in China in Crisis: Chinese Heritage and the Communist Political System, vol. 1, bk. 2, ed. Ho Ping-ti and Tsou Tang (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969).

203 this chapter I will study the personal experiences of a young villager named Lo King-lam regarding courtship and marriage. His story can give us a better understanding of the tensions around the modem concept of love, the traditional patriarchal culture and the influence of prostitution.

1 Lo King-lam: A Villager Who Grew up under the Rural Economic Reform

Lo King-lam was born in 1969. After graduating from secondary school, he worked in a factory in the village. His salary was around four hundred dollars a month, which at that time was a good salary. However, he thought that there was little chance of career development in the factory. In addition, most ofhis friends in the village were making the most of the opportunities brought about by economic reform. They had set up small businesses in the village or were practicing entrepreneurial skills in Cheung Lok Town.

After working in the factory for less than two years, Lo King-lam opened a shoe shop in

Cheung Lok Town in 1992. Business had initially been quite good, making a profit of around three or four thousand dollars a month, however, in 1993 when economic development in Cheung Lok Town was at its peak, more and more shoe shops opened in

6 For the decline of the patriarchal culture, see Minchuan Yang, "Reshaping Peasant Culture and Community: Rural Industrialization in a Chinese Village," Modern China 20 (1994): 172. 204 the town. There was also an upsurge in shop speculation. Lo King-lam learnt that some

people were making tens of thousands of dollars in just a few months, so he borrowed

some money from his father and began to speculate himself. At that time, whether the

shoe shop was making a profit or not was of no importance to him. Since 1994, however,

shop prices had fallen since the country had passed its economic peak and Lo King-lam

sold the three shops he had at a loss. He lost all his father's money within a year. Lo

King-lam admitted that at that time he was too young, being just twenty-four and that he

had not been able to resist the temptation of making a large sum of money. He also

thought that he did not have good business sense. Eventually, he closed shoe shop and went back to work in the village factory.

Lo King-lam's wife, Lo Mei-ling, was also from Lo Village. She had been one of

Lo King-lam's classmates in primary and junior secondary school. Because she had seven brothers and sisters her family was quite poor so she had had to leave school after

graduating from junior secondary school. She worked in the factory to shoulder some of her family's financial burden, despite the fact that her results at school had been good

enough to promote her to a higher form. Lo King-lam, however, could continue his studies even though his academic performance was unsatisfactory because his father had been able to afford to ''buy" a school place for him.

205 Lo King-lam met Lo Mei-ling at a class reunion after his graduation from

secondary school. At that time Mei-ling was working as a supervisor in one of the village

factories. Lo King-lam's classmates and friends thought that they were well matched in

terms of appearance, and encouraged him to date Mei-ling. Thereafter, he had been very

enthusiastic in joining the activities organized by his schoolmates, hoping that he would

see her and get to know her better. After attending several social gatherings, Lo King-lam took the initiative and they started their courtship.

When trying to recall why he had fallen in love with Mei-ling, Lo King-lam said,

"She was the most beautiful girl in the class. Ever since I first met her at the reunion, I formed an attachment to her. When I think back, I remember that I did not know much about her although I had known her when we were in school." Mei-ling had a fine profile with delicate features, and could be said to be a beautiful girl in the village.

"Although I don't think that I was handsome, I don't believe I looked too bad."

When Lo King-lam was recalling his romance, there was a gleam of pride in his eyes. "I didn't do anything to draw her attention on purpose. Nor did I try to ingratiate myself to her with presents like the other boys. She did not reject me when I asked if I could date her, therefore I believe she had an attachment to me too."

Lo King-lam was around 1.7 metres tall and had a good physique. He could be considered handsome. When I first met him, he sported a modem hair style like young

206 people in Hong Kong. Lo King-lam liked to wear a T -shirt and jeans when he was off

duty. In fact, this was the fashion of the young villagers in Lo Village.

Once while Lo King-lam was not going out with Mei-ling, he went to a karaoke nightclub with his boss, who was a factory owner. Lo King-lam was still very excited when he described his first experience of a karaoke nightclub. "At that time karaoke was a new type of business. At first we could only go with our boss to the karaoke because we could not afford to go by ourselves. It was air-conditioned! We could eat and sing as much as we wanted and besides, the girls would entertain us. It was fantastic! You know, we were born and grew up in this village, these were completely new experiences for us."

He said smiling. "We could choose some beautiful girl to sit with us. We had never thought this possible before!"

When Lo King-lam first visited the karaoke nightclub, he was just an ordinary factory worker, earning around only four hundred dollars a month. For a twenty-three year old (in 1992) from a village like Lo Village, the karaoke experience was very new and tempting. Lo King-lam could not afford to go to a karaoke nightclub several times a month at that time. However, he did so frequently during the time his business was going under.

"I got to know a girl when I frequented the karaoke bar. I was in love with Mei-ling at that time so of course I did not let her know. I think if you meet a suitable girl by

207 chance, it is not a big deal to go out with her." At that time, the relationship between Lo

King-lam and Mei-ling was stable enough for them to consider marriage.

2 Conflict between Two Generations

After dating for four years, Lo King-lam and Mei-ling finally got married in 1994.

As Lo King-lam had suffered financial loss the year before he got married due to poor investments, he did not have enough money to build a new house. 7 As a result, they had to live with Lo King-lam's parents. Lo King-lam knew very well that it would probably cause a lot of conflict.8 This was because when he had been dating Mei-ling, his parents had disliked her. After they got married, the young couple always had quarrelled with Lo

King-lam's parents. This seriously affected their marriage and made them quite unhappy.

During one interview, Lo King-lam mentioned the conflict between his wife and his mother. "Since we got married, she is always in conflict with my mother over trivial matters. My wife has a strong personality and an independent mind, and she will not

7 In the Pearl River Delta, "upon marriage, sons move out without delay into newly constructed houses." However, these newly-fashioned three-storey houses require years of saving. See Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Time of Change (Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000), 79. 8 Wolf considers this is the common problem of virilocal in rural areas. See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985), 178. 208 easily listen to or conform to differing ways of doing things.9 For instance, she is not superstitious and does not worship any gods, however, my mum definitely follows traditional rituals and offers sacrifices to ancestors and gods whenever there is a festival.

My wife, however, will not take part. When we got married, they often clashed over this particular issue. In fact, my wife doesn't want to make any concession." Lo King-lam thought that his wife was right and that his mother was too stubborn. In the past, or before

Liberation, "rural sons were concerned about mothers and valued their relationship with them." "If a son sided with his wife, there would be a lot oftrouble."10 Lo King-lam's case shows that this kind of relationship is gradually changing.

Not long after the Rural Economic Reform, worship activities such as offering sacrifices to gods and ancestors became popular again. At the end of 1996, the people of

Lo Village refurbished two temples. In the late evening on the opening day, a large crowd of elderly female villagers gathered at one of these the temple. They brought along some sacrifices and candles. As soon as the opening ceremony was finished, they immediately rushed to light candles and worship the gods. Throughout the following day, groups of

9 "A daughter-in-law, especially one who was a strong-willed, seductive, adored young wife" is a serious threat to her mother-in-law and will consequently lead to conflicts. See Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983), 19; See also Evalyn Jacobson Michaelson and Walter Goldschmidt, "Female roles and Male Dominance among Peasants," Southern Journal of Anthropology 27 (1971): 330-52. Thireau also maintains that women are more independent as they "are now able to earn salaries that are remitted directly to them rather than to their parents". See Isabelle Thireau, "Recent Changes in a Guangdong Village," 305.

209 middle-aged and older women visited the temple. Some of the more superstitious women believed that offering sacrifices to the gods could bring peace and luck to their husbands, children and families. Other women, however, did not believe that such an act would be effective in helping them make their dreams come true, but treated these activities as their family responsibility, and so they still visit the temples. From this we can see how Lo

King-lam's mother, like all the other older female villagers, thought that visiting the temple to seek good luck was her duty to the family and that a woman should become involved in this. Hence she requested her daughter-in-law to do likewise. (The issue of visiting temples as one of a woman's family responsibilities will be discussed in Chapter

8.)

In addition to the conflict brought about by religion, Lo King-lam also blamed his mother for demanding too much of his wife. "On the one hand my wife cannot accept the traditional thinking that is deep-rooted in my mother's mind. On the other hand, my mother has set exceptionally high standards for her. She expects my wife to get up early in the morning to do the household chores. If she stays late in bed, my mum will be unhappy." In fact, compared with the standards set by women of previous generations in

Lo Village, the standards set by Lo King-lam's mother are not very high, as these were

10 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 227; See also Francis L.K. Hsu, Rugged Individualism Reconsidered: Essays in Psychological Anthropology (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1983), 228. 210 basic requirements of a daughter-in-law. In regard to traditional expectations and criteria,

Lo King-lam's wife had failed to fulfil her role as daughter-in-law. 11

Lo King-lam continued. "My mother also feels unhappy if we arrive home late, scolding Mei-ling for this. My mother might have reason to scold her if Mei-ling was going out alone, however, Mei-ling was going out with me to some social functions.

When this happens my mother gets angry and scolds her. Once, she threw away the food that she had been keeping for us to show her dissatisfaction. Then she began to blame

Mei-ling, saying that because she had come home too late, the food has gone cold and that there was no point keeping it. We dare not, therefore, stay out too late when we go out.

We sometimes don't even want to go out unless we have very important things to do, otherwise Mei-ling will be scolded."

Most of the problems faced by Lo King-lam would probably not have happened to

So Yiu-kong because, after his marriage, he and his wife rarely went out together socially. The younger villagers such as Lo King-lam, however, always go out with their wives to social functions. Whenever there is a holiday, Lo King-lam would always want to go to other places with his wife to have some fun. He treasures his husband-wife relationship more than So Yiu-kong does. 12

11 As Wolfs research reviews, in the past "a good daughter-in-law gets up earlier than everyone else to grind the grain or do the laundry and relieve her mother-in-law of the heaviest chores." Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 228. 12 As shown in Chapter 5, So Yiu-kong's generation still considers that the conjugal relationship should be emotionally distant and secondary to the father and son relationship. See Kay A. 211 "I wish I could live in a world with just the two of us in it. Recently I have been very busy and cannot manage to squeeze in time to be with my wife so she is very dissatisfied.

The last time I went out with my wife to have some fun was several months ago. That time we went to a concert performed by a Hong Kong pop singer whom my wife loves very much. It so happened that the pop singer was performing in the province, so we booked tickets in advance. The cost for two tickets was over six hundred dollars and the cost of a taxi to and from the venue cost another several hundred dollars. I had also planned to go to the Window of the World in Shenzhen with my wife as I had heard that the model buildings there were very beautiful, and so well built that they look just like the real ones."

The year after they got married, Mei-ling could not spend as much time on household chores because she had to take care of a new born baby. Lo King-lam's mother not only failed to take into account her situation, she even showed greater dissatisfaction.

She started to cook separately from Lo King-lam and his wife, leaving them to cook for themselves. 13 For Lo King-lam this was good because it avoided a lot of conflict. "We are freer than before. If our friends ask us to go out, we can prepare our own dinner with much more flexibility and we no longer need to worry about my mother's opposition. Of

Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 125; On the discussion of the father-son dyad and the husband-wife dyad, see Francis L.K. Hsu, Rugged Individualism Reconsidered, 220-7 13 Separation of cooking which resulted from the quarrel between the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law was common before 1949. See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 225. 212 course it is quite embarrassing for family members to use the same stove to cook separate meals, but we have no other option because my mum is too demanding. We tried our best to please her, however, ifwe had kept it up it would have affected our lives." This time Lo

King-lam looked quite happy because his problems seemed to have been solved.14

3 Problem Brought About by the Freedom to Choose a Spouse

The conflict between Lo King-lam's wife and his mother started in the early stage of his relationship with Mei-ling when they fell in love with each other. Lo King-lam's parents were strongly opposed to his going out with Mei-ling. Lo King-lam thought that courtship and marriage were personal matters between the parties who loved each other.

However, their parents, senior relatives and other villagers sometimes interfered with the development of their relationship.15 Lo King-lam once mentioned in detail an unpleasant experience he had in a cafe.

14 In fact, cooking separately symbolically implies the separation of households even though they live together. See Ge>ran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Time of Change, 82-3. 15 Though arranged marriages have sharply declined since the 1980's, some parents still try to interfere in their sons or daughters' marriage choice. See Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 208; William L. Parish & Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, 169-80; Martin King Whyte, "Changes of Mate Choice in Chengdu," in Chinese Society on the Eve of Tiananmen: The Impact of Reform, ed. Deborah Davis and Ezra F. Vogel (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1990), 181-214. 213 "After I had been dating Mei-ling for some time, some elder kinsmen in the village eventually found out about it. They came to me and said, "Mei-ling is not a good girl. She has had affairs with a lot of men. Besides, she had sexual relations with the factory owner, factory manager, etc."

The people making accusations about Mei-ling's sexual behaviour in the past were mainly colleagues from her workplace. At first Mei-ling had worked as a cashier in the factory, where she earned only three hundred dollars a month. However, she was promoted to supervisor after two years and her salary rose to six hundred dollars per month. At that time Lo King-lam had just begun working at the factory. His salary was only around four hundred dollars a month, which was less than Mei-ling's. Lo King-lam believed Mei-ling had been promoted because of her good performance. When she was promoted to supervisor, some of his elder kinsmen became Mei-ling's subordinates and this made them very unhappy. They believed that no woman was capable enough to take on the responsibility of supervising their work. 16 It was because of this that rumours about

Mei-ling began to spread.

16 "Patriarchy is not only a domestic ideology but a social ideology as well." It extends its influence in the factories. See Patricia D. Beaver, Hon Lihui and Wang Xue, "Rural Chinese Women: Two Faces of Economic Reform," Modem China 21 (1995): 228; Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 163; Jonathan K. Ocko, "Women, Property, and Law in the People's Republic of China," in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, ed. Rubie S.Watson & Patricia Buckley Ebrey (Calif.: University of California Press, 1991), 338. 214 Lo King-lam of course did not believe these rumours. Nevertheless, his senior kinsmen, knowing that he had great confidence in Mei-ling, went to Lo King-lam's parents who were very unhappy when they heard these rumours. His mother in particular judged that Mei-ling was not a good girl and that she did not have a good background and so she asked Lo King-lam to break up with Mei-ling.

"Although I believed Mei-ling, I was very down when I had to face the pressure from my parents and the rumours from other villagers. Despite all that was going on, however, I still went out with her. I quarrelled with my mother on a number of occasions over this issue. My relatives such as my uncle and aunt, knowing that I had not listened to my parents' advice and was still going out with Mei-ling, came to me and tried to persuade me not to date her. I was very annoyed by this. Courtship is a very personal thing, it was our own business, it was between Mei-ling and me! But other people interfered." Lo King-lam shook his head while he was describing this experience. From his eyes, I could see how angry he had been about this.

In addition to the anxiety brought by the rumours, there was another crucial factor which made Lo King-lam's mother try to disrupt their relationship. Mei-ling belonged to the same village and bore the surname Lo as well. Generally speaking, most senior

215 villagers did not want their sons to marry women from the same village, and especially not those with the same surname. 17

Lo King-lam continued, sadly, "I had serious quarrels with my mother over the prohibition of intermarriage within the same village and with someone of the same surname. My father was more open-minded, only talking about it once or twice. When he realized that I was not going to change my attitude, he made no further comment. My mother, however, scolded me every two or three days and this really troubled me. In fact, considering our genealogical relations, Mei-ling and I did not belong to the same branch of the Los although she bears the surname Lo. When we traced back the generations, we had to count at least ten generations before we had the same ancestor. Moreover, Mei-ling was an adopted child. Her own surname was Li. I explained this to my mother a number of times. Sometimes she accepted my point, however, she would slip back into her old ways after a day or two."

In recent years, a lot of young people with the surname Lo in Lo Village have been dating each other and a number have married. To these young people, having the same surname was not a problem at all, however, it was very important that the couple were not

17 Potter and Potter also point out in their research that "the community of Zengbu (a village in Dongguang) still prefers marriage outside the village, even though a certain amount of endogamy remains in the post-collective era." See Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants, 200-5. For the customs and taboos which prohibit endogamy (same surname marriage), see also William G. Goode, World Revolution and Family Patterns (New York: Free Press, 1963), 27-80; William L. Parish & Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, 157. For

216 closely related. The Marriage Law which was amended in 1950 stated in Article 3(a): ''No man or woman shall be allowed to marry in any of the following instances: (a) where the man and woman are lineal relatives by blood or where the man and woman are brother and sister born of the same parents or where the man and woman are half-brother and half-sister. The question of prohibiting marriage between collateral relatives by blood (up to the fifth degree of relationship) is to be determined by custom."18 Johnson maintains that "it was not until 1980, when a slightly revised version of the Marriage Law was issued, that the 1950 clause supporting existing local customs of exogamy was dropped-significantly, without comment." 19 Some more well-educated seniors also thought that if a man and woman with the same surname had no blood relationship going back five generations then they should be allowed to get married. According to some senior villagers, however, there was no endogamy in the village before 1949. They explained that although traditional customs did allow marriage between villagers if there was no common ancestor within five generations, in general no parents would allow their children to marry someone with the same surname. Marriage partners were chosen by village endogamy after 1979, see also Steven Harrell, "Aspects of Marriage in Three Southern Villages," The China Quarterly 130 (1992): 332-4. 18 PRC Marriage Law, 1950. English translation from M.J. Meijer Marriage law and Policy: in the Chinese People's Republic (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1971 ), 300. 19 See Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 209. In the PRC Marriage Law 1980, Article 6 concerning endogamy was revised as follows: Article 6, clause (1 ): No marriage may be contracted under any of the following circumstances: (1) if the man and the woman are lineal relatives by blood, or collateral relatives by blood up to the third degree of kinship. More on PRC Marriage Law 1980, See Michael Palmer, ''The Re-emergence of Family

217 parents before 1949, therefore, the parents would have eliminated the possibility of choosing marriage partners with the same surname for their children during their selection.

After passing the new Marriage Law, the communist government sent work teams to villages to implement it. Some of these implementation campaigns explained that marriage within the same surname was also lawful.20 Despite that, most of the villagers did not agree with the concept that people with the same surname could get married. It was not until 1960 that a couple with the same surname first married. They both belonged to the landlord class, which was purged as anti-revolutionary by the communists.21

Because of their poor political background, however, they were unable to find more suitable partners, and had to marry each other. They emphasized, however, that they did not have close kinship relations.

Another two young villagers with the surname Lo, Lo Chun-lam and Lo

Kwok-cheung, married each other in 1961. They faced strong opposition from their parents when they decided to get married. The bride's father even threatened to kill them.

In fact, they were not close kin and did not violate the Marriage Law. They did not care about the opposition from their parents and went to the people's commune office on their

Law in Post-Mao China: Marriage, Divorce and Reproduction," The China Quarterly 141 (1995): 110-34. 20 William L. Parish & Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, 154. 21 On class label during the period of collectivization, see Richard Curt Kraus, Class Conflict in Chinese Socialism (New York: Columbia University, 1981). 218 own to apply for marriage registration and did not hold any special ceremony at home, but went to Guangzhou for their honeymoon. 22

Lo Chun-lam' parents have never forgiven him. He told me that, after over twenty years of marriage, having children and grandchildren, his mother still scolds him about the past.

Lo Chun-lam's case was very special for Lo Village in the 1960's. Lo Chung Lam's marriage could certainly not have taken place before the Marriage Law had come into force when the concepts of a traditional marriage were adhered to in Lo Village.

Endogamy has increased in recent decades in the village, however, not sharply. Generally speaking, parents would still oppose marriage to someone of the same surname, but most of the young villagers today would not conform to the traditional method of choosing their marriage partner. Most of them would insist on their own choice and ignore their parents' opinions. The influence of the traditional customs has clearly diminished and the young villagers' autonomy in choosing a spouse has increased. 23

4 Perplexity Caused by House Building

22 For cases against parental intervention after the implementation of the Marriage Law, see C.K. Yang, Chinese Family in the Communist Revolution (Mas.: MIT Press, 1959), 34. 219 The conflict between his wife and his mother seriously troubled Lo King-lam.

Although the number of quarrels had decreased since they had decided to cook separately, he felt uncomfortable with the situation, and he looked forward to the day he could build his own house.

Since 1949, the Women's Movement organised by the government strongly encouraged newly married couples to establish their own homes. The government advised couples not to live with parents so that parents could not treat daughters-in-law as free labour. In general, most new couples in Lo Village will have found a new home before they marry.24 For example, So Yiu-kong found a piece of land to build a new house before he got married. In 1979, there was more land available than today and the cost ofbuilding houses was low.25

The main reason So Yiu-kong built a house was not because he wanted to move out ofhis parent's house, as his wife got on well with his mother and there was no conflict. He built a house to obtain more land for his own use. He knew that paddy fields had to be owned by the state, however, land for residential purposes could be owned privately if the title deeds could be obtained. Since 1990, the amount ofland for residential purposes has

23 William L. Parish &Martin King Whyte, Village and Family in Contemporary China, 171-9. 24 Huang maintains "economic diversification in recent years (1980's) has made family division desirable. He points out that since most of the sons in a family now work at jobs with cash incomes rather than depending on work points earned under the collective system, it has become increasingly difficult for parents to monitor their actual income." See Shu-min Huang, "Re-examining the Extended Family in Chinese Peasant Society: Findings from a Fujian Villge," The Australian Journal ofChinese Affairs 27 (1992): 36-7.

220 become limited and expensive. Building costs have also increased significantly, making it difficult for couples today to build their own houses.

When we talked about houses, Lo King-lam seemed to be very confused. In 1995 his salary was a little over three thousand dollars so, after deducting household expenditure, he did not have much money left. "It is not easy to build a house. It costs at least two or three hundred thousand dollars. With my present salary, I don't know how many years I would have to wait before I could save enough money to build a new house.

By that time the prices will probably have gone up." He frowned when he said this.

In the past it only cost one hundred thousand dollars to build an ordinary two-storey house. Recently, however, the houses built by wealthy Lo villagers are all fitted with luxurious furnishings. The style is just like that of a modem Spanish style villa.26 Lo

King-lam was working as factory directo~7 and when he seeing what his colleagues had made him look for more than just an ordinary house. His present financial situation, however, meant he could not afford to achieve this aim. He looked very depressed whenever he talked about building a house because of this.

25 See Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Time ofChange, 79-83. 26 In Dongguang, "[t]housands of the new homes were three-story family dwellings; and many who had originally built two stories had later added a third." See Ezra F. Vogel, One Step Ahead in China: Guangdong under Reform (Mas.: Harvard University Press, 1989), 180. 27 Nearly all the factory directors in Pearl River Delta are assigned by the local government as trouble-shooters. They have little day-to-day responsibility compared to those sent in from Hong Kong. See Ezra F. Vogel, One Step Ahead in China, 178. 221 Building a new house became very important to Lo King-lam because he wanted to resolve the situation between his wife and his mother and to save face. He therefore, began to gamble, placing very high bets in order to make money quickly. When Mei-ling found out about this, conflict rose between them.

"A few days ago I went to my friend's horne in the evening. My wife suspected that

I had gone to gamble, but I insisted I was just going. I came back after eleven o'clock that night and she got very angry and we quarrelled. I did not defend myself because I was wrong, so I let her scold me as she liked. She became angrier, however, and as she was scolding me, started to cry. She even packed all her clothes and said that she was leaving me. She agreed to stay only after I had spent a long time talking her round. She is still angry with me these past two days. She has asked me to rent an apartment for her in the town so that she can live alone. She does not want to live with a gambler like me." Lo

King-lam continued sadly, "In fact this was not the first time we had quarrelled over gambling, but this time she was very angry. Two weeks ago we joined a tour organized by the village government to go sightseeing and I gambled with my friends during the tour.

This made her very unhappy. Later on she learnt that I had lost four thousand dollars in one game, so she became even angrier. She asked me not to gamble anymore or else she would not forgive me."

222 "Indeed I gamble too much and too frequently these days." He looked guilty. "We

had no money to build a house when we got married. Now I gamble. She has the right to

be angry with me. The greatest hope we had after we got married was to build a house. It

meant a lot to us, especially to my wife. We could have had more savings. Alas my

behaviour has disappointed her. I really cannot blame her for getting angry with me." He

blamed himself over and over again. Moreover, he was not lucky. Once he lost over ten thousand dollars in one morning.

When I returned to Lo Village in 1996, Lo King-lam had finally built a new house, which I visited one evening. It was a two-storey building situated beside a fishpond on the north of the village. Though the house had a very ordinary appearance, it had very modem furnishings. Lo King-lam told me that he had spent around four hundred thousand dollars building and furnishing the house. He did not tell me how he had raised such a large sum of money in two years. According to other villagers, however, the money was given to him by his elder brother in Hong Kong. Since moving into the new house, Lo King-lam had led a more pleasant life and there was less conflict between his wife and mother because the opportunity to meet had been greatly reduced.

5 Male Dominates, Female Follows

223 I saw Lo King-lam less frequently after he began to quarrel seriously with his wife over gambling. I met him one Wednesday afternoon by accident, however, and because we had not seen each other for a long time, we agreed to meet at a nearby restaurant for dinner and Mei-ling came with him. After we had ordered the food, Lo King-lam pulled out a Hong Kong horse racing newspaper from his pocket. On Wednesdays, Hong Kong has evening horse races. I was puzzled as to why he would bet on the horses right in front ofMei-ling.

After reading the newspaper for a while, Lo King-lam went to the telephone to place his bets. Watching him, Mei-lingjust shook her head. When Lo King-lam returned to his seat he saw the curiosity in my eyes, and he winked at me. After dinner, Mei-ling went to the washroom and I hurriedly asked Lo King-lam how he dared bet in front of

Mei-ling. He smiled and said, "She had to accept the fact that men gamble. As long as I do not have high stakes, it's all right!"

Lo King-lam's attitude to his wife made me recall what he had once said to me:

"Mei-ling gives in to me over a lot of things. She gives me a lot of freedom. I have always known that she would be a very considerate wife." Although Lo King-lam considered the husband and wife relationship to be more important than Lo Hing-nam did, it seemed that in some things, he also adopted a traditional patriarchal view. When he talked about the

224 difference between women of the village and those from the northern provinces, he made the following comments.

"'Local girls' and 'outside girls' differ significantly in character. Local girls are more hard working and more obedient to their husbands. They think about their husbands first before they make decisions. They would consider their husbands' comments beforehand, but 'outside girls' are different. They only care about themselves. Talking about the attitude to work, they are less diligent than local girls. Most of them like to have fun. Therefore, in selecting a wife, I wouldn't choose an 'outside girl'." When he said that

I he would1 not consider an outside girl as a marriage partner, he was disapproving. Lo

King-lam's comments showed that he was prejudiced against women from other provinces and this was also reflected in his attitude toward spouse selection.

In fact, Lo King-lam's view was quite common among young villagers in Lo

Village. Lo King-lam's kinsman, Ah Chung shared the same view. Ah Chung told me that he wanted to find a girl who shares his interest, and with whom he could effectively and efficiently communicate. When he talked about the ways a husband and wife should get along with each other, it seemed that he still adopted the traditional views that were strongly held by most of the male villagers: "If a girl could not do the housework, and did

225 not obey her husband, what was the point of marrying her?" It seems that he is still adhering to the traditional view that a wife should be docile and hardworking. 28

We can learn from the praise Lo King-lam gave Mei-ling, what a good wife was expected to be like. "My wife had another good characteristic. She took sole responsibility for running the house, from small to big issues. I did not need to spend a minute on these things. It is a wife's duty to take care of all the household affairs, otherwise, she could not be considered good. Of course, if a wife had given birth to a child, the situation was different. One must accept that if a wife had to take care of a child, she has no time to do the housework." Several months after Lo King-lam's wife had given birth, she no longer wanted to stay idle at home so she found a job in Cheung Lok Town.

The salary was quite good, at around two thousand dollars a month. However, the job entailed long working hours. She had to work for twelve hours, and finish at nine o'clock at night. Lo King-lam thought that the job was too much for Mei-ling as everyday when she arrived home she was already exhausted. At first I thought he was worried about

Mei-ling's health, but later I found out that he was worried about the housework.

"Mei-ling had to do the housework after she came home. She could not go to sleep until twelve o'clock. If she was too tired and could not do the housework, then who could help

28 For more about this point, see Ida Pruitt, A Daughter ofHan: The Autobiography ofa Chinese Working Woman (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1967), 32-3; See also See also Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 19; Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 234. 226 to clean up the mess?" Lo King-lam's attitude reveals that he had never thought of

helping Mei-ling himself.

In past generations, no matter how wealthy the husband's family was, a woman had

to take care of her mother-in-law even if the family had servants. Early in the morning a

daughter-in-law had to prepare a washbasin with water for her mother-in-law and help her

to wash her face and comb her hair. To do this she had to get up early in the morning,

otherwise, she would be thought of as ill-bred. Although the servants would prepare the

meals, a daughter-in-law would assist. Her daily duties also included the running of the house. If her father-in-law, mother-in-law or husband went out on business and came back late, she could not go to bed until they had come home. The life of a daughter-in-law was even harder if she married into a poor family, but poor families did not have stringent rules as rich families. Daughters-in-law did not have to follow all the rituals they would have practised had they married into rich families, however, they had to work in paddy fields in addition to the normal duties of assisting their mothers-in-law with the housework and taking care of their husband.29 It was only after 1949 that the government began to teach women to resist this unfair treatment. The government initiated Women's

Movement discouraged unfair treatment. Still, the traditional social status of woman could not be changed overnight. After 1949, competence in the paddy fields and

29 For rural domestic relations between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, see Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 221-37. 227 obedience to seniors were still the major selection criteria set by parents in choosing a spouse for their sons. Most sons would agree with their parents' requirements, except that they also wanted their wives to be beautiful. When So Yiu-kong was choosing his spouse, he also attached much importance to the degree of obedience of his marriage partner. In the beginning So Yiu-kong had not cared much whether his wife was a capable woman, but he regretted it later. He began to worry about his wife's capability because of her thin and delicate constitution.

Lo King-lam was of a different generation in Lo Village. One can clearly observe that he was not influenced by the standards of the traditional culture in his spouse selection. He had not changed his mind even after facing strong opposition from his parents and relatives, however, he seemed to follow the path ofhis parents in adopting the traditional view of male dominance, particularly in the domestic sphere.

Lo King-lam once informed me that, "On a number of important matters, my wife wanted me to make the final decision. I also thought that I should do so. A man should be in control of the family." He emphasized over and over again the following points. "For example, she wanted me to decide if we had to spend a large sum of money in buying furniture or other important things. This was the most natural thing to do. It is of course not reasonable to allow a woman to make decisions on major issues. Sometimes even if

228 she disagreed with or disliked my decision, I still stuck to my choice. A man is nothing if

he cannot make decisions."30

In addition to the influence of the traditional patriarchal culture, the flourishing of

prostitution in the1990's also had a great impact on Lo King-lam. Once during an

interview, Lo King-lam said, "I went to karaoke nightclubs in my spare time too. This

was a very common thing to do. My brothers did so too. The only difference was that I

was not a frequent visitor to these nightclubs. I rarely visited these places after I got

married. However, sometimes I join my brothers or friends at these nightclubs for fun. I

would also hire a girl to sit with me."

"Did you have sexual relations with these women?" I asked.

Lo King-lam did not give a direct answer to this question. He just said, "I rarely went to these places after I got married. But sometimes due to the nature of my job, I had to accompany my clients or others to karaoke nightclubs. Sometimes I had to accompany the factory owner or manager. Sometimes we went to the nightclub several times a week.

Sometimes several times a month."

"You are not a frequent visitor to the nightclubs, are you?" I continued to ask.

"I didn't think hiring a woman for fun was a big deal. The main point is that you should not let it spoil your normal life." When Lo King-lam mentioned that he had to visit

3° Concerning a husband's authority over his wife, see also Francis L.K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour," 584-7. 229 karaoke nightclubs because of his job, he began to express his views on prostitution. "Of

course, I would not hire a woman for sex. This is because it would cost a lot of money to

go to these places for sex, and I am not rich. It takes favourable circumstances for one to hire a woman. I still think that it would be much better if you met someone you liked by

chance for such purposes."

When I heard him say that he would not go to a karaoke nightclub for sex, I thought it was because he thought it was wrong, or he feared that his wife might ask for a divorce if she knew about it. After listening to his full explanation, I realized that the main reason was his financial status. Lo King-lam knew that Mei-ling would ask for a divorce if she knew that he had hired a woman for sex. However, it seemed that this would not stop him from visiting these places. He would only put more effort in withholding the truth from

Mei-ling. In fact, he had been seeing a nightclub girl when he was dating Mei-ling.

Regarding the role of prostitutes, Lo King-lam's attitude did not differ greatly from

So Yiu-kong. When So Yiu-kong went to hire a woman, he would not let his wife know about it. In So Yiu-kong's generation, they did not want their wives to know not because they thought it was unfair to them, or feared that their wives would ask for divorce, they simply thought that a wife who was opposed to her husband going out with other women was not reasonable. The reason they withheld the truth was to avoid possible quarrels.

They believed it was no big deal for a man to go out to have sex with a woman, or even to

230 get a mistress as long as they could give sufficient money to their wives for household

use. From Lo King-lam's comments, we can see that he had similar views as So

Yiu-kong.

At the end of the 1980's, the flourishing of karaoke nightclubs made Lo Village's

male villagers seek sexual satisfaction there. Young villagers such as Lo King-lam, had

begun to seek the freedom to choose a spouse. This phenomenon has led to an emphasis

on greater understanding between husband and wife. This method of choosing a wife

changed the traditional patriarchal household. We have seen that Lo King-lam attached more importance to the relations between husband and wife than to his relationship with his parents. As a result, it brought about conflict between the two generations. Lo

King-lam, however, also emphasized male dominance and female subordination. With the introduction of prostitution, Lo King-lam and other male villagers tended to treat women as sexual objects. Although the younger generation were more eager to find their marriage partners through courtship and dating, they still conform largely to the patriarchal culture. The commercialisation of sex reinforces these patriarchal elements.

6 Conclusion

231 In Chapter 4, Lo Hing-nam's commitment to revived lineage activities, his ideas on

marriage and family life all show that he is still deeply influenced by traditional lineage values. In Chapter 5, even So Yiu-kong, who was born and grew up at the time the

Chinese Communist Party launched its anti-feudalism campaign, his perceptions, his

actions, and his day-to-day decision making are no less influenced by the traditional ways of thinking. In this chapter, Lo King-lam's story seems to be different. His ideas on choosing a spouse and family life go against the traditional criteria of a good marriage.

These three stories reveal the changes in the ideas ofmarriage and family life in particular and the effect of the Rural Economic Reform on traditional lineage values in general. In what follows, the ideas of father-son dyad, and the concept of emotion as developed by

Hsu,31 Fei,32 and Potter and Potte~ 3 will be used as analytical tools to analyse the changes in the ideas of marriage and family lives. This analysis hopes to articulate the changes which the Rural Economic Reform influenced.

In Chapter 4, it was clear that Lo Hing-nam's and other old people's insistence on traditional ways of life can be seen in several ways. For example these elderly villagers believe that the traditional way of choosing a spouse is the best way of securing a good

31 Francis L.K. Hsu, Rugged Individualism Reconsidered, 215-300, and also Francis L.K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour." 32 Xiaotong Fei, From the Soil: The Foundations ofChinese Society, trans. Gary G. Hamilton and Wang Zheng (California: University of California Press, 1992); Xiaotong, Fei, Peasant Life in China (London: Routledge, 1939), 60-70 and 80-93. 33 Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants, 180-95. 232 marriage. They believe that marriage is not only the couple's business, but is the business

of the whole family as well. They think that marriage is necessary for the continuation of

the family line, therefore, in choosing a partner, it is important to match the couples'

Chinese horoscopes at the outset. 34 Two matched horoscopes mean that the couple is

going to have a son and the family will live in harmony. Harmony in a family not only

means couples getting along well, but also that the wife gets along well with parents-in-law, especially her mother-in-law. 35 From the above requirements, we can see that when a man is looking for a wife, both her horoscope details and her personality play

an important part. In some poor families the wife's ability to work on the land was also important. Thus marriage for a poor family brought an increase in the labour force. In view of the above considerations, elderly villagers are strongly against choosing partners through "free love." They believe that young people choosing their partners by themselves will cause "infatuation" and this will cause them to be blind to the "true character" of their partner. This means that although couples may be deeply in love, what they want out of marriage may not fulfil the needs of the family, or even the lineage.

34 Maurice Freedman, "Ritual Aspects of Chinese Kinship and Marriage," in Family and Kinship in Chinese Society, ed. Maurice Freedman (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1970), 181; Francis L.K. Hsu, Under the Ancestors ' Shadow: Chinese Culture and Personality (New York: Columbia University Press, 1948), 85. 35 Chinese believe that matched horoscopes will result in family harmony. See Yih-yuan Li, "In Search of Equilibrium and Harmony: On the Basic Values Orientations of Traditional Chinese Peasants," in Home Bound: Studies in East Asian Society, ed. Chie Nakane and Chien Chiao (Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, 1992), 130-1; See also Majorie Topley, "Cosmic Antagonisms: A Mother-Child Syndrome," in Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, ed. Arthur Wolf (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 197 4), 241. 233 These old people do admit that when they were young, they dreamed of choosing their own mate, or at least of having the chance of "double-looking". When they reflected on this, however, they came to the conclusion that parental arrangements are best since they believe that the goal of marriage is for the welfare of the family. The idea of considering the welfare of the family as the highest good is shared by the middle-aged villagers. 36

From Chapter 5, we know that So Yiu-kong, a middle-aged villager, was born after the promulgation ofthe PRC Marriage Law and that he chose his wife on his own. When he decided to marry his wife, his peers considered his decision inappropriate. Although

So Yiu-kong strongly disagreed with his peers at the time he married, he has also gone back to the traditional way of thinking. Whenever he mentions his wife, it is obvious that he is satisfied because his wife fulfils all the traditional requirements of wife. His worry that his wife was too slim and tiny to work on the land disappeared when he later found that she could shoulder the work of two women. The most important thing, however, was that his wife gave birth to a son, a grandson for his parents. This was very important to So

Yiu-kong as it meant that his family's bloodline could continue.37 Although So Yiu-kong refused his parents' arrangement and chose his wife on his own, when discussing his

36 On the idea that the welfare of the family is the highest good, see Walter H. Slote, "Psychocultural Dynamics within the Confucian Family," in Confucianism and the Family, ed. Walter H. Slote and George A. DeVos (New York: State University of New York Press, 1998), 44. 37 From the Chinese point of view, one of marriage's major functions is to produce a new generation, see Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 140. 234 marriage, it seems that he now shares deeply the idea of the older generation. He believes a good marriage should be able to maintain the welfare of a family.

So Yiu-kong's marriage also reflects the traditional perception of family life held by this age cohort, which grew up in the anti-feudalism era. Before marriage, So

Yiu-kong went through the process of courtship, but once he was married he, just like other elderly villagers, seldom went out with his wife. When So Yiu-kong faces problems, he goes to his brothers and friends ofthe same sex and asks for help. Husbands and wives have friends of the same sex and they have their own social lives as well. When they are both at home, however, they seldom communicate with each other, sometimes, sitting in the living room for hours without talking. Even when they do talk, they talk only about trivial matters such as whether their son should go to university, or what should be done when a festival comes. Their conjugal relationship could be described as emotionally distant. 38 In fact, when I interviewed other middle-aged villagers, their marriages were more or less the same as that of So Yiu-kong. Fei addresses the issue of same sex relationship as follows:

"The principles underlying such same-sex associations and the formation of

nuclear families would seem to be at odds, because the family's function of

procreation is based on a heterosexual union. Accordingly, the cohesion of

38 Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 125. 235 individual households in rural society would seem to be affected by-indeed,

to be threatened by-the presence of all those same-sex associations. In rural

society, however, lineages served as a substitute for individual families, and

lineages gave priority to alliances among people of the same sex ...In Chinese

rural society, lineages are the basic social unit and are an expression of the

relative importance of the principle underlying same-sex associations."39

One of the essential features of Chinese lineage is that "man dominates and woman

follows", with the family relation being basically a father-son dyad instead of a husband-wife dyad. This is reflected in an old saying in China stating that brothers are as

important as hands and legs, while wives are just like clothes that can be changed. As

discussed in Chapter I, Hsu's research points out that apart from continuity,

inclusiveness, and authority the fourth feature of a Chinese family is asexuality.4°Fei also points out that as men are the core members of the lineage, the emotional aspect of the husband-wife relationship is suppressed or else it will endanger the stability of the

lineage.41 Thus a marriage is not secured by emotional attachment but is maintained by

functional responsibility. There are old stories about virtuous wives, who when the husband had to leave the family to work for a long period of time, loyally remained at

39 Xiaotong Fei, From the Soil: The foundations ofChinese Society, 91-2. 4°Francis Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour," 584-7. 41 Xiaotong Fei, From the Soil, 92. 236 home committed to looking after her parent-in-laws, and the education of her children.

When the husband comes back, they will continue to live together harmoniously. 42

Obviously, Lo Hing-nam and his wife have lived separately over a very long period of time, but to him the husband-wife relationship is not altered by circumstance. This relationship does not terminate even though they are apart for a long time or their emotional attachment disappears.43 In Chapter 5, So Yiu-kong also pointed out that, although he no longer has any feelings for his wife and he wants to have a mistress, he never thinks of divorce because it is his moral responsibility to maintain the marriage and support his wife.

The characteristics of Chinese lineage culture have been shown to be reflected in family life, the relationship between husband and wife and in spouse selection. Family life or even daily life in Chinese peasant villages, according to Hsu, is situation-centered, where every individual has to consider whether his behaviour or decisions are appropriate for his fellowmen. 44 This means that peasants do not make decisions on the basis of personal "likes" or "dislikes". For example, when they have to choose a spouse, they have to suppress their personal feelings. Their decision should be aimed at the welfare of the family. Potter and Potter's study also pointed out that "[emotional expression] is

42 Francis L. K. Hsu, Americans and Chinese: Passage to Differences 3rd ed. (Honolulu: University ofHawaii Press, 1981), 144-155. 43 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 236. 44 Francis L. K. Hsu, Americans and Chinese, 12-3. 237 independent of, and implies nothing about, relations. The conception of emotion as mere idiosyncrasy, lacking in symbolic significance for the creation and maintenance of social relationship." 45 Obviously, there should be an emotional aspect within a marriage, however, as the family relationship is based on the father-son dyad, emotional ties between husband and wife in the village could turn into a "rival and the potential enemy of the pre-existing social structure."46

In fact, the data collected in Lo Village has shown that husband and wife do not behave in an intimate manner in front of their family members in the traditional family.

One old woman, who was once a housewife in a rich family, said that when her husband who had been out for a long time, came back home, she could not show her happiness, otherwise, her actions would have been considered indecent. 47 Any intimate behaviour between husband and wife should only be expressed privately. As affection is not the basis of maintaining the husband-wife relationship, it is not a big problem if a husband takes one or two mistresses or has an affair with a prostitute. 48 As long as these relationships do not harm the lineage relationship they are acceptable. Therefore, in

45 Sularnith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants, 180-95; see also Sun-pong Yuen, "Dang Dai Zhong Guo Nong Cun Yan Jiu DeLi Lun Tan Suo," (The Theoretical Exploration of Contemporary Chinese Studies) in Dang Dai Zhong Guo Nong Cun Yan Jiu (Shang): Li Lun Tan Suo (Contemporary Chinese Studies: Theoretical Exploration), ed. Sun-pong Yuen and Pui-lam Law (Xin Ze Xi: Ba Fang Wen Hua Qi Ye Gong Si, 2000), 53. 46 Sularnith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants, 190. 47 This is consistent with Hsu's observation. See Francis L.K. Hsu, Rugged Individualism Reconsidered, 228. 48 This reveals the attribute of inclusiveness in the father-son dyad. See Francis L.K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour." 238 Chapter 4 and 5, Lo Hing-nam, So Yiu-kong and other older people all thought that having sex with a prostitute or having a mistress was not a problem. If, however, these relationships led to financial problems which threatened the hannony of the family, then they were no longer appropriate. Suppressing personal emotions in order to maintain the stability or the welfare of the family or lineage also applies to family affairs.49 In this

Chapter, however, we have seen that the relationship between Lo King-lam and his wife is different from previous generations as the emotional attachment between husband and wife is more important. This change, however, has given rise to conflict between Lo

King-lam's wife and his mother. As Kay Johnson Points out, "[h]aving lived out their lives in a powerless status, they (mother-in-laws) were being asked to accept changes which seemed to threaten the basis of the influence and security they had managed to build out of interpersonal relationships shaped by the norms and structures of the traditional patriarchal family."50

In view of the above analysis, those villagers who still commit themselves to traditional lineage values do not make any decision based on personal "likes" or

"dislikes." They believe that they have to suppress their personal feelings and follow the family's or lineage's collective interest so as to promote the welfare of the family or lineage.

49 Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants, 180-95. 5°Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China, 126. 239 In Lo King-nam's case where he chose his wife, we can see that his thinking was

different from the traditional one. In the process of dating, due to his wife's family background and the fact that they had the same surname, Lo King-lam's parents strongly objected to him marrying Mei-ling. Obviously, in the old days, lineage endogamy was taboo in the village. Even after the communists promulgated the Marriage Law and

1 endogamy was considered legitimate if it did not violate local custom, 5 there were not many cases in Lo Village at that time. In the 1990's, however, the number of cases started to increase with most of these couples thinking it acceptable ifthere was no genealogical relationship in the previous five generations. Lo King-lam falls into this category. In his case, he emphasizes that marriage is a personal matter between him and his wife and that other people ought not to involve themselves in their decision, even his parents. We can see that Lo King-lam and other young villagers have begun to use their personal feelings as the basis for their choice instead of suppressing them, particularly in marriage matters.

Lo King-lam's case is different from So Yiu-kong's even though So Yiu-kong also chose his own wife. Personal feeling of "likes" and "dislikes" were important for Lo

King-lam and his wife not just during their courtship but also in their married life. He often spends his leisure time going out with his wife, and they share their social life and travel together. Their going out together has resulted in his mother being dissatisfied with

51 PRC Marriage Law, 1950, Article 3a. 240 his wife. Lo King-lam's mother once threw away their food in front of them to show her anger. She also complained that her daughter-in-law did not care about family issues. In fact, Lo King-lam's father and other older villagers always complained that Lo King-lam and the younger villagers always seek freedom but do not understand how to make the right choices and hence they cause a lot of trouble for their families. Obviously, Lo

King-lam's emphasis on the emotional relationship between husband and wife strengthens their relationship. Perhaps this kind of husband and wife relationship has not yet brought about the formation of a husband-wife dyad within a conjugal family, but it has endangered relationships built around the father-son dyad. In short, the validity of traditional values has been challenged and this has led to the gradual formation of values which emphasize personal autonomy on the one hand and transform family relations on the other.

Even though the traditional father-son dyad has been weakened and the status of women is improving, the flourishing sex trade in the Pearl River Delta strengthens traditional gender roles. In the beginning of the 1990's, there were cafes and karaoke clubs opening in Cheung Lok Town and in Lo Village. Many beautiful girls from other provinces were providing escort and sexual services to their customers. At first, most of the customers were workers and businessmen from Hong Kong. However, as the economic conditions improved, more and more local men started to go to these cafes and

241 clubs. By the mid-1990's local people provided the main source of customers to the cafes and karaoke clubs which provided sexual services. Thus going with prostitutes and having extra-marital affairs have become common in Lo Village, with some rich men even have two or three girlfriends or mistresses at a time. According to one worker from another province, who also provides sex services for men in Lo Villages, not only young villagers but also old people visit prostitutes or have extra-marital affair. Rich men go to karaoke clubs to look for girls who are more attractive, while those who are poor paid 30 to 50 dollars to females working in the factories for sex. Some villagers even use their position in a factory to have sex with female workers.

Male villagers such as So Yiu-kong think that having sex with female factory workers or prostitutes is as normal as chewing gum or drinking a softdrink. Some older villagers also believe that if their wives do not like what they do, it is their problem and not a sensible view to take. Husbands believe that if they give sufficient money to their wives, they should not interfere with their sexual activities, a view Lo King-lam sometimes shares. Some people even contend that it is a normal part of life as their fathers, grandfathers, or even great grandfathers would have had three to four wives if they were rich. Using the traditional idea of the polygamous marriage system to justify their behaviour, they therefore never thought that extra-marital affairs were wrong even if their wives do not agree. The fact that they have to do it secretly nowadays is basically

242 due to the fact that the Communist government's marriage law forbids them to do so. The middle~aged and young villagers who were brought up under Communist Party rule have learnt that women and men should be equal and that they should respect women.

However, nowadays it is common for women to be treated as playthings only as it was before 1949.52 In Lo Village there are more than thirty thousand workers from other provinces and seventy percent are women. Most of these, particularly those from the northern provinces, are considered to be more beautiful. In order to improve their standard ofliving, many are willing to provide either full-time or part-time sex services to the men. This huge trade in sex not only endangers the status of women in the village, it also reduces women to a commodity. It seems therefore, that traditional relationships between men and women not only remain largely unchanged but may be getting worse.

3 To conclude, as pointed out by anthropologists, 5 the socialist revolution failed to transform the pre~ Liberation patriarchal ideologies in the countryside. Thus, the old villagers such as Lo Hing-nam and the middle~aged villagers such as So Yiu-kong still, in various aspects, adhere to the pre-Liberation patriarchal practices. During the time that

Lo King-lam was growing up, the period of rural economic reform resulted in significant

52 Gail Hershatter, "Prostitution and the Market in Women in Early Twentieth-Century Shanghai," in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, 256-85. 53 See Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed, 261; For Stacey's work, see Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983), 266. 243 changes in the ideas of courtship, marriage, and family life. At the individual level, these

changes reveal that young villagers demand more individual autonomy in their daily

lives. This seems to be what Habermas maintains: that economic modernization will at

the same time lead to the rationalization of the lifeworld, and hence forms a modem

personal identity. 54

At the social level, particularly in gender relations, the rationalization process of the

lifeworld has faced an impasse. In view of the gender relations of Lo King-lam and his

generation, it seems that the gradually developed husband-wife dyad has to some extent

challenged the pre-Liberation patriarchal gender relation. In the lifeworld, however, the reproduction of modem gender relations has been unsuccessful as the thriving sex trade

commodifies women and reinforces men's belief in the patriarchal gender relation.

In view of these three case studies, economic modernization has successfully bred individual consciousness but it has failed in transforming the pre-Liberation patriarchal gender relation. In fact, the deep structure oflineage was not destroyed during the period of the anti-feudalist campaign55 and patriarchal social order remained the basic social

6 order of the countryside in China. 5 In the next chapter, the challenges that the Lo lineage

54 Jurgen Habennas, The Theory of Communicative Action, vol. 2 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1987), 137. 55 Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants, 251-69. 56 During the period of socialist reform, Madsen maintains that peasants had never thought of themselves as citizens of a nation. See Richard Madsen, Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 100. 244 faced during the rural economic reform will be thoroughly discussed in order to see how economic modernization has transformed the social relations of the countryside in the

Pearl River Delta.

245 CHAPTER 7

RURAL ECONOMIC REFORM AND THE LO LINEAGE

In the period between 1949 and China's Rural Economic Reform of 1978, the people of Lo Village mainly relied on farming to make a living. The Rural Economic

Reform set Lo Village on the road towards decollectivization. ''The formal demise of the system of the People's Communes is the linked to the increased ability of peasant household to determine the allocation of household labour."1 As a result, many villagers left their farmland and either started working in factories or setting up in business. Soon after the reform, lineage activities which had been suppressed began to be revived, 2 including the reconstruction of the Lo ancestral hall and the recompiling of the genealogical book. These revivals, as Thireau maintains, create "a desire to retrieve and assert a cultural identity that had been forcibly denied."3 Although lineage activities

1 Vivienne Shue, "The Fate of the Commune," Modem China 10 (1984): 259-83. 2 In certain regions in the Pearl River Delta, and especially those where the "overseas Chinese presence is marked, lineage have been revived and elaborated." See Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," in Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era, ed. Deborah Davis and Steven Harrell (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 104 3 Isabelle Thireau, "Recent Changes in a Guangdong Village," The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs 19/20 (1988): 307; See also Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Time of Change (Hong Kong: The Chinese University ofHong Kong, 2000), 16. 246 have re-emerged to buttress the pre-Liberation lineage culture, 4 under market forces changes in lineage ideals have also taken place in Lo Village. The revived activities and customs, as well as the beliefs have undergone change brought about by the economic modernization. This chapter will discuss the changes to the Lo lineage in Lo Village as a result of the Rural Economic Reform depicting how the pre-Liberation lineage relations have been shattered and the ideals replaced by instrumental rationality.

1 The Revival of Lineage Activities

The reforms of 1978 not only promoted the economic activities in Lo Village but also caused a revival in traditional lineage activities which had been suppressed in previous decades. 5 After 1979, with economic development, the political atmosphere became more relaxed. Activities like worshipping ancestors and visiting graves during

Spring and Autumn festivals began to take place again. In the early 1980's, some branches of the Lo lineage called on all male members to visit their own ancestors' graves every year during the Spring and Autumn festivals. Villagers who had fled to

4 This is common in rural China. See Victor Nee, "The Peasant Household Economy and Decollectivization in China," Journal ofAsian and African Studies 21 (1986): 198. 5 On the suppression of pre-Liberation lineage activities, see Ezra Vogel, Canton under Communism: Programs and Politics in a Provincial Capital, 1949-1968 (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1969). 247 Hong Kong came back to participate in such activities. Indeed, "[t]he Delta was able to

mobilize the extensive links it possessed with its expatriate kinsmen who live in Hong

Kong, Macao, and overseas."6 Apart from worshipping their own branch's ancestors,

the Los also organized a visit to the Lo 's first ancestor's grave for all their kinsmen.

Around 1984, the political situation mellowed some more and senior Lo lineage

members, especially the kinsmen of the Tak, Wui-Ho and Wui-dian branches started to

discuss the possibility of reconstructing the Lo main ancestral hall which had been

demolished during the Cultural Revolution. 7 This idea was supported by Lo kinsmen in

Hong Kong, especially those of the Tak and Wui-dian branches. In 1985, they decided to go ahead with the rebuilding of the main ancestral hall and within a few months, the

Los in Hong Kong had collected HK$180,000 while the people of Lo Village collected

RMB$20,000. 8

During the preparation for the rebuilding of the ancestral hall, the Lo Village's

Party branch secretary opposed the project, so the initial plan was only to build a

6 Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," 109. 7 Ancestral temples were demolished or converted to sleeping units, team headquarters, warehouses, or workshops during the 1960's. See Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 107; Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," 131. 8 In the Pearl River Delta, it was common for kinsmen from Hong Kong to donate money to rebuild the ancestral temples. Perhaps, "rituals connect overseas members with locals despite the differences stemming from their varied living." See Selina Ching Chan, "Selling the Ancestors' Land," Modern China 27 (2001): 276. See also Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Time of Change, 169. 248 monument to the Los. Some more senior kinsmen who were in charge of the project found out that villages in other counties had started rebuilding their ancestral halls, so they changed their minds and insisted on rebuilding the main ancestral hall. Those involved in the rebuilding project wanted to build on the original location, but houses had already been built on part it. Although most residents of the houses were Los they would not give any land for the ancestral hall, some even built concrete walls to protect their property.9 Eventually a site located close to the original site was selected. With regard to the structure of the ancestral hall, some elder members believed that it should be the same as the original while others agreed on a new design. Finally they decided to build a more modem main ancestral hall which caused some conflict.

The rebuilding project took place in 1986 and was completed by 1987. It was traditional for the most senior kinsmen to perform the opening ceremony, so Lo Yu-yan, aged 97, was invited to do so. However, he declined the honour as his wife had died, making his family incomplete. He believed that this would not make for a good and blessed opening for the ancestral hall. 10 So the village had to look for another candidate.

On the day of the opening of the hall, the Party branch secretary of Lo Village showed

9 As Madsen points out, villagers think of their immediate self-interests more than the collective interests. See Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village, 256. 10 As pointed out in Chapter 4, the idea of having a complete and harmonious family is of great importance to the villagers. See Yih-yuan Li, "In Search of Equilibrium and Harmony: On the Basic Value Orientations of Traditional Chinese Peasants," in Home Bound: Studies in East Asian Society, ed. Chie Nakane and Chien Chiao (Tokyo: The Centre for East Asian Cultural Studies, 1992), 127-47. 249 up as well as members of Lo lineages from other villages who came to offer their congratulations.

After the completion of the main ancestral hall, senior lineage members felt very grateful as they could now put the ancestral tablets in the new hall for them to worship, even though the tablets have only been drawn on a mirror instead of wood. During the

Spring and Autumn festivals, villagers come to the main ancestral hall to pay respect to their ancestors in addition to visiting their graves. 11 The main ancestral hall was also used for holding banquets or feasts, in celebration of Lo weddings or a new home. In addition whenever a baby boy is born, people will go to the ancestral hall in the first month of the Lunar year to light a lantern to show that a new Lo has been born.12 In more recent years, however, as the villagers have become more financially secure, whenever they have something to celebrate, in order to show off, they prefer to hold their feasts in a restaurant. The idea of holding a feast in the main ancestral hall so that more villagers can join in the celebration no longer seems valid. The importance of the ancestral hall seems to have diminished as the younger Los show little enthusiasm for ancestor worship.

11 On the revival of ancestor worship, see Martin King Whyte, "Introduction: Rural Economic Reforms and Chinese Family Patterns," The China Quarterly 131 (1992): 318. 12 For the practice of lighting the lantern in the ancestral halls, see James Watson, "Chinese Kinship reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research," The China Quarterly 92 (1982): 598. 250 The completion of the new ancestral hall was followed by the desire to recompile

the Lo genealogical book which was burnt during the Cultural Revolution. As the

original book had been destroyed, genealogical books which had been kept secretly by

some members of the Los or which had been smuggled into Hong Kong were used as references. In this way, they could record information on each ancestor, each branch and

each fang, although at times the data was not as accurate as they had hoped. They also

carried out interviews with every Lo household hoping that they could record information on all male members before and after 1949. After a few years of data collection, the new Lo genealogical book was completed in 1993.

In addition, elder kinsmen thought that there was a lack of recreational facilities in

Lo Village and hence in 1993, they decided to establish the Lo Village Fraternity Club where villagers could gather for meetings and relaxation as well as provide a place for members returning from Hong Kong during holidays. RMB$560,000 was collected for this facility with Lo kinsmen in Hong Kong donating RMB$220,000 and Lo Villagers

RMB$340,000. Perhaps as a result of improved economic conditions in the village, the money collected from Lo Village this time was much higher than from Hong Kong.

With this resurgence of the Lo power in the village, perhaps the Lo Village Party branch secretary began to feel that the power of the Lo lineage was getting too strong.

He told the Los that it would be unfair to use the name "Lo's Fraternity Association" as

251 there had been donors who were not Los. He, therefore, proposed to rename it the Lo

Village Fraternity Club instead so that everyone in Lo Village would be entitled to enjoy the facilities of the association. Despite this, all the initial committee members were Los, with the majority having been involved in rebuilding the main ancestral hall.

Although new committee members have been elected since then, all were still Los. 13

After 1949, due to political instability, around twenty branch ancestral halls in Lo

Village were completely destroyed with the exception of the Tak and Him branch halls which were left in better condition. The Tak branch had maintained close ties and perhaps this was why in 1995 they set the rebuilding of their own ancestral hall in motion. The four fangs of the Tak branch collected a total of RMB$340,000 from their kinsmen. By 1997, they had spent over RMB$200,000 and had finished the renovation of their ancestral hall. The remaining money has been kept by representatives chosen from among the four fangs and the interest gained is used to cover expenses for worship ceremonies during the Spring and Autumn festivals.

While senior members from the village were planning to rebuild the main ancestral hall, recompile the lineage genealogical book and establish the Lo Village

Fraternity Club, most households in the village had also begun to install their ancestor tablets again for use in ancestor worship. Some villagers even installed sacred tablets of

13 On the influence of lineage on local communities, see Rubie Watson, Inequality among Brothers: Class and Kinship in south China (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 88- 252 the God of Justice, the Goddess of Mercy and the God of Earth. Traditional religious activities which had been considered "feudal superstition" in the past such as feng shui and astrology have been revived. The temples of the God of Justice and the God of

Medicine were rebuilt at the end of 1996.14

The evening before these temples opened to the public, villagers invited a number of Taoist priests to hold the opening ceremony. Before the ceremony, many elderly women were already in the temples waiting for the opening ceremony to begin so that they could be the first to offer incense for the sacrifice in the hope of being the first to be blessed. The next day, Lo kinsmen from other villages were invited to celebrate the rebuilding of the two temples with a large parade. During the parade, senior villagers headed the representatives from other villages together with the lion and dragon dance teams as they paraded around the village. Whenever the procession reached a sacred site, they would stop to worship in order to gain blessings for their villagers. On the surface this might have appeared a purely religious activity but it was hoped that by inviting kinsmen from elsewhere to participate, that lineage bonds would be strengthened as a result. "Loosening of political control was bound to encourage the growth of traditional practices, especially those linked to family." 15

93. 14 This has been a common phenomenon in Guangdong and other rural areas in China. See Isabelle Thireau, "Recent Changes in a Guangdong Village," 308-9; Martin King Whyte, "Introduction: Rural Economic Reforms and Chinese Family Patterns," 318. 15 Ibid, 305. 253 2 The Revival of Higher-order Lineage

The re-grouping16 of Lo kinsmen in other villages took place in the 1980's. In

1995, on the thirteenth day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar, I joined Lo Hing- nam (the old villager whose story is discussed in Chapter 4) as he participated in a Lo lineage re-grouping function initiated by the Los of Chun Pak Village, a branch of the sixth generation of Los in Lo Village. Every year on the thirteenth day of the first month of the Lunar Calendar, they would invite their fellow kinsmen who had originated in Lo

Village to participate in this event. Elderly villagers recall that before the Liberation,

Chun Pak Village would organize this social gathering for the Los every year. It was because of the prohibition of all types of lineage activities by the Government after the

Liberation, that these activities had ceased being organized in past decades. In the mid

1980's, however, all fellow Lo kinsmen originally from Lo Village were contacted and this social gathering was re-organized.

16 The grouping of local lineages on the basis of their ancestors being all descended agnatically from a common ancestor is called a higher-order lineage. See Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung (New York: The Athlone Press, 1966), 20-1; See also James Watson, "Chinese Kinship reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research," 608. 254 Lo Hing-nam had told me about the details of this activity a couple of months before its commencement. He expressed the desire that I come with him to gain a deeper understanding of the revived lineage activities. I accepted his invitation without hesitation. So keen was Lo Hing-nam for me to join him that he frequently reminded me of the event, always encouraging me to take part.

At around seven o'clock on the morning of the gathering, when I was about to have my breakfast in a village restaurant, I saw Lo Hing-nam coming happily towards me from some distance away. He looked full of vigour and cheer, and he was more smartly dressed than usual. He wore a new, grey Chinese suit and a pair of new shoes.

He came up to me, with a smile on his face, and said,

"Hello, have you eaten your breakfast? If not, I will treat you this morning."

It was because he was in such a good mood that I could not refuse, and so we went into the restaurant together and had our breakfast. The restaurant was already filled with crowds of elderly villagers, who, like Lo Hing-nam, were all smartly dressed.

Even one old man who normally dressed shabbily wore a brand new suit and a pair of nicely polished shoes.

Immediately after having finished our breakfast we got on a coach which was parked in front of the village office and prepared to set off for Chun Pak Village. In addition to the coach, which carried about 60 passengers, there was a mini-bus which

255 had around twenty seats. Those attending this gathering were all males, with the majority being similar in age to Lo Hing-nam and only about ten of them being younger.

It was obvious that female could not take part in these lineage activities. It took about one and a half hour to travel from Lo Village to Chun Pak Village.

On the coach, I said to Lo Hing-nam, "Quite a lot of people are participating in today's activity."

He shook I¥s head, however, and said, "Several years ago even if we rented two big coaches we could hardly carry all the participants! There were so many participants that we had to be selective. But in the past two years the number of participants has been much fewer. Two years ago we brought two paper lions to Chun Pak Village, but this year we've only got one." Lack of a sufficient proportion of kinsmen to attend the lineage activities, to borrow Durkheim's idea, may result in the weakening of the collective conscience ofthe group. 17

Another elderly man who was sitting beside us also added, "Nobody's going to learn the lion dance! Today's youngsters don't like to learn these things. They think it's out-dated! Besides, there are so many new play things. In the past the lion dance team we sent gave an excellent performance, but now I'm afraid we are lagging behind." It seems that ''the development of local enterprises and, consequently, the transformation

17 Steven Lukes, Emile Durkheim: His Life and Work (London: Penguin, 1973), 4-6. 256 of many of the younger peasants into workers is also beginning to introduce new values

and new patterns ofbehaviour."18

While the old man was making these comments, he shook his head and was clearly disappointed. After that he talked with Lo Hing-nam about the happy memories of these types of functions in previous years. They recalled how lively these had been

and how enthusiastic the villagers had been to participate. They expressed regret at how today' s villagers had lost their enthusiasm for lineage activities.

When the coach arrived at the entrance to Chun Pak Village, we could see many brocade banners fluttering in the wind, and the villagers of Chun Park were performing a welcome lion dance. The air was punctuated by the sound of firecrackers being let off and the beating of gong and drum. When we got off the coach, the two Chun Pak

Village paper lions began to dance so as to lead the guests into the village, and we followed slowly on foot. After several minutes we arrived at the front door of the Chun

Pak Village office. The office was a modem three-storey building with colourful banners and strips of cloth hanging all around it. On the banners and strips the names of the villages represented at the gathering were marked. From these banners and strips I guessed that there were seven villages, including Lo Village, attending this gathering.

18 Isabelle Thireau, "Recent Changes in a Guangdong Village," 310. 257 There was a group of old people waiting outside the door of Chun Pak Village's

office to welcome the guests from other villages. 19 I saw that as Lo Hing-nam arrived at

the office, several old people came up and exchanged a few words of greeting with him.

It seemed that Lo Hing-nam was well acquainted with the elders of Chun Pak Village.

When Lo Hing-nam saw that I had a camera with me, he asked me in a very informal

manner to take photographs of himself and the elders of Chun Pak Village. When we

entered the foyer of the office, it was already filled with a big crowd of elders from the

different villages sitting around. Lo Hing-nam was busy greeting these elders as soon as

he entered the foyer. He sat on one side for a while and then went to the other side to

greet some other people. fudeed he knew quite a lot of people there. While he was

talking, he drew a pack of imported cigarettes from his pocket and passed it around, as this was not the time to offer his kinsmen local cheap cigarettes. While he was greeting people, he introduced me to the important representatives from the different villages.

After introducing the representatives to me, we sat down and Lo Hing-nam carefully took out a copy of the genealogical book of the Los of Lo Village, and said that he had to clarify kinship relations with an elder from another village. He took the book, approached the elder, and sat beside him. They carefully examined the pages together. After a while, he came back and told me that he had clarified the genealogical

19 Thireau points out that "old peasants have been the main agents of this resurgence of old customs, among other things because they are the only ones able to remember them." Ibid, 309. 258 rank of a group of kinsmen who were a branch of the Los. He then told me in detail how he had explained the genealogical ranking of this group of kinsmen to the other man.

The purpose of doing this was to show me how familiar he was with the family's genealogical relations. Although Lo Hing-nam had left school after primary one, he knew the relations between the branches and offshoots of the lineage recorded in the genealogy quite well. Generally speaking, older men around Lo Hing-nam's age, would attach more importance to the relative ranking of kinship relations. Most of them were able to identify who belonged to which branch, and which offshoot and from whom they were descended, and who were the elders. Lo Village's younger generation, however, did not attempt to understand these kinship relations because they did not give value to the matter of seniority and rank within kinship relations. Perhaps, "a new balance of power has emerged along with the development of factory labour, since [the younger generation], who contribute significantly to the household income, are claiming their say in family matters."20

After lunch, the crowd of villagers followed the paper lions to Chun Pak Village's ancestral hall to perform some worship ceremonies. Chun Pak Village had prepared three strings of firecrackers, several feet long to add to the gathering's festive atmosphere, the firing of which took about ten minutes. When they began to set the

20 Ibid, 304. 259 firecrackers off, I was looking around Chun Park Village's ancestral hall with LoRing- nam. The sound of firecrackers going off outside reverberated around the ancestral hall with a deafening effect.

Chun Pak Village's ancestral hall had been destroyed during the Cultural

Revolution. All that remained were a number of stone pillars. On the walls were some barely visible anti-feudalism slogans written in red paint, and memorial tablets of ancestors were on the floor. In comparison to the rebuilt ancestral hall in Lo Village, it was only a shell. Despite this, Lo Hing-nam thought that the revival of lineage activities in Lo Village has lagged behind that of Chun Pak Village.

"Although we have rebuilt our ancestral hall, people nowadays do not attach much importance to it. They will at most view it as the venue for holding a wedding feast. This year at Lunar New Year time somebody even suggested we organize functions in the Lo Village Fraternity Club rather than perform ancestral worship ceremonies there. I think they had forgotten the "Shizu" (Los' main ancestral hall).

They lack the spirit of unity. Every one is thinking only about his own interest." Each time Lo Hing-nam talked about the problem of their lineage development, he was querulous.

After performing the worship ceremonies, the paper lions started parading around the village led by the lions of Chun Pak Village, and followed by the villagers. While

260 the procession wound around the village, they let off firecrackers to add to the joyful

atmosphere. There were many small temples and memorial tablets throughout the

village and, although these had been destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, many

traces of the past remain. The introductory speech made by the villagers indicated that

behind every temple and memorial tablet lay a legend of how the gods or spirits of

remote ancestors had blessed and protected their descendants. Whenever the female

villagers passed these temples and memorial tablets, they would burn joss sticks and

perform ritual worship. Sometimes they would even bring along food such as roast pork with them and pray for blessings.

After parading around the village, it was nearly dusk and it was time to have

dinner. Chun Pak Village had arranged a Guangdong opera performance after dinner

and while the elders of Lo Village loved this arrangement, the younger generation

thought that the Guangdong opera was boring and so they went to the nearby Karaoke bars. In fact, they had not even participated in the village parade after lunch. Instead,

they had gathered at the place where we had had lunch and started gambling.

It was well after ten o'clock before the exhausted villagers set out for Lo Village,

after having enjoyed the Guangdong opera.

Participating in the Lo gathering conveyed the impression that Chun Pak Village was almost at the same stage of development as Lo Village. Most of the land in the

261 village had been filled and leveled and then given over to foreign investors for building

factories either by purchase or lease which is similar to most villages in the Pearl River

Delta. As a result of these villages being located near the main transportation route into

Shenzhen, the farmland around these villages had mainly been used for building

factories. No doubt this change will improve the standard of living of the villagers. In

the old days, cultivating the land was hard work and the income generated was limited.

Nowadays with the farmland given over to the building of factories, employment and

business opportunities in a variety of different industries had greatly improved.21 "As

rural production becomes increasingly capitalized and incorporated into the world-

system, non-subsistence production and wage labour have become increasingly

important. "22 The villagers no longer need to experience the hardship of being exposed to the elements. Therefore, the villagers in general, especially the younger generation, welcomed rural economic reform.

Although the Rural Economic Reform Policy had improved the living standard of the villagers, Lo Hing-nam thought these changes had many negative effects. He thought that the Rural Economic Reform Policy created the loss of Lo Village's

21 On the development of non-agricultural economy, see Victor Nee and Sijin Su, "Industrial Change and Economic Growth in China: The View from the Villages," The Journal of Asian Studies 49 (1990): 3-25; See also Ezra F. Vogel, One Step Ahead in China: Guangdong under Reform (Mas.: Harvard University Press, 1989), 161-95. 22 Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," 119. 262 farmland and left the villagers with nothing to fall back on if the economy became depressed and the factories shut down. Although most of the younger villagers did not agree with Lo Hing-nam's point of view, more elderly villagers did worry that if one day the industries collapsed, they would not be able to support themselves since Lo

Village had lost its farmland.

Apart from worrying about the possible problem of food supply in the future, Lo

Hing-nam was also dissatisfied with the method used to sell off the land. He pointed out that, before the Liberation, if a householder was going to sell his land, he had to inform his kinship brothers first to see if they were interested in buying it. Only if they showed no interest could he sell the land to an outsider. The present practice exercised by the village office was to sell the land to the highest bidder, hence, most of the farmland was being sold to foreigners and outsiders. Lo Hing-nam was not the only one who was discontented by this, other elderly villagers also thought that it was wrong. One gentle old villager, who did not normally get agitated, like Lo Hing-nam, also spoke angrily about this saying:

"They did this all for the sake of money. There is no distinction between family members and outsiders. Also, they did not care about the need of our village people.

There is no distinction between outsiders and our own people in doing business." The

263 emphasis of the distinction between outsiders and lineage members23 reveals that these

old people believe that kinship relations should be more important than any other social

relations.

Lo Hing-nam and the other old people could not accept that land was sold to the

highest bidder. They said that this method of doing things would destroy the long

established and trusted kinship and ethical relations. In fact their principle of transaction

and resource allocation criteria is what Fei calls "the differential mode of association"

( Chaxugeju) which means that any transaction should rest upon the closeness of the

genealogical distance. 24

What annoyed Lo Hing-nam the most about the enactment of the Rural Economic

Reform Policy was that youngsters no longer respected their elders, disregarding the

power of their parents.25 Indeed several times at Lo Hing-nam's barbershop, I heard his

nephews refer to him as ''Namji" or "Barber Nam" (which was similar to addressing him by his name) rather than as "Uncle". No doubt their treatment of senior family

23 On the social rural relations of outsiders and "one of us" (tsu-chi-jen), see Thomas Metzger, "The Western Concept of the Civil Society in the Context of Chinese History," Hoover Essays No. 21, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace (Stanford: Stanford University, 1998), 12-17; See also Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village, 56. 24 Xiaotong Fei, From the Soil: The Foundations of Chinese Society, a Translation of Fei Xiaotong's Xiangtu Zhongguo, trans. Gary G. Hamiltonand Wang Zheng (California: University of California Press, 1992), (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992), chap. 4. 25 On the fading of the patriarchs' power, see Minchuan Yang, "Reshaping Peasant Culture and Community: Rural Industrialization in a Chinese Village," Modern China 20 (1994): 172. 264 members made Lo Hing-nam feel that he did not enjoy the respect due him as a senior.

After his nephews left, he would say to me,

"Youngsters nowadays are useless, paying no respect to kinship rank. This is the result of losing our farm land." 26

Every time he talked about the matter of parents losing paternal power and respect he would be quite emphatic:

"In the days of tilling the land, parents controlled all financial resources. If I was to say 'yes', they would not have dared say 'no'. Now we do not cultivate the land. The youngsters can make money for themselves. They don't listen to their fathers' advice.

You are really lucky if they do not scold you. Now that they have money, they are free.

Therefore they have become evildoers, learning to patronize whorehouses, gambling and taking drugs. If parents have paternal power, how come these changes have come about? This is the result of losing our farmland." 27

Looking at these issues from Lo Hing-nam's point of view, the problems had all been caused by the loss of farmland after the enactment of the economic reform policy.

The rapid changes brought about by the Rural Economic Reform Policy introduced since 1979 have created influences of great complexity to Lo Village. These changes brought about great struggles particularly in traditional familial ethical

26 On the relationship of land and patriliny after rural economic reform, see Ellen Judd, "Land Divided, Land United," The China Quarterly 130 (1992): 338-56. 265 relationships. To Lo Hing-nam, who had lived under a traditional network of human relations for so long, the rapid changes of the past ten years made him feel that he could no longer make his judgment on human relations in terms of kinship as he had done in the past. Parents no longer had sole control over issues like marriage. Nowadays youngsters not only reject the arrangement made by their parents, they also oppose or even criticize their opinions. Although there has been a revival of lineage activities, some people have taken advantage of their kinship relation for personal gain. All these new attitudes run contrary to the traditional ethical relations which Lo Hing-nam firmly believed in. It was obvious that, although many years had passed, Lo Hing-nam still could not adapt to nor accept the changes that had taken place in daily life. He therefore had a negative view of the changes which the Rural Economic Reform Policy had brought about.

3 Rural Economic Reform and the Problem of Lo Lineage

Looking back over the development of Lo Village since the Rural Economic

Reform, the village's economic situation has improved enormously. Traditional lineage

27 Isabelle Thireau, "Recent Changes in a Guangdong Village," 310. 266 activities which had been suppressed for almost 30 years seem to have enjoyed a full revival, however senior kinsmen who have been involved in the rebuilding of the main ancestral hall and the establishment of the Lo Village Fraternity Club have begun to feel that their members have become much less enthusiastic about participating in lineage activities in recent years. They have the impression that the younger generation no longer pays attention to traditional lineage activities. Some even feel unhappy when they see some kinsmen giving up their family interests for the sake of individual interests. It seems that such worries and anxieties are not unreasonable. Under the impersonal force of market mechanism, traditional lineage values have begun to be challenged and perhaps Lo lineage will soon face a threat which is more serious than the political movement it faced in the past. In the following section a number of case studies will be used to exemplify the internal problems which the Lo lineage faces today.

During the Ching Ming Festival (Spring Festival) of 1994, I followed the four fangs of the Tak branch which numbered over 20 male members as they visited their ancestor's grave on the hills close to another town, situated about a 45-minute journey away from Lo Village. When we arrived, we still had about a 10-minute walk to reach the grave. This grave had originally been the exact shape of the Chinese character for

"master" (see Chapter 3). However, the front of the three parallel hills had already been dug into mounds and the shape of the word "master" no longer exists.

267 After our arrival, the men took their sickles and tidied the grass that covered the entire grave. Then they arranged the things they had brought for worship and sacrifices, such as roast pig, fruits, rice and rice wine, in front of Ancestor Tak's grave. They then started to burn incense and light fire crackers to invite their ancestors the worship. The members of each fang went to worship at the grave according to their rank and once the worship was over, they all sat down in front of the grave for a rest. Soon a few senior kinsmen began to discuss the matter of relocating the grave back to Lo Village. Those who favoured relocation claimed that the existing grave had already lost its advantage of feng shui and that their ancestor could no longer use this grave to bless them. 28 In addition, they argued that the grave was simply too far from Lo Village, a view shared by the younger kinsmen. Some other senior kinsmen disagreed, however, as they thought it would be a disrespectful act towards their ancestor. For them, filial piety to their ancestors is far more important than instrumental calculation. 29 In the end, they took a vote in front of Ancestor Tak's grave to decide. The majority agreed with the proposal to relocate the grave back to Lo Village.

28 On the pragmatic attitude of the villagers towards deities and ancestors in the Pearl River Delta, see Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Time of Change, 198. On the relationship between a location with good feng shui and the burial of ancestors, see Keith Hazelton, "Patrilines and the Development of Localized Lineages: The Wu of Hsiu-ning City, Hui-chou, to 1528," in Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, ed. Patricia Buckely Ebrey and James L. Watson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 155. 29 According to the pre-Liberation lineage practice, the worship of distant ancestors at graves during the Spring and Autumn Festivals was considered most filial. See Patricia Buckly Ebrey, "The Early Stages in the Development of Descent Group Organization," in Kinship

268 On their return to the village, the elder kinsmen who were against the idea of relocating the grave did not give up. They visited all four fangs of the Tak branch to try and convince the eldest kinsmen to give up the relocation project, however their efforts were in vain. As a result there has been increased conflict between all four fangs of the

Takbranch.

The elders who opposed the relocation were unhappy because they thought that their kinsmen had focused too much on their own individual interests in this matter.

While they accepted that their ancestors' grave had lost its advantage offeng shui, they thought that because he had rested there for more than a hundred years, a move could only be made after deep consideration and should not be governed by personal convenience as this was disrespectful. They were very disappointed that their fellow kinsmen had lost the familial ideal of respecting their ancestors. They also found the thought of the grave being too far away ridiculous, because in the past it had been far less convenient to reach the grave. Their predecessors had to go by bicycle or on foot while today modem transport vehicles were available. Yet there were fewer and fewer kinsmen engaging in ancestor worship. Those who advocated the relocation of the ancestral grave felt that those who opposed the idea were just being stubborn and had neglected the collective interests of the Tak branch as a whole.

Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, 21-3; See also Kenneth Ch'en, The Chinese Transformation ofBuddhism (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1973), 24-5. 269 One young member of the Tak branch who was interviewed on the subject of ancestor worship said that as early as the early 1980's their branch had already called on every kinsman, including those from Hong Kong, to worship at their ancestors grave twice every year. He remembered that one such occasion fell on a school day but because ancestor worship was so important to his kinsmen, his father told him to take the day off school to join in the worship. There had been about a hundred men attending the ancestral worship, many of whom had taken public transport while others had ridden on bicycles to the grave. He remembered they had had the largest number of participants in ancestor worship that year and this had made him feel that his branch was the most united one. As Watson points out, if lineage "members gather periodically, at a grave or in a hall, to celebrate rites of unity," this will lead to the development of the consciousness ofbeing in a group.30

From interviews and observation in recent years, this young man, however seems to be an exception as more and more people have concerned themselves with their own business and neglected their lineage duties. Now they even suggested relocating their ancestors' grave. It is, therefore little wonder that elder kinsmen of the Tak branch have felt that respect for their ancestors has been decreasing.

30 James Watson, "Chinese Kinship reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research," 5 97. 270 Another incident of grave relocation took place in 1996. This time it concerned

the 11th and 15th generation ancestors' graves which were located near the garden of the

Party branch secretary of Lo Village. The elder kinsmen who made the relocation

proposal thought that the location of the two graves had been satisfactory in the past,

but because of the construction of factories nearby, their feng shui had been disrupted.

In this case a number of branches of the Lo lineage were involved. Young kinsmen had

little interest in such matters in general, so the decision was left to the elder kinsmen of

each branch concerned. Those against the idea held similar views to those who opposed

the relocation of Ancestor Tak's grave. These elder kinsmen suspected that it was the

secretary who wanted the two graves removed and not because of the idea offeng shui.

Some even claimed that the project was a gesture of support for the Party branch

secretary in return for personal favours which resulted in a fierce argument between the

two parties.

It was said by some villagers that the Party branch secretary had very strong

beliefs in feng shui and that, from a feng shui point of view, having these ancestral

graves so close to his back garden would bring him bad luck. Hence it was his aim to have the two graves moved. He had already used the excuse of extending the area of

factory construction in the early 1990's to suggest relocating the two graves, but he had met very strong Lo opposition at that time. In 1996, he brought the matter up again and

271 this time he seems to have taken a more subtle approach by first discussing his request with those elder kinsmen who were in charge of the Lo Village Fraternity Club as well as with those he was on good terms with. It was these elder villagers who pointed out to their young people that there were some feng shui problems with the graves and suggested they should relocate them.

When these elder kinsmen were interviewed about the feng shui problem regarding the graves, it became clear that they had never asked a feng shui master to investigate the feng shui of the two graves. Their opinions about the graves' feng shui were very superficial, based solely on the assumption that the proximity of the factories would bring bad luck. When they were questioned, it became apparent that a feng shui master had been consulted but only with regard to finding a suitable place to relocate the graves, not to investigate the original location. In addition it was known among the villagers that these elders had a good relationship with the Party branch secretary, with a son of one of them becoming a factory manager, an appointment which was normally made by the Party branch secretary. Another man's son was also known to have received favours :from the Secretary. While there is no direct proof, it is possible to suggest that these elder villagers received personal favours :from this incident.

Although these two cases are not identical, there are similarities. In both cases, the motive for relocation was due to feng shui in the sense that ancestral graves were there

272 to bless the offspring. Those who were against moving the graves believed that it would be a disrespectful act towards their ancestors since ancestor burial should not be treated as a means for obtaining blessing. In both cases, young people cared little. In the case of

Ancestor Tak's grave, the young people supported the move partly for their own convenience, and in the case of the relocation of the 11th and 15th generation ancestral graves, the young did not even participate in the discussion. Most of them regarded the relocation of ancestral graves as unimportant or merely a waste of time. From the evidence, therefore, one can tell that for the most part, young people no longer care about the problem of re-burial of their ancestors or ancestor worship.

By citing the above cases, this Chapter seeks to highlight the fact that as the economy of Lo Village continues to develop rapidly, the tension between commitment to traditional familial ideals of respecting one's ancestors and the consideration of individual interests has become increasingly intense. This can also be seen from the following example.

In 1997 when the ancestral hall of the Tak branch had been completed, there was a banquet held in the ancestral hall to mark its re-opening. All the kinsmen from every fang of the Tak branch attended and representatives from every Lo lineage branch, factory managers, the village secretary and village committee members were all invited to attend the celebration banquet. The Tak kinsmen seemed to be very pleased, some of

273 them even felt proud because this was the only branch ancestral hall in the village which had been rebuilt. The process of rebuilding the Tak branch's ancestral hall had been terribly complicated. During the years of anti-feudalism, most ancestral halls were demolished, and those which were not were allocated as accommodation to poor peasants. The Tak ancestral hall was allocated to four households. Two of these households belonged to the Cheung family and the other two were Los. Because they had rights over the use of the property, in order to rebuild the ancestral hall their user rights had to be bought back through the village government. Members of the Tak branch started discussing the rebuilding of the hall as early as 1995, however, because of the negotiations they had when trying to buy back the user rights, it took them over two years to complete the rebuilding of the ancestral hall. It might be assumed that negotiations were problematic with the Cheung households but in fact the problem occurred due to internal conflicts within the Tak branches which were represented by the Lo households.

The two Cheung households were very co-operative, moving out very early in the negotiations. One of these families who had a relationship with the fourth fang of the

Tak branch even donated the R.MB$20,000 they had received for surrendering their user rights to the rebuilding of the ancestral hall. In addition one of the Lo households, which belonged to the fourth fang, immediately gave up their user rights when they realized

274 the purpose of the project. Uncle Shing who belonged to the third fang of the Tak branch, however, saw things differently. He felt that it was unfair to use RMB$20,000 in exchange for his user right. He wanted the Tak kinsmen to give him a piece of land in exchange for his user right. Uncle Shing was the representative of the third fang and took an active part in the matter of rebuilding the ancestral hall, yet because of his 25% user right to the hall, he ended up in sharp conflict with the other fangs of the Tak branch. As a result the planned rebuilding of the hall was put off for over a year. The dispute was only brought to an end when a third fang kinsman from Hong Kong who wish to see the ancestral hall completed, bought a piece of land worth around

RMB$80,000 in exchange for Uncle Shing's user rights. It was only after this that the hall was restored. Most people were very unhappy at Uncle Shing' s behaviour which they thought was selfish and so a list of donors and a record of the expenditure for the rebuilding of the ancestral hall were sent to the villagers on the day of the opening ceremony banquet. They recorded the transaction with Uncle Shing and how he had demanded a piece of land in exchange for his user rights. This was intended to have him lose face.

It was not uncommon to see such disputes with individuals who looked after their own interests. For instance, during the process of building the Lo Village Fraternity

Club, the branch leader Uncle Bo, who was in charge of buying the materials and

275 supervising the construction process, was found to have pocketed public funds. In addition while the two temples were being rebuilt, there were many similar disputes.

This type of activity has made some elder kinsmen feel so disillusioned by the revival of lineage activities that some of them no longer participate.

Perhaps the dispute over relocating Ancestor Tak's grave is not significant enough to show the extent to which people have become more interested in calculating personal gain than in expressing their commitment and respect for their ancestor, yet we can observe that the whole reason for re-burying ancestors peacefully should be to receive blessings from the ancestors. It is obvious from the matter of relocating the 11th and 15th generations ancestral graves that some people have sought to benefit from it. The dispute on the user rights over the Tak branch's ancestral hall clearly reveals how some individuals emphasize their own interests at the expense of the whole branch's welfare.

To some extent, all these examples show the tension between the emphasis on individual interests and the commitment to traditional lineage values. Perhaps this tension comes from the challenge created by economic reform in rural areas to the traditional lineage culture.

4 Conclusion

276 In 1949, fanning was still the major economic activity in Lo Village and one cannot deny that the social order of the village rested upon the normative standard of the traditional lineage culture. In lineage culture, there exists the concept of five human relationships between; sovereign and subjects, father and sons, husband and wife, among brothers and, fmally, among friends. 31 These relationships form a "differential mode of association."(Chaxugeju) 32 Under these relationships, all interpersonal relationships in people's daily lives are defined according to rank and position within the family and degree of closeness. When living under the family structure of a differential mode of association, considerations of personal preferences and values are usually balanced by the benefits the whole family would enjoy. For instance, when discussing the issues of choosing a spouse and reproduction within marriage it is far more important to consider extending the ancestral line than to consider individual preference and desire. The calculation of individual interests or allocation of resources is based on the "closeness" of the relationship within the family. If the interests are related to business, then an individual must first take care of his own family members.

31 On the five human relationships, see See Walter H. Slote, "Psychoculttrral Dynamics within the Confucian Family," in Confucianism and the Family, ed. Walter H. Slote and George A. DeVos (New York: State University of New York Press, 1998), 37-51; See also Wei-Ming Tu, "Probing the 'Three Bonds' and 'Five Relationships' in Confucian Humanism," in Confucianism and the Family, 121-36. 32 Xiaotong, Fei, From the Soil, chap. 4. 277 The interpretation of the term "family members" is not strictly defined, however, it can mean members of two generations within a family, or else it can refer to the brothers of each fang within the same branch. In addition, it can broadly refer to every member of the lineage. Conflict of interest often results in an extension to, or the splitting of, the network of "differential mode of relationship." For example, when the members of Lo lineage in Lo Village are in dispute with members from another village on property matters, all kinsmen of Lo lineage will be counted as "family'' and will unite to combat the "outsiders". Whereas in the case of the Tak branch and the Wui-dian branch in dispute over arable land, then members of the Tak branch will be considered as one family and members of the Wui-dian branch will be considered as another family.

To some extent, the formation of lineage branches mentioned in Chapter 3 can be said to be a split in the differential mode of association in terms of defining the difference between "family members" and "outsiders" when there are conflicts of interest. No matter how far "family member" is defined by the differential mode of relationship, once an individual is considered inside the network of the differential mode of association, his personal preference or consideration of personal interests should be subsumed for the entire network's good.

In short, the network relationship is still built upon the traditional family framework. Take the Tak branch as an example, the descendants of the four fangs of the

278 Tak branch differentiate themselves from the Ancestor Wui-Mok branch and become the Tak branch. Although there are conflicts of interest, or competition for resources with other lineages within the Tak branch, members have to comply with the ideal of the five human relationships such as good father and respectful sons, and younger ones should pay respect to the elder ones. Tak branch welfare as a whole should supercede any member's individual interests. These traditional relationships of a rural society, and particularly in southeast China have come under severe pressure in recent years.

The economic development of Lo Village over the past decade or so has not only improved the living standards of its people but also changed their lifestyle. At the beginning of the Rural Economic Refonn, those who ran businesses would usually take care of their "family members". Those who worked in factories would certainly recommend their own family members for employment. Those who operated haulage companies would normally ask their brothers or members of their own family for help.

The concept of taking care of"family members", however, is undergoing change. Most businesses are still run by ''their own people" (family members), but the relationship is no longer the brotherhood relationship of the traditional differential mode of association.

The relationship has become part of a business "partnership" based on contractual

279 relations.33 Under the influence of the market economy, there is a move towards market based transactions which are replacing traditional economic transactions. This can be seen in the selling and buying of fannlands where in the past, family members would be considered to be acting reasonably and fairly if they first tried to sell to family or branch members. Priority was based on the "closeness" of relationship within the network of the differential mode of association. Now who bids the highest price will get the land.

The dispute over the user rights of the Tak branch's ancestral hall seems to reflect this change. Regardless of the benefit to the entire family, Uncle Shing decided to exchange his user rights based on the market value for his personal gain. When the Rural

Economic Reform was new, Uncle Shing's decision may have caused others to despise him, however, those who criticized Uncle Shing were mainly the elder kinsmen.

Indeed the younger kinsmen had different opinions on the matter. As mentioned in the previous section, nowadays young villagers are no longer interested in lineage matters, and lineage values to them are less important than to those old villagers such as

Lo Hing-nam. One young villager thought that Uncle Shing's decision should not be considered as "selfish", rather as he owned the user rights, he had the right to decide whether to sell his rights based on its market value or donate it. He further commented that those who had asked Uncle Shing to hand over his user right for RMB$20,000 were

33 Elisabeth Croll calls this kind of economic relationship between inter-family members the "aggregate family. See Elisabeth Croll, From Heaven to Earth: Images and Experiences of 280 in fact much more unreasonable. This young villager's personal opinion seems to show that, for the younger generation, it is more important to protect one's individual interests than to protect the branch's welfare. Certainly, this point of view may not be supported by everyone, yet it does indicate that for some villagers, the emphasis on individual interests now takes precedence over the norms of traditional lineage culture and that this may be a direct result of the prosperity brought about by the Rural Economic Reform.

In the past, the calculation of personal interests has only caused the lineage to break down into existing branches, but now it has caused the traditional interpersonal relationships within the differential mode of association to dissolve slowly. As a result, the relationship between the individual and the family network is no longer as strong as it was before 1949. Perhaps it is for this reason that Lo Village's Party branch secretary

1 managed to move the Lo's l1 h and 15th ancestors' graves.

Although the Lo lineage in Lo Village has enjoyed a revival since the mid-1980's, with the changes brought by the market economy, it seems that the Lo lineage is facing yet another crisis. Indeed apart from those elder kinsmen who complain that people are becoming less and less aware of the importance of the traditional ideals, some villagers even point out that the relationship among lineage members is not as intimate as in the past. Individuals are increasingly looking out for their own interests. To some extent, it

Development in China (London: Routledge, 1994), 172-4. 281 shows that there have been changes in the way villagers understand themselves. The influence brought about by the impersonal force of the market mechanism has not only gradually replaced the concept of the five human relationships in economic transactions but also in people's daily lives. The traditional norms which are based on the five human relationships are no longer the sole guide to one's behaviour and so the influence of the traditional lineage culture has diminished. Under such circumstances, it is little wonder that elder kinsmen in the village are getting worried as it seems that under the impact of the market economy, the Lo lineage is facing an internal crisis which is more severe than the political crisis of the Cultural Revolution. Economic modernization has had huge effects on the lifeworld. With the rapidly growing influence of instrumental rationality, the kinship-based social relations which were revived in the 1980's have been shattered and traditional lineage values replaced by individual self-interest.

In the past when kinship relations dominated rural social relation, the emphasis on the unique family value of ties between kinsmen led to a shortage of civil behaviour. 34

There were only two extreme relations, the kinsmen that should be trusted and the outsiders that should be interacted with instrumentally. With the diminishing of lineage culture, would the impersonal force of market mechanism transform the close rural social relationship into a civic one? This project cannot provide data to answer this

34 Thomas Metzger, "The Western Concept of the Civil Society in the Context of Chinese History," 13. 282 question. Based on Metzger's understanding, however, the answer is negative. As he points out, even Taiwan, a highly modernized society, still lacks "cordiality" or

"fellowship" as a middle ground between love for family members and instrumental use of "outsiders". 35

35 1bid, 14-7. 283 CHAPTERS

FOLK RELIGION

Since the implementation of the Rural Economic Reform, there has been a rapid revival in folk religions in Lo Village. Ancestral halls and temples have been rebuilt and ancestral altars have been set up in every house. Statues of deities, particularly of the goddess of mercy and the god of justice, have been installed in altars in every newly opened business or restaurant. 1 Most female villagers go to worship deities in the temples twice a month, with some even finding shamans to communicate with the deities whenever they have problems to solve. The activities relating to folk religion have again become an important part of social life since 1979.

Folk religions, particularly those in rural areas of China, have been considered by

Yang as a form of diffused religious practice in contrast to the structural pattern of the

Christian world of the west. He maintains that folk religion lacks the "structural

1 Research works show that folk religion has flourished since 1979. See Stephan Feuchtwang, "Local Religion and Village Identity," in Unity and Diversity: Local Cultures and Identities in China, ed. Tao Tao Liu and David Faure (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1996); Stephan Feuchtwang, "Religion as Resistance," in Chinese Societies: Change, Conflict and Resistance, ed. Elizabeth J. Perry and Mark Selden (London: Routledge, 2000); Andrew B. Kipnis, "The Flourishing of Religion in Post-Mao China and the Anthropological Category of Religion," The Australian Journal of Anthropology 12 (2001): 32-46; Arthur Waldron, "Religious Revivals in Communist China," Orbis 42 (1998): 325. 284 prominence of a formally organized religious system in the institutional framework of

Chinese society." He also cites Weber who considered folk religion in China to be the

worship of "a chaotic mass of functional gods."2 In fact it means that folk religion in

China is eclectic.

Yang's characterization is to a very great extent close to reality, particularly in the

rural areas. The revived folk religions within Lo Village have no formal organization,

neither do they have any well-structured system of beliefs. At times they are a

combination of magical powers and the integration of doctrinal elements of

Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Even though folk religions are diffused, their

influence on the structures of lineage is pervasive. 3 In what follows, the most popular

religious practices among the Lo villagers will be discussed. These are ancestor worship,

temple worship, and shamanism. Through the elaboration of these religious practices,

we hope to arrive at the conclusion that these revived folk religions, in the course of

economic modernization, reinforce traditional lineage relations and lineage ideologies.

2 C.K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society: A study ofContemporary Social Functions ofReligion and Some ofTheir Historical Factors (Calif.: University of California Press, 1970), 20. 3 The earliest work on religious system and kinship situation is that of Margaret Mead, Growing up in New Guinea (New York: William Morrow, 1930), 70. Fortes also expresses the same view: "In the most general terms, therefore, the ancestor cult is the transposition to the religious place of the relationships of parents and children; and that is what I mean by describing it as the ritualization of filial piety." See M. F. Fortes, Oedipus and Job in West African Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1959), 30; See also Francis L.K. Hsu, Rugged Individualism Reconsidered: Essays in Psychological Anthropology (Knoxville: The University ofTennessee Press, 1983), 251-62. 285 1 Ancestor Worship

In Lo Village, ancestor worship has three forms, ancestor tablet worship, grave worship and worship at ancestral halls. 4

Before 1949, there were tablets of ancestors found in every home, however, after

1949, and especially during the Cultural Revolution, all ancestor worship activities were banned. As it was the Central Government's policy, 5 this also happened in other villages in Guangdong. 6 After the Rural Economic Reform, most families in Lo Village installed the tablets of their ancestors again.

In the past, ancestral tablets were placed in a prominent position in the living room,7 but now the tablets are placed according to individual preference, the structure of the shrine, however, is more or less the same. Tablets are placed inside a meter high special red wooden case with three shelves. The statue of a deity they trust most e.g.

4 C. Steven Harrell, "The Ancestors at Home: Domestic Worship in a Land-Poor Taiwanese Village," in Ancestors, ed. William H. Newell (Chicago: Aldine Publishing Company, 1976), 373; See also Maurice Freedman, "Ancestor Worship: Two Facets of the Chinese Case," in Social Organization: Essays Presented to Raymond Firth, ed. Maurice Freedman (London: Frank Cass, 1967). 5 On Govemement's policy towards religious practices during the Cultural Revolution, see Presenjit Duara, "Superscribing Symbols: The Myth of Guandi, Chinese God of War," The Journal ofAsian Studies 50 (1988), 780; C. K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society, 363-77. 6 See Helen Siu, Agents and Victims in South China: Accomplices in Rural Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989), 168; C. K. Yang, Chinese Communist Society: The Family and the Village (Mas.: MIT Press, 1959), 196. 7 In the past, this was a common practice in Guangdong. See H.G.H. Nelson, "Ancestor Worship and Burial Practices," in Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, ed. Arthur P. Wolf 286 Guan Gong (god of justice) or Guan Yin (the goddess of mercy) is placed on the top shelf. These deities are worshipped with joss sticks on the first and fifteenth days of every month. Some villagers may worship twice a day, in the morning and in the evening.8

Ancestral tablets are placed on the second shelf. fu the middle of the tablets, words like "tablets of the ancestor of one's family" are written. On the left and right sides of the tablets are couplets placed in praise of the ancestors' contribution to the successful extension and growth of the family line. An incense burner and oil lamp are placed in front of the ancestors' tablets, where the ancestors should be worshipped with joss sticks at least each morning but preferably more often. Some devout worshippers prepare either some chicken or a piece of roasted pork, wine, rice and fruits to be placed at the shrine, on the morning of the ftrst and fifteenth days of every month. In addition to using joss sticks in worship, they also light oil lamps to worship their ancestors. Ifthe above more elaborate worship ceremony cannot be performed, they will at least light an oil lamp on the first and fifteenth days of the month.

The tablet of the deity, Tudigong (deity of the earth) is placed on the lowest shelf.

He is believed to be responsible for protecting the house and keeping it peaceful. There

(Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1974), 268. 8 According to Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, this kind of domestic worship is common in the Pearl River Delta. See Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Time of Change (Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000), 149. 287 are no rules on how to worship him or any dates set apart for his worship, however, people normally worship him during Ching Ming or Chung Yeung Festivals.

Many people throughout Guangdong Province, including the people of Lo

Village believe that setting up ancestor tablets is a filial duty and that it shows filial piety, which reflects their attitude to the memory of their dead ancestors, and as such is a moral responsibility. People also believe that if they worship at their ancestors' tablets, those ancestors will live in their home and take care of and protect them. 9 There are many legends about how ancestors have protected their descendants. One is a story about a wandering ghost, who was the mother of a married woman. Once, this woman went back to her natal family and found a shaman to perform a spiritualist ceremony on her husband's family. When she went home with the shaman, the shaman saw an elderly female ghost following the woman. The shaman found that the ghost was actually the woman's mother who was not worshipped properly and hence had become a wandering ghost. When they reached home, the shaman observed a spirit who was the dead ancestor of the woman's husband blocking the ghost so she could not enter the house with her daughter. Although the ghost was the woman's mother and was also a relative of the dead ancestor, spirits who do not belong to the father's side are all considered harmful ghosts and so the dead ancestor who lived in his descendants' house would not

9 Maurice Freedman, "Ancestor Worship: Two Facets of the Chinese Case"; Yih-yuan Li, Wen Hua De Tu Xiang (Xia) : Zong Jiao Yu Qun Zu De Wen Hua Guan Cha (Picture of Culture (2): 288 allow the ghost to get in the house. 10 When villagers discuss this story, they all believe that if their ancestors are worshipped with their tablets at home, they will stop ghosts from getting through the door and so protect their descendants.

Lo villagers believe deeply that the spirits of dead ancestors live in their descendants' houses and protect them, therefore, whenever they move to another house, there will be a ceremony performed to invite the ancestor spirits of the previous occupants to leave the house. If such a ceremony is not performed the spirits will be harmful because they do not belong to that family. If the house is new, however, there is no need for such a ceremony as there will not be any spirits there.

As villagers believe that ancestors protect their descendants, it is the descendants' responsibility to worship the ancestors' tablets. Traditionally, people believe that if one does not have any descendants, one cannot have a tablet after death and will become a ghost that no one worships. The spirit will not have joss sticks and symbolic money burnt to it, neither will it have any food to eat, thus it will be tortured by poverty. These poor and wandering ghosts can only wait until the fifteenth of July each year to have food and paper clothes and money, as on that day, the door of hell opens, and they can receive people's donations. Thus villagers who have no sons are afraid of the sufferings they will endure when they become ghosts, and so they adopt sons in the hope that they

Cultural Observation of Religion and Clan) (Taipei: Yun Chen Wen Hua, 1992), 184-209. 10 Arthur P. Wolf, "Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors," in Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, ed. 289 will worship them after they die. Those who follow traditional folk religions are, therefore, saying that having descendants means a worshipping ceremony can be carried on continuously from generation to generation, and that after death they can be worshipped eternally. When discussing the question of worshipping ancestors, Hsu points out that the Chinese are based on a mutual relationship with their ancestors:

"[M]utual dependence runs through the Chinese idea of relationship with

ancestral spirits .... A Chinese is as dependent upon his ancestor as the latter

are upon him. He is also dependent upon the gods for protection and other

forms of assistance which an authority can bestow, but the gods must look

to him for provision and reverence."11

Emily Ahem, however, in her work on the cult of the dead describes this mutual relationship as an instrumental relationship. 12 She believes that ancestors are not by nature benevolent. They are good to their descendants only on the condition that their living descendants treat them well otherwise they punish them. Equally, descendants are good to their ancestors on an instrumental basis. As a result she also argues by citing her data that setting up ancestors' tablets is closely related to inheriting property. Freedman and Wolf, however, do not agree with either Hsu or Ahem but maintain that only under

Arthur P. Wolf (California, Stanford University Press, 1974). 11 Francis L.K. Hsu, Americans and Chinese, 253. 12 Emily Ahern, The Cult ofthe Dead in a Chinese Village (Stanford University Press, 1973). 290 certain conditions will dead ancestors treat their descendants kindly. 13 In Lo Village and in other villages throughout Guangdong Province, there are many stories about descendants who have not worshipped their ancestors properly and a family member has become sick as a result. It is only after appropriate worship has been carried out that the illness will be cured. The conditional nature of ancestor worship can also be clearly seen in grave worship.

Lo Village's ancestors graveyard is situated on a hillside to the south east of the village, close to the industrial area. Grave worship can be divided into two types. In the first type, villagers worship their deceased fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers.

In the second type, they worship the ancestors of their lineage branch and their main ancestors as we11. 14 In Lo Village, fathers, grandfathers and great grandfathers are worshipped on the days of the Spring and Autumn Festivals. At the Ching Ming and

Chung Yeung Festivals, descendants bring sacrifices including gold pig (roasted pig), rice, fruit, wine, paper gold, paper silver, symbolic money and firecrackers with them.

13 Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society: Fukien and Kwangtung (London: Athlone Press, 1966); Arthur P. Wolf, "Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors." 14 The worship at graves is indeed the concern of both families and lineages. Patricia Bucldy Ebrey, "The Early Stages in the Development of Descent Group Organization," in Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, ed. Patricia Buckely Ebrey and James L. Watson (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986), 21-3; Emily Ahern, The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village, 163-190; Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China (London: Athlone Press, 1958), 81-91; Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, 118-54; Maurice Freedman, "On the Sociological Study of Chinese Religion," in Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, 19-41; Jack Potter, "Wind, Water, Bones, and Souls: The Religious World of the Cantonese Peasant," Journal of Oriental Studies 71 (1970): 139-53; C.K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society, 33-40. 291 When they arrive at the graveyard, descendants bow and worship their ancestors according to their seniority in the family. After this, they burn gold and silver paper and paper money, believing that these will be sent to their ancestors. Worshipping ancestors is a traditional rite performed in memory of ancestors and to show respect for them. It is also a way of showing that descendants are following the principles of filial piety. 15

After observing grave worship in Lo Village, however, it was found that villagers believe that the more sacrifices they offer to their ancestors the more care and blessing they will receive.

This instrumental attitude to ancestor worship can also be seen in choosing the feng shui16 of a grave in Lo Village and other villages throughout Guangdong. It is important to choose a grave with good feng shui.17 In the past villagers who passed the imperial examinations in ancient China and became officials, or those who were successful in business would find a grave for their deceased fathers or for themselves, believing that their descendants would be protected as a result. Even today rich villagers will buy graves with good feng shui before they die and some poor villagers try to

15 Maurice Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China, 81-91. 16 Keith Hazelton, "Patrilines and the Development of Localized Lineages: The Wu of Hsiu-ning City, Hui-chou, to 1528," in Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China, 1000-1940, 155. 17 Choosing a location with good feng shui to bury dead ancestors is a common practice in southeastern China. See Goran Aijmer, Burial, Ancestors and Geomancy among the Ma On Shan Hakka, New Territories of Hong Kong, Discussion in Social Anthropology and Culture History, No. 9 (Gothenburg: ISSA[University of Gothenburg, 1993]), 6; H.G.H. Nelson, "Ancestor Worship and Burial Practices," 273-4. 292 follow suit.

If a family is so poor that they are unable to find a good feng shui location for their deceased fathers, they have to bury their deceased father in the village graveyard.

Here, however, the appearance of the graves is quite different. Usually, graves are covered with cement, but here apart from the tablet of stone on which the name is written, the grave is covered with earth. This kind of grave has two drawbacks. Firstly, when it is the rainy season, the tomb can easily be washed away or the appearance of the grave destroyed. Secondly, weeds will spread and grow all over the grave so the descendants will have to spend a lot of time removing them. In order to avoid the above problems, most of the graves are covered with cement. One poor family did not want their ancestor's grave to be covered with cement believing this to be bad for the grave's feng shui which would exert a hannful effect on the descendants. This example seems to show that feng shui is more important than having a rigid and tidy grave for a dead ancestor and that ancestor worship is about conditional respect and memorial activities.

In the previous chapter, there are examples showing that some descendants even dig the bodies of their ancestors up, then transfer them to another place in order to benefit themselves.

After ancestors are buried in the grave for seven or eight years, descendants will dig their bones up and leave them in a "golden tower", because bones will decay if they

293 are buried in the grave for a long time. Only if the grave has very good feng shui where the descendants believe that the ancestors will live there comfortably and will protect them will they leave the bones there forever. 18 The first ancestor of Lo lineage in Lo

Village was buried in a grave with good feng shui, therefore his bones have never been dug up.

The bones that are dug up are called Jin (gold), and digging up bones is known as

Jue Jin (digging up gold). Descendants have to clean the "gold" after it is taken out from the grave and leave them to dry in the sun. Then, they place the "gold" back in a golden tower, which is then put back in the grave. Descendants do not bury the golden tower in the ground again, as this would make their ancestors very unhappy, since they believe that bones buried underground will decay in one day if it is not a place with good feng shui. Some rich villagers use cement to build a new tomb with an open space and place the golden tower there. By doing so, they can take the bones out and clean them conveniently at the Spring and Autumn ancestral sacrifices. This kind of tomb with their gold towers can be found everywhere in the Lo graveyard. Some huge tombs,

18 Concerning the Chinese double burial system and its relationship withfeng shui, see Goran Aijmer, Burial, Ancestors and Geomancy among the Ma On Shan Hakka, 10-11; H.G.H. Nelson, "Ancestor Worship and Burial Practices,"273-6; James L. Watson, "Of Flesh and Bones: The Management of Death Pollution in Cantonese Society," in Death and the Regeneration of Life, ed. Maurice Bloch and Jonathan Parry (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 155-86; B. D. Wilson, "Chinese Burial Customs in Hong Kong," Journal ofthe Hong Kong ofthe Royal Asiatic Society 1 (1961): 115-23; Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, 118-54; Jack Potter, "Wind, Water, Bones, and Souls: The Religious World of the Cantonese Peasant," 139-53; Emily Ahem, The Cult ofthe Dead in a Chinese Village, 175-90. 294 with twenty to thirty golden towers containing the bones of ancestors of the same lineage branch can also be seen. Making these huge tombs for ancestors of the same lineage is convenient for the branch members when it comes to sacrifices during ancestor worship.

After the bones have been dug up, descendants then find a place with good [eng shui and bury the bones there. This can clearly shows that descendants make use of their ancestors. Most Lo villagers believe that if the bones of their ancestors were to decay or were in poor shapes, that this would be irreverent to the ancestors. In order to preserve the bones and keep them in good shape, therefore, descendants dig the bones up, and wash and dry them once a year, otherwise, the ancestors would be very uncomfortable.

If the descendants find a goodfeng shui place, however, they will rebury their ancestors' bones underground. By doing so, it seems that they are neglecting the welfare of their dead ancestors as the bones will decay in the underground in one day. The elderly villagers explained, however, that ancestors are responsible for the protection of their descendants, and if there is a grave with good [eng shui, ancestors will not complain or play tricks on their descendants. In addition they believe that ancestors can "live" in a grave with good [eng shui more comfortably than in other graves. This shows once again that the villagers appear to make use of ancestors instrumentally in order to fulfill their needs.

295 Apart from Hsu, some Chinese anthropologists such as Li maintain that the choice of a place with good feng shui does not always show that descendants are making use of ancestors. Conversely, in order to benefit their descendants, some ancestors choose a goodfeng shui grave before they die. Their descendants can benefit them in turn, if they make a fortune. 19 This shows that it is not only descendants who make use of ancestors, but ancestors also make use of descendants. This agrees with Freedman when he says that ancestors protect descendants conditionally. 20

Ancestor worship, particularly grave worship, is exclusively male. Only women who have just married will worship ancestors, as they have to be introduced to their husband's family including the dead ancestors. In addition, girls can also participate in grave worship but only when they are young. They do not need to join in the ceremonies when they grow up. Thus in Lo Village, women do not have to participate in worshipping their natal family's ancestors. They are only responsible for worship at the tablets of their husband's ancestors in the home.

Worship of ancestors of the lineage branch, is also exclusively male. This worship is carried out in the Spring and Autumn Festivals, when members of every lineage branch gather together and bring golden pig (roasted pig) and all kinds of sacrifices to

19 Yih-yuan Li, "Chinese Geomancy and Ancestor Worship: A Further Discussion," m Ancestors, 329-38. 20 Maurine Freedman, Lineage Organization in Southeastern China. 296 the graves of ancestors in the lineage branch before or after the Ching Ming Festival or the Chung Yeung Festival. The ceremony is the same as the father or grandfather worship, the only difference is that after the worship they will bring the golden pig and sacrifices back to the branch halls to perform ancestral sacrifices.

In Lo Village, every lineage branch had its own hall fot ancestor worship. Apart from the main ancestor hall, there used to be twenty-two lineage branches in all and twenty-two halls, however, the main ancestor's hall and most of the lineage branch halls were destroyed during the Cultural Revolution, with houses replacing the halls. Only two halls were not destroyed, those of the eleventh and eighteenth ancestors. However, in front of these halls, revolutionary words were written to cover the nameplates and the sides of the door. For example, the nameplate in front of the door to the Ancestor Tak

Hall originally read, "Ancestor Tak Hall", however, this was replaced with "Drive away self desire and be ready to share in society" in cement during the Cultural Revolution.

Beside the door, on the right was written, "Chairman Mao's writing should be read by everyone", and on the left, "The flag of revolution should be passed from generation to generation".

After the Rural Economic Reform, villagers of Lo lineage rebuilt the main ancestral hall in 1987, and the descendants ofTak branch rebuilt the Ancestor Tak Hall in 1997. Although the Ancestor Him Hall was not destroyed, it would be difficult to

297 rebuild the hall as there are over fifteen generations from the establishment of the branch and the genealogical distance between members is far. Members, therefore, are in reality united in name alone. Consequently it is difficult for Him descendants to unite to rebuild the Ancestor Him Hall. As a result, the lineage branch of Him has never arranged grave worship or ancestor worship.

In terms of sacrifices in the ancestral halls, it is mainly the tablets of the ancestors which are worshipped.21 In the past, the ancestors' tablets in the halls had the ancestors' names in front and behind and were inserted in a piece of wood. Names of the ancestors' wives, sons, land and property left by the ancestors were written on the wood.22 Before 1949, ancestor tablets ofthe first to the eighth ancestors were placed in the Los' main hall, but these were also destroyed during the Cultural Revolution. After the hall had been rebuilt, only a glass mirror about one metre high and one metre wide, with the names of the ancestors from the first to the eighth on it was put on the shrine.

The mirror is used as the ancestor tablet. This has been copied by the newly rebuilt Tak hall, with the names of father, grandfather and the four sons of Ancestor Tak written on the mirror for the descendants to worship.

21 Concerning the Ancestor's tablets, see Emily Ahem, The Cult of the Dead in a Chinese Village, 116-38; Robert P. Wellar, Unities and Diversities in Chinese Religion (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1987), 22-37; Maurice Freedman, Chinese Lineage and Society, 149-54; C.K. Yang, Religion in Chinese Society, 40-3. 22 Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho's work in Guangdong also has similar data: "on the back, there might be a sliding lock which, when opened, would reveal inserted information on the dates of birth and death of the deceased." See Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho Cantonese

298 Ancestor hall worship is held during Spring and Autumn Festivals. After the ceremony of grave worship, descendants take the sacrifices with them to the hall and worship their ancestors. They take the golden pig that was used in grave worship and place it on the table in front of the ancestors' tablets. Then, fruit, rice, wine and other sacrifices are also placed there. Firecrackers are lit to invite the ancestors to sit down, and then, joss sticks are burnt in sacrifice to the ancestors. Descendants bow and worship their ancestors according to the seniority offang and lastly, symbolic money is burnt. After the worship ceremony, descendants divide the golden pig into pieces and distribute it to the descendants of every fang. As in grave worship, women are not involved in hall worship. In terms of ancestor worship they are treated as outsiders because they will marry one day, and so they do not have to worship ancestors on their father's side. It is only when they get married that they go to their husband's family's hall to perform ancestral worship.23

Apart from this women only go to an ancestral hall when they have given birth to a son. Every Lunar New Year, a lantern lighting ceremony takes places in the hall, to celebrate the birth of sons into the lineage branch. In Lo Village, wives and husbands

Society in a Tzme ofChange, 144. 23 See James Watson, Emigration and the Chinese Lineage: The Mans in Hong Kong and London (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1975); Hugh Baker, A Chinese Lineage Village: Sheung Shui (California: Stanford University Press, 1968); Rubie Watson, Inequality Among Brothers: Class and Kinship in South China (London: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 117-36. 299 take their newborn sons to their lineage branch hall to worship their ancestors, and in doing so, the ancestors will protect these new members. During the ceremony a flame is taken out from a lamp in the hall to light a lantern that is brought out from home, which is then carried home again. In this ceremony the lantern symbolizes the illumination of the new members' life. Some villagers also believe that the flame represents the spirit of the ancestors. Lighting the lantern represents the spirit of the ancestors passing to the new members.

Although ancestor worship activities were banned, the halls destroyed and new symbols of socialist moralitl4 were infiltrated into the countryside by the communist government in the collective era, the activities have again become widespread. As pointed out by Ebrey, for the last two hundred years worship of early ancestors both at graves and halls holds the kinship groups together and buttresses the group consciousness. 25 The resurgence of these kinds of activities has maintained the patrilineal culture and its influence since the Rural Economic Reform.

As ancestor worship is exclusively for men, women seldom have the chance to participate in it and even if they do participate in the sacrifices, they are not important

24 Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984), 95. 25 See Patricia Bucldy Ebrey, "The Early Stages in the Development of Descent Group Organization," 16-24; Richard L. Davis, "Political Success and the Growth of Descent Groups: The Shih of Ming-chou during the Sung," in Kinship Organization in Late Imperial China, 300 participants. Religious rituals significantly put women outside the male-dominated kinship system altogether. 26 This reinforces the gender difference of the patrilineal society within religious practices, in which men are the core members and women are merely the means of extending their bloodline.

2 Temples

Before 1949, there were six temples in Lo Village. Qi Shou Ba Jiao Pusa (a deity with seven hands and eight legs) was worshipped in the Xiang Kou Temple. Hong sheng Gong (a deity surnamed Hong) and Qi Tzan Da Sheng, sometimes called Hou

Wang (deity of monkey king), were worshipped in the Dai Wang Temple and the Hou

Wang Temple respectively. Two loyal officials called Yang Zongbao and Li Ning were worshipped in the Yeung and Lee's Temple. In the Yi Ling Temple, Yz Ling Shen (deity of healing) was worshipped and Guan Gong was worshipped in the Guan Di Temple. 27

During the Cultural Revolution, four of these temples were destroyed, with only the Yi

1000-1940, 62-94. 26 Rubie Watson, "Class Difference and Affinal Relations in South China," Man 16 (1981), 610-1; Margery Wolf, Women and the Family in Rural Taiwan (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1872), 32-52. 27 These kinds of temples are common in the Pearl River Delta. See Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Time ofChange, 187-92. 301 Ling and Guan Di Temples being saved. These were then distributed to poor peasants.

In 1995, the villagers found out that temples in other villages had been repaired so

they began to consider rebuilding their temples. 28 As four of the temples had been

destroyed and houses built on the original sites, they decided to repair the Yi Ling and

Guan Di Temples to give the villagers places to worship the deities.

The villagers who were responsible for rebuilding the temples were mainly

committee members from the Lo Village Fraternity Association. In 1995, they raised

200 thousand dollars for buying back the user right of the temples from the tenants who

had been residing there since the collective era, and for the rebuilding of the temples,

which began in 1995. By the end of 1996, the temples had been successfully rebuilt and

in December, a ceremony of spiritualization was held to invite the deities to come back

to the two temples.

The appearance and internal structure of the temples are identical, only the statues

of the deities are different. In the Yi Ling Temple, the main deity Yi Ling, is placed

against the rear wall and faces the front door. Above the deity, there is a large,

square-shaped brocade on which is written Shen Quan Pu Zhao (The light of deity

illuminates widespread). This was dedicated by a worshipper in thanksgiving for the

28 In fact, temples have been rebuilt in other provinces as well. See Julian F. Pas, "Revival of Temple Worship and Popular Religious Traditions," in The Turning ofthe Tzde, ed. Julian F. Pas (Hong Kong: Hong Kong Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society and Oxford University Press, 1989), 158-209. 302 blessings bestowed by the deity. In front of the deity a lamp with seven stars is placed

on a table. On the first and fifteenth day of every month, or on other important dates,

this lamp was lit to show that the deity will illumine the worshippers. A tube-shaped

container with a leaf in a bowl filled with water is also placed on the table and is used to wash the deity's face. On some important dates or when a deity thanksgiving ceremony is taking place, worshippers bring roasted pigs to thank the deity. The villagers place the roasted pig, along with chicken, goose, rice, tea, wine and fruit on the table in order to thank the deity. To the left and right of the table, there are two deities whose purpose is to protect the main deity. There are also two other deities standing beside the main deity, who are responsible for preparing medicine. The deity of Fortune is located at the front door. Incense burners are placed in front of each of these deities. In the middle of the temple a large incense burner and a tripod are situated, this is used to burn paper gold, paper silver and symbolic money to the deities. Above the incense burner are iron ropes attached to the roof from which the incense tower is hung. The incense tower looks like a round biscuit before being hung, but once hung, it is spiral in shape and looks like a tower. It can last for fifteen days after being lit. The incense tower is also used in some important festivals or when villagers want to thank the deities. Villagers who claim to be devoted come on the first and fifteenth days of the month and light the incense tower to worship the deities. Worshippers light joss sticks before they enter the temple, which

303 they place in each incense burner three or five at a time and then they politely thank the

deity. After worshipping the deities, they beat a drum, hit a bell which are beside a wall,

and say their names to tell the deities what their wishes are. Traditionally, drums and

bells were placed on the right and the left side respectively, and were called the "left

bell" and "right drum." In the Yi Ling Temple, however, this practice has been forgotten

and both the bell and the drum are situated on the right side.

Guan Gong is the main deity in the Guan Di Temple which is similar to the Yi

Ling Temple. The statue of Guan Gong stands against the rear wall and faces the front

door. A piece of brocade with, Shen Quan Pu Zhao (The light of god illuminates widespread) written on it also hangs above the deity. Beside the deity ten little statues of

Guan Gong are placed, each about one foot high. These have been given by businessmen. To the left two other deities stand, Zhao Yuan, a general and a very close friend of Guan Gong, and Tan Gong Xian Sheng (a deity considered as the ancestor of

Lo ). The deity at the front door is also a famous soldier who was under Guan Gong's command.

Yz Ling, Guan Gong and other deities in the temples have their own special abilities and characteristics. For example, Yz Ling is responsible for watching people's health and healing disease; Guan Gong is the deity of justice and bravery. When worshippers come to worship Yz Ling, however, they do not do so merely for good

304 health, they also wish for good fortune. They also treat Guan Gong as a deity who can

bring them wealth and prosperity in business. In recent years villagers involved in

business have started to keep statues of Guan Gong in their offices and homes in order

to help them make great fortunes. Some villagers even worship Guan Gong in the hope

of having a son.

The spiritualization ceremony for the two temples began at twelve midnight on

day of the reopening of the temples. Uncle Ring, the chairman of the Lo Village

Fraternity Association, was responsible for chairing the ceremony. He invited a group of

Taoist priests to carry out the ceremony, during which, the spirits of the deities were

invited to move into the statues that represent them. It is believed that statues are not

only made of clay, but that the spirits live inside if the invitation ceremony is successful.

Before twelve o'clock, the temples were thronged with old women from the village,

who started to prepare symbolic money, paper gold and paper silver for the deities. As

soon as the ceremony finished, they strove to be the first group of worshippers to show their sincerity so that they could receive more blessings from the deities. The day after the ceremony, lots of villagers, mostly women, worshipped in the temple. Only a few men went to worship the deities.

Uncle Hing said, "Worshipping deities is mostly done by women, men seldom do so. It may be because women are more sincere to the god or maybe just because they

305 are very superstitious!"

It is normally the women who go to the temples. They go on the first and fifteenth days of each month, and on some special festivals. They pray for their husbands, children and other family matters no matter how important they are. Men seldom go to the temples, not because they do not believe in the deities. Uncle Hing also said, "Men also worship deities in temples when they come across important issues. I remember that when I was a teenager, there was a feud between the neighboring village and ours.

Senior villagers led all the men to the temples to worship the deities so that we could win the battle and drive away the outsiders. In the end, the deities helped us and we defeated our enemies. Most of them were driven away or beaten to death."

Perhaps the male villagers think that for them to worship in the temples, something important must have happened, such as a blood feud or an issue concerning business, as they consider these to be men's issues which women do not understand and are unable to help with. In family affairs such as children getting sick, a father will seldom go to the temple to pray for his children no matter how much he loves them.

Men will ask their wives to worship the deities and pray for their children instead. These worship activities reflect the division of labour btween men and women. For instance, the protection of the welfare of the whole family, the lineage branch, or the lineage are the responsibility of men. Thus in a feud between lineages or villages, men will go to

306 the temples and worship sincerely to gain blessings. Household duties are women's responsibility, therefore it is mainly women who go to the temples to ask for blessings.29

As mentioned in Chapter 6, the wife of Lo King-lam was always being asked to go to

the temples to gain blessings for her husband and children. This is considered a duty for women and since King-lam's wife had refused to go, she was accused of not fulfilling a wife's duty to the family. Temple worship reflects the division oflabour, where men are

responsible to work for the welfare of the whole family and women are responsible for

the work at home. The thriving of temple worship in recent years therefore, to some

extent reinforces the traditional gender division of labour.

Although there are temples in every village, the deities worshipped are not the

same. For instance, the deity Yi Ling in Lo Village is not worshipped in other villages in

Cheung Lok Town. Villagers believe that even if a Yi Ling Temple was to be built in

another part of town and a statue of Yi Ling made, it is very unlikely that Yi Ling could be invited to move into the temple. They believe that it is a matter of sincerity and fate

and that even if all the temples had the same deity, he I she would not enjoy the same popularity in each. Blessings are associated with the efficacy of worship for the deity.

For example, in the southeastern part of Lo Village, the Lu Zu Temple in Sheung Kok

29 This phenomenon is not common in other provinces. For instance, Kenneth Dean and Julian Pas's works illustrate that both women and men go to the temples to ask for blessings. See Julian F. Pas, "Revival of Temple Worship and Popular Religious Traditions," 158-209; Kenneth Dean, "Revival of Religious Practices in Fujian: A Case Study," in The Turning of the Tzde, 51-78. 307 Village is very popular with worshippers. Joss sticks are lit all the time in front of the deity, incense towers hang everywhere in the temple and it becomes extremely crowded on important dates. In comparison with the Lu Zu Temple, worship in the Guan Di

Temple in Lo Village is rare. It is believed by the villagers that the unpopularity of worship in the Guan Di Temple is mainly because of the low number of blessings received. 30

Although there are the Yi Ling and Guan Di Temples in Lo Village, some villagers still go to other temples to worship. This is because every deity is believed to have its own abilities and characteristics. For example, Guan Gong and .n Ling are not normally associated with having sons. Although some villagers who are eager to have a son go to ask for their help, most villagers usually worship other deities.

Most of the temples around Lo Village are dedicated to popular deities like Xuan

Tian Shang Di (god of all deities), Qi Tian Da Sheng (deity of monkey king), Guan Yin,

Bai .n Niang Niang (goddess of white clothes), Guan Gong and Hong Shen Ye. Among these deities, Guan Yin, Bai .n Niang Niang and Shi Er Nai Niang (goddness of twelve mothers), have never been treated as the main deity in a temple before, but are most popular amongst women. Women in Lo Village and Dongguang, who long to have sons, worship these deities. Although no one knows what Guan Yin's gender is, everyone

30 Aijmer and Ho regard the villagers in the Pearl River Delta as pragmatic and utilitarian in worshipping deities in the temples. See Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho Cantonese Society in a 308 believes it to be female, the same is true of Bai Yi Niang Niang and the Shi Er Nai

Niang. Those deities are believed not only to protect women, but also to give them sons.

For example, Guan Yin, who is believed to save people from danger and desperate situations, is also a deity who gives them sons; Bai Yi Niang Niang is responsible for giving white flowers, that is, sons, and the twelve Mothers are also deities who give sons.

To the North of Lo Village, in Bak Chak Village, there is a Guan Yin Temple which is popular and attractive to nearby villagers, including those from Lo Village. The internal structure of every temple in the area is more or less the same as those in Lo

Village. Inside the Guan Yin Temple the main statue of Guan Yin stands in the middle.

Tzan Hou (Queen of Heaven) and Qi Tzan Da Sheng are situated on the left and Jin Hua

Fu Ren (Lady of Golden Flowers) and Tao Hua Xian Nu (Goddess of Peach Blossom) are placed on the right. In front of the statue of Guan Yin, a table is used to place offerings on. Above it there is a lamp with seven stars, an incense burner and a bowl of water with a leaf inside for the deity to wash its face. The decorations there are similar to those in Lo Village's temples. The ShiEr Nai Niang' statues are placed on the left side of the temple. Female villagers who come to pray for the blessing of sons firstly worship and offer incense to Guan Yin and then to the other deities in the temple. If

Tzme of Change, 193. 309 there is a shaman in the temple, the women will ask the shaman to tell Guan .Yz"n that they want a son. Some of them will invite the shaman to the temple to carry out a ceremony to pray for sons, after which they will worship the Shi Er Nai Niang. The Shi

Er Nai Niang's surnames are, Zhang, Jiang, He, Peng, Ding, Qi, Liu, Ma, Zhen, Guan,

Xu, and Yuan. None of the Shi Er Nai Niang looks the same. Some of them carry two children, some of them carry one, and some of them carry nothing in their hands. One of the Shi Er Nai Niang whose surname is Ma has nothing in her hands which means that there are no sons. Some of the them have a boy and a girl in their hands which means they will bring a boy and a girl to people. After the villagers have worshipped the ShiEr

Nai Niang, those praying for sons will draw a bunch of joss sticks, light them and place one in front of each of the ShiEr Nai Niang in sequence. If the Mother who gets the last joss stick has children in her hands, the villager is going to have children. If not, the villager will not have any child.

Temples are constantly being rebuilt and temples like the Guan Yin Temple are increasing in number. Most of the Guan Yin Temples have Shi Er Nai Niang inside.

People who build temples know that the Shi Er Nai Niang are popular, so they do not even care about where they place them. As a result one can find ShiEr Nai Niang in the temples of the King of Monkeys, or in the Xuan Tian Shang Di Temples or in the Guan

Di Temple. It would be fair to say, therefore, that the statues of the Shi Er Nai Niang

310 exist in temples throughout Cheung Lok Town. Villagers do not seem to care about who they should worship or in which temple, but are more concerned whether the deity is effective. 31 In Lo Village therefore, some villagers even go to the Guan Di Temple to pray for a son.

As the economy has developed in recent years, more and more temples have been rebuilt in the villages and the temples that were once popular before 1949 are popular again. One such temple mentioned earlier is Guo Zhen Ren (deity of Guo) Temple, where according to local legend, a Taoist priest died and became a deity. After rebuilding the temple, villagers from Cheung Lok Town and the surrounding area were attracted to worship there. Apart from visiting Lu Zu Temple, I visited the Guo Zhen

Ren Temple with So Yiu-kong around nine o'clock one morning. The temple is located at Pak Sha Village of Cheung Lok Town, which is ten kilometres away from Lo Village.

The complex comprises four buildings with the Guo Zhen Ren Temple in the middle of them. The Jin Gang Da Di Temple is on the right, the Temple of Yu Huang Da Di (King of gods) and Wang Mu Niang Niang (Mother of the King of gods) are on the left. The remaining temple is dedicated to Guan Yin. This temple appears to be newly built, with a pleasant exterior, but inside, it is simple. Statues of Guan Yin and the Shi Er Nai Niang are placed in no specific order and the atmosphere does not give the impression of a

31 Indeed, the gods and deities are conveniently and pragmatically interpreted. See Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Tzme ofChange, 198. 311 temple.

On arrival, I went to the Jin Gang Da Di Temple first, but a man blocked my way, saying, "You can't go in if you aren't going to worship the deities. Visitors aren't welcome here." This was very unusual as most of the temples in Guangdong welcomed visitors. Because of this, I went to the Guo Zhen Ren Temple instead. As soon as I stepped inside, a woman asked me to offer thirty dollars to the temple. I had visited most of the temples in Cheung Lok Town and none of them had required worshippers to offer money in such a pressing way. Some temples have a box for donations for incense, and others which require money will ask for only a dollar or two as donation. The most expensive donation required was at the Hou Wang Temple in Bak Chak Village, which was five dollars per person. After paying the money, I lit joss sticks and worshipped the deity Guo. After a while, an old woman told me that the deity Guo was very effective and that we should draw lots there so I drew two lots out of curiosity and the old woman asked me to pay her ten dollars as a tip. She then told me to ask a man sitting beside the wall to translate the lots for me, which cost a further twenty dollars. In the end, So

Yiu-kong and I had given the temple sixty dollars in offerings, twenty dollars in tips and forty dollars for translating the lots - a total of one hundred and twenty dollars. It was strange, however, that both So Yiu-kong and I had bad luck having drawn the worst lots.

We were both told that since we had such bad luck, we would lose money whenever we

312 gambled and that we would die if we got sick. The lot translator said he was the only person who is able to change the situation and give us back the luck and that it would cost three hundred and fifty dollars to regain our good fortune. Of course, we did not pay anything, but So Yiu-kong was very angry because he considered himself cursed early in the morning.

After we left there, we met an old man who had kept the Guo Zhen Ren's Lot

Translating Book during the Cultural Revolution. When the Rural Economic Reform began and temples started to be rebuilt, he made three copies of the book and donated them to the temple. The old man said he was very happy that the temple was rebuilt and have become as popular as they had been in the years before 1949. In the mid-1990's, the village government had contracted out the temple because it was so popular. From

1997 to 1998, the price of the contract was four hundred thousand dollars a year, which rose to five hundred thousand in 1999. Since the cost of maintaining the temple is so high, the people who look after the temples charge worshippers extra fees. For instance, when the villagers bring chickens or roasted pig to worship the deities, the temple will charge them between fifty and one hundred and fifty dollars, with people from other villages being charged more. As a result, the villagers there seldom take anything except the joss sticks with them to worship the deities, in the temple, choosing to offer the chicken or roast pig at home instead.

313 Recently, it was found that contracting out temples has become popular in the villages of Cheung Lok Town. Those temples which require donations before allowing people to enter, are most probably contracted out. Some Lo villagers have discussed whether they should contract out their two temples but most villagers objected to the idea as this would ruin the original purpose of rebuilding the temples which was for the benefit of the villagers, so the plan was postponed. No one knows, however, whether they will talk about the same issue again in the future. 32

3 Shamanism

In addition to temple worship, women often seek out shamans33 to solve family problems. Of the shamans who the Lo villagers seek help from, Ah Kiu is one of the

32 Julian Pas also maintains that "[t]here appears to be a commercialization of religious life, a hollowing out of true religious experience. That is perhaps a greater threat than political pressures or even persecution." See Julian F. Pas, "Revival of Temple Worship and Popular Religious Traditions," 168, 175. 33 There are different kinds of shaman in Southeastern China. The first one is fu-ki, which is mostly practiced by the Taoist priests. When they communicate with the gods, they must cleanse themselves and must eat vegetarian food. Concerning fu-ki, see Yih-yuan Li, Wen Hua De Tu Xiang (Xia): Zong Jiao Yu Qun Zu De Wen Hua Guan Cha, 25. The second one is tang-ki, which also belongs to the Taoist cults. They communicate with gods and ghosts by being possessed by them. The communication mostly takes place in a communal jiao sacrifice or festival procession. Concerning tang-ki, see David Jordan, Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors: The Folk Religion of a Taiwanese Village (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), 67-84; Kenneth Dean, Taoist Ritual and Popular Cults of Southeast China (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1989), 21-98. The third one is mann mae phox which will be discussed in this section. They are mostly women in the area of the Pearl River Delta. They do not belong to any religious cult, some of them affiliate with temples and some stay in their own houses in the 314 more famous ones.

Ah Kiu is a female shaman who lives in Nam Chat Village, a part of Cheung Lok

Town which is located to the south of Lo Village. She is about 50, fairly small, tanned and slightly chubby. She has the typical appearance of a Guangdong village woman.

The place where Ah Kiu has set her altar is a little house in Nam Chat Old Village.

The house is quite shabby with a little storeroom built behind it. There are about ten chairs set out on the right side of the house which are for the people who come to seek help from the deities. As Ah Kiu is a fairly famous female shaman in Cheung Lok Town, her little house is always full of people during the deity-worshipping seasons, and some of them have to wait outside.34 On an incense altar which faces the main door, Guan Yin

(goddess of mercey) and Qi Tzan Da Sheng (the monkey king), the most popular deities in China, are worshipped. Next to these two main statues, another two differently dressed statues of Qi Tzan Da Sheng are worshipped. According to Ah Kiu, Qi Tzan Da

Sheng is the main deity she communicates with.

The statues wear many gold necklaces and gold rings. There are over ten hangings draped from the ceiling or set against the walls, some of which are embroidered with characters. Ah Kiu said that these hangings had been given by the villagers as village. 34 Jordan points out that "female [shaman]s are associated often with purely local divinities who answers individual petitions at private altars in the medium's home." See David Jordan, Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors, 69; Laurel Kendall, "Korean Shamanism: Women's Rites and a Chinese Comparison," in Religion and the Family in East Asia, ed. George DeVos and Takao Sofue 315 thanksgiving offerings for what they had received from the deities.

In addition to the statues, there is an incense burner used for worshipping the deities. Burning incense for this purpose is the first thing to do on entering Ah Kiu's house. Next to the incense burners and the statues of Qi Tzan Da Sheng, there are small bottles filled with water and an overturned ball-shaped bottle with a long neck.

According to Ah K.iu, when Qi Tzan Da Sheng appears, bubbles come out of the water-filled bottle and a popping sound can be heard.

Ah Kiu was 45 when she became a shaman. Before this, like other village women, she would visit the temples. When she was about 43, she had suddenly fallen ill after returning home from a temple and, despite having been seen by doctors, she did not recover. When village women who visit temples regularly, or their family members fall ill and do not recover after seeing doctors, they will visit a shaman for help. During her illness, Ah Kiu paid a visit to a shaman who found that she had Xiang Gu (fairy bones) and had been chosen by the deities to be a spirit medium. Initially, she resisted taking on such a role.

"At first I thought: usually it is someone old who is chosen to be a shaman. I'm too young. I should do something else. It doesn't sound good to be a shaman and I will be laughed at. My family did not agree with such an idea either." Ah K.iu , therefore,

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 1986 revised [1984]), 66. 316 rejected the shaman's offer at first.

"When I got back home, my illness continued but I still didn't want to be a shaman. I was ill for more than two years. Finally, I discussed it with my husband and my children. They didn't think it was good for me to go on suffering from the illness.

They agreed with my decision to become a shaman."

Ah Kiu pointed out that a shaman represented the deities who help people solve their problems and that she believed this to be charity.

The example of how Ah Kiu became a shaman is quite common in the villages of southern China or throughout Southeast Asia.35 These women had often experienced a long illness or a family crisis like the sudden death of a child.

Ah Kiu would often be asked to carry out a rite called Kai Hua Yuan (open the heavenly flower gardens) which parents often request if their child is suffering from frequent illness or has behavioural problem.

On one such occasion which I observed, a woman from Lo Village visited Ah Kiu in the evening. Her son was frequently ill, so she brought along a cloth belonging to her son to ask Ah Kiu to carry out Kai Hua Yuan for him. Ah Kiu asked the woman for her son's name and the date and time of his birth, faced the altar with the child's cloth in her hand and read aloud the child's name and the date and time of his birth to the statues of

35 Jack Potter, "Cantonese Shamanism," in Religion and Ritual in Chinese Society, 225-8; David Jordan, Gods, Ghosts, and Ancestors, 67-84. 317 Qi Tian Da Sheng. At the same time, the village woman knelt down, facing the incense burner and kowtowed respectfully. After a while, Ah K.iu seemed to go into a trance and looked as though she would vomit. Then, she turned and faced the village woman, who was still kneeling on the floor. While mumbling the child's name and his date and time of birth, Ah K.iu began to sing.

Ah Kiu's incantation was stylized and rhythmic, however, I found the lyrics more difficult to understand than the local dialect and the first time I heard the song, I could not understand a single word. Later, I learnt that it was about, "having a strong foundation; bringing fortune to your father and luck to your mother; having predestined relationships with your father, mother and siblings due to the process of incarnation; having good health; no obstacles; being smart and clever in study; having a predestined relationship with teachers and classmates." Ah Kiu pointed out that when she was possessed by Qi Tian Da Sheng, she had a very vague memory of the lyrics because she went into a trance and although she sang the song of the Kai Hua Yuan many times, she could only remember part of it.

After Ah Kiu had sung for a while, her assistant, her younger sister, put an oil lamp, a paper bridge and a basin filled with rice and twelve duck eggs on the floor. The paper bridge was put between the rice and the oil lamp so that they formed a straight line. While Ah Kiu continued singing, her hand, which held the child's cloth, kept

318 turning back and forth above the basin in which the rice and the duck eggs were placed.

Then her hand, still holding the child's cloth, passed across the bridge as if bringing the

child across. This was repeated many times. Ah K.iu then told the village woman that the

child had been out of the garden and that she should discipline and teach her son well in the future. Ah K.iu went back to her position and closed her eyes. Soon after she opened them again and said that Qi Tian Da Sheng had gone and that the ceremony was over.

After the ceremony, she told the village woman to take the oil lamp home and reminded her not to let the light go out until the next morning, then her son would recover quickly

and be healthy in the future. The village woman left about one hundred and fifty dollars towards the cost of incense and offerings and she bowed respectfully before carrying the oil lamp very carefully home.

The meaning of the Kai Hua Yuan is as follows: in the heavenly garden, there are many plants, each representing a family. Normally there are two colours of flowers on the plants. One is white to represent a boy; the other is red for a girl. Each flower has a flower-lad who accompanies a child from its last life to Earth. The flower-lad should always stay with the child he represents. Not every pot plant is healthy in the garden.

Some flowers may be eaten by worms and others may lack water. As a result these flowers cannot grow strong and their flower-lads are ill and unable to move. When this happens, the child on earth will be ill as well. If the flower-lad is very naughty and

319 keeps playing in the garden, the child on earth will be a naughty child and its parents will find it difficult to discipline and teach the child.

After being possessed, the female shaman visits heaven where she identifies which child needs the Kai Hua Yuan and which pot of flowers has problems. For example, she will check if any flower, which represent a child, lacks water or is decaying because of worms; or if any naughty flower-lad is playing in the garden everyday and is unwilling to return home. When she encounters either of these cases, she makes use of the deity who possesses her body to solve the problem, either healing the weak flower-lad or bringing the naughty one out of the garden and returning him to his heavenly home. If the ceremony is successful, the flower-lad comes back to his heavenly home and the child he represents should become good and listen to its parents' teaching or will recover from illness. In Ah Kiu's experience, the Kai Hua Yuan ceremony may not always be successful. She has had a few failures where she has failed to bring flower-lads out ofthe garden despite having tried many times.

Folk religion consists of other similar beliefs that pervade peasant society.

Generally, villagers believe that if a pot plant, which represents their family, has white flowers, this means they will have boys; if red, then girls. If a couple does not have any children after having been married for a long time and in particular, if they do not have any boy, they often become anxious. A wife is more likely to be anxious due to a feeling

320 of failure for not having produced a son to extend her husband's family line. In addition,

she is likely to be afraid of being blamed by her husband's family particularly, her mother-in-law for this. Very probably, women in this position will seek help from a

female shaman and ask her to go to the heavenly garden to see if their plants have white

flowers or to find out the reason why there are no white flowers.

According to folk belief, there are many reasons for not having white flowers in the plants. Some plants are weak so the white flowers cannot open and others are eaten by golden chickens which stay nearby. To overcome this, shamans like Ah K.iu will carry out worship and sacrifice ceremonies for the women. Ah K.iu also teaches them that being a wife and a daughter-in-law is very important and that they should fulfill their duties and respect their mothers-in-law. Ah K.iu also believes she has discovered another reason for the absence of white flowers and that is the ghosts of dead relatives playing tricks.

Ah K.iu recalled one case where a couple that did not have any children. The wife had been pregnant twice but both had miscarried so the wife went to see Ah K.iu, hoping to find the reason for this in the heavenly garden. While being possessed by the deity,

Ah K.iu discovered that before their marriage, the couple had conceived two children, but had them both aborted. Now, one of their daughters' spirits had returned to play tricks on her future siblings. Ah K.iu then arranged a marriage for the girl in the world of

321 ghosts, hoping that she would have a family and not become a wandering ghost. Ah Kiu

also instructed the spirit not to come back and never to do anything evil to her future

siblings.

It is believed that in the heavenly garden, there are plants that never have flowers,

either white or red. In this case the only thing a woman can do is to ask for white

flowers from the deity. I observed Ah Kiu as she helped two women ask for white

flowers. One who was from Cheung Lok Town already had a daughter but wanted a son.

Her household was in Cheung Lok Town, and not in a village which meant she could

only have one child. If she was to have a boy, she would lose her job and be fined and her household registration would be cancelled. The other woman was a villager from Lo

Village who had two daughters. In order to have a son, she took the risk of paying a

sixty thousand dollar fine and of being deprived of her annual bonus.36

On the day of ceremony, Ah Kiu took the two women to the temples located on

Mount Ma, at Dailingshan Town in Dongguang County. These temples were rebuilt in the mid-1980's and because of the efficacy of the deities there, the temples attract large numbers of worshippers. Two of these temples are dedicated to Qi Tzan Da Sheng and

Bai Yi Niang Niang. Qi Tzan Da Sheng is the deity that Ah Kiu worships and communicates with in seances so she first brought the two women to the temple where

36 "Fines are exacted from couples who have three children" in the countryside in Guangdong. See GoranAijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Tzme ofChange, 128. 322 Qi Tian Da Sheng is worshipped, then to the one where Bai Yi Niang Niang is

worshipped. The Bai Yi Niang Niang is believed to be responsible for bringing white

flowers to every family. If one pleads a favour from her wholeheartedly, she may help.

Ah Kiu, took each of the women to the temple of Bai Yi Niang Niang in turn. As

they entered, they had to first burn incense and candles to worship Bai Yi Niang Niang,

then they knelt down on the floor facing the statue. Following Ah Kiu's example, they

bowed respectfully to the statue and Ah Kiu asked to be possessed by the deity. During

the seance, Ah Kiu held two gaobui (two pieces of small wood for fortune-telling)

which she had prepared. After she had prayed to the Goddess, she threw the gaobui on

the floor to divine the will of Bai Yi Niang Niang. The pattern formed by the gaobui on

the floor seemed to show that Bai Yi Niang Niang would bring white flowers to the

woman from Cheung Lok Town but that the woman from Lo Village had only a seventy

percent possibility of receiving white flowers. After hearing the results, they left the

temple and burned paper gold and paper money as offerings to Bai Yi Niang Niang. On

the way to the temple, the two women had seemed very worried but they both appeared

very happy afterwards, chatting and joking all the way back. Eventually, the woman

from Cheung Lok Town did have a boy, however, because the family now had more

than one child, their household registration was cancelled and the place where they used to live closed, forcing them to hide elsewhere.

323 Generally speaking, it is men who are involved in ancestor worship and women

who visit shamans to seek luck or for sons. In all the time I was at Ah Kiu's house, I

never saw a single man. On one occasion a village woman's daughter was said to be

possessed by a spirit. Ah Kiu exorcised the spirit from the girl using the Monkey deity's

power and later, the girl recovered. One day, while I was at Ah Kiu's house observing

her practice shamanism, the girl's mother came to thank the deity. She believed strongly

in Qi Tian Da Sheng and knelt down on the floor bowing low for a long time. When she

left, I found that she was accompanied by her husband who, instead of entering the

house, had remained at the entrance to the village while his wife performed the

thanksgiving ceremony before returning home with her.

A child's illness, naughtiness or other problems which are believed to be caused

by ghosts, worry parents very much. Generally speaking, however, it is the mother who

shoulders the responsibility for the care of a child. The woman from Lo Village, who requested the Kai Hua Yuan for her ill son, is an example. Her son had been ill for a

long time without recovering, which according to some villagers who knew her, made her very anxious. Her husband's family, particularly her mother-in-law, blamed her for not having taken good care of her grandson. Clearly the mother was being held responsible for her son's problems and this caused her, in desperation, to seek help from

Ah Kiu in the Kai Hua Yuan.

324 Women often feel helpless after marriage, having left their parents and family and becomeing part of a different family. In the new family, the woman has to take on all the household tasks. If she cannot solve problems with her children particularly with her sons, then she is held responsible. For instance, if her son was to go out with his father and get hurt, even though they would both worry very much about their son, she would be responsible for him. Normally, her natal family would not provide support for her as she would now be considered part of her husband's family.

In traditional Chinese society, if a married couple fails to have any sons, the wife will be blamed and the husband given the right to have a concubine. Because these traditional beliefs are maintained amongst the older generation in Lo Village women often have no one else to rely on to help them with their problems except the shaman and this probably explains why women rely on folk religion and believe in the shaman.37

In addition to carrying out the Kai Hua Yuan, a female shaman, such as Ah Kiu, heals illnesses, communicates with the ancestor and practices geomancy.

Ah Kiu once healed a youngster from a village under the governance of Cheung

Lok Town who frequently had headaches and could not swallow food. His parents had sought help from many doctors but they could not find a solution. Finally, the

37 Jack Potter, "Cantonese Shamanism," 231. 325 youngster's mother came to Ah Kiu for help. After being possessed by the deity, Ah Kiu

found that the cause of the youngster's illness was his dead grandfather, who had been

dead for many years. After having been buried for seven or eight years, his bones had

been dug up by his descendants, in the process called Jue Jin (gold-digging) which has

been discussed in an earlier section in this Chapter. It was said that Ah Kiu successfully

communicated with the deity and found that the skull of the youngster's grandfather had,

for some reason, been lost in the golden tower and as a result he had come back to play

tricks on his descendants, angry at them for their lack of respect and failure to carry out their duties to him. After an ancestor's bones have been dug up and reburied in a golden

tower, his descendants should open the golden tower and clean the bones in the two

memorial ceremonies each spring and autumn. If this youngster's family had done so,

they would have learnt of the loss of the grandfather's skull. It is for this reason that the

descendants were to blame. After listening to Ah Kiu's explanation, the youngster's

family immediately asked her to carry out a healing ceremony, after which the youngster apparently recovered from his illness. 38

In the supernatural world of such folk religion, ancestors are very important. This type of story is very common in the villages where villagers strongly believe that ancestors will not bless or will do evil things to their descendants. These situations are

38 This is quite common in Guangdong. See also Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho Cantonese Society in a Tzme of Change, 157. 326 always handled by shamans who, apart from holding ceremonies for the descendants, will also instruct them to treat their ancestors well by burning more paper gold and paper silver to their ancestors. The following story is about an ancestor who did not have a good life in the nether world and came back to complain to his family.

One night, probably a good date for communicating with ancestors according to the Lunar Calendar, Ah Kiu's little house was full of village women hoping to communicate with their ancestors through Ah Kiu. Communication with people's ancestor was fairly open as people waiting their turn watched as Ah Kiu communicated with other's ancestors.

During a seance, one village woman, who had come to watch the seance was suddenly accused by her dead husband, of not treating him well. All the other villagers heard her husband accuse her of failing to burn anything for him at the festivals which made his life in the nether world miserable. Widows are expected to be good to their dead husbands and to burn paper money, gold and incense to them. This woman, therefore, was both scared and ashamed by this public accusation of her failure to meet her responsibilities to her dead husband, which would be quickly known throughout the village. Sure enough within a few days she had been criticized and so immediately asked Ah Kiu to hold a ceremony for her husband. She burned a large amount of paper gold and silver and many other commodities made of paper for him.

327 The exclusion of women from ancestor worship reinforces the dominant role of men in the family and both temple worship and the use of a shaman to some extent shows that religion reflects the traditional division of labour. This division of labour represents the gender relations in the family. Men also believe in deities, but only go to temples if they face important issues concerning the welfare of the family or lineage.

They will, however, perform a spiritualization ceremony at the establishment of a new business to invite the god to stay in a statue placed in the office. This division of religious activities to a great extent reinforces the gender division of labour in the family. 39 The issues over which the deities are consulted also reflect this with women seeking guidance on domestic matters and men on whole family and lineage issues.40

The use of a shaman to solve problems reinforces lineage norms and values, where the belief is that the structure of the supernatural world, which folk religion represents, reflects the traditional earthly order and the solutions offered by the shaman reinforce the traditional norms and values. Ah Kiu's songs and teachings are in fact an

39 Myron L. Cohen, "Family Management and Family Division in Contemporary China," The China Quarterly 130 (1992): 354-77. 40 As in the past the Central Government promoted women's rights and offered assistance to them through the Women's Federation. Nowadays, women's status, particularly those who are not economically independent, is decreasing as compared with Mao's era; this has already been discussed in Chapter 6. Some women feel helpless and hence seek out cultural resources in the pre-Liberation local traditions for support, such as worshipping deities for help. Some "seek spiritual comfort because they are overwhelmed by the change and competition of the Dengist era." On these points see Andrew B. Kipnis, "The Flourishing of Religion in Post-Mao and the Anthropological Category of Religion"; Stephan Feuchtwang, "Local Religion and Village

328 inculcation of the traditional lineage values. Thus the thriving revival of folk religion

since the Rural Economic Reform has served to reinforce the traditional lineage

structures at various levels.

In the 1960's, all forms of worship had been brought to an end,41 and were

replaced by Mao's socialist rituals infiltrating new sets of symbols into meaning-filled

actions.42 After the collapse of the collectivization project, Mao's socialist symbols

were also driven away by the impersonal force of the free market. In the course of

economic rationalization, it was supposed that, from Weber's perspective, there would

be a rationalization ofthe lifeworld: the disentrenchment ofworld-views.43 The revival

of folk religions in the 1980's, however, shows that there is a discrepancy of the

rationalization process between the lifeworld and the system. As the economy of Lo

Village has become more developed, folk religious activities have also thrived. At the

cultural level, it seems that economic modernization has brought back the entrenchment

of traditional world views, which are "divorced from both the mechanisms of the state

identity," 174. 41 GaranAijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho Cantonese Society in a Tzme ofChange, 197. 42 Richard Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village, 91. 43 Max Weber, "Religious Rejections of the World and their Directions," in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, ed. Max Weber and C. Wright Mills, tran. Hans Heinrich Gerth (London: Oxford University, 1958), 267-301; Max Weber, "The Social Psychology of World Religions," in From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology, 325-59. 329 and institutionalised science";44 the sets of pre-Liberation lineage ideologies are once

again reinforced through the practice of religious rituals.

44 Andrew B. Kipnis, "The Flourishing of Religion in Post-Mao China and the Anthropological Category of Religion," 36. 330 CHAPTER9

THE LO VILLAGE COMMITTEE ELECTION

The first one-person one-vote direct election since the founding of the People's

Republic of China, was held in Lo Village in December 1998. Six village team leaders, village representatives, the chairman, vice-chairman, and three committee members of the village committee were elected. Despite the fact that there were various problems during the election, for example, the election of the village team leaders was not implemented in exact accordance with the election regulations of the Lo Village

Election Committee and there was bribery among the candidates, the villagers participated actively in the election. This may have been due to the fact that this election was the first direct election since the founding of the People's Republic of China. About

1,500 villagers, more than 95% of the electorate, turned out to vote.

The village committee has two functions. One is to promote and implement the central government's policies, which according to the law, it must pledge to implement.

These include birth control, taxation, grain procurement and environmental protection.

The other function is to manage village affairs concerning the local economy and the

331 political and cultural life of the village which must be done through "democratic policy making" and under "democratic management". The village committee's performance must be under the democratic supervision of the village representative assembly, which is composed of village representatives. 1 There is also the town-village government but this has no right to interfere in any matter concerning the villagers within their self- governed regions. It can only offer advice (zhidao) and help to the villagers. 2 In other words, the village committee, which is established through a democratic election, has substantial administrative power to manage the public affairs of the village.

As early as June 1988, through promotion, education and the organization by the village basic level management working committees, the Chinese government implemented the PRC Village Committee Organic Law (Trial) which was promulgated at the end of 1987. Moreover, in order to play an exemplary role, the Ministry of Civil

Affairs looked for some demonstration units in each province to pilot the election of village committees. According to the report on the elections, by the end of 1995, there were about 80,000 villages where the election of village committees had been held, with some having had three elections.3 By the end of 1998, the Fifth Conference Amendment

1 Ben Shu Bian Xie Zu Bian Zhu, Cun Min Wei Yuan Hui Zu Zhi Fa Jiang Hua (Talks on the Village Committee Organic Law) (Beijing: Zhong Guo Fa Zhi Chu Ban She, 1999), 1, 21. 2 PRC Village Committee Organic Law, 1998, Article IV; Lianjiang Li & Kevin J. O'Brien, "The Struggle over Village Elections," in The Paradox of China's Post-Mao Reforms, ed. Merle Goldman and Roderick MacFarquhar (Mas.: Harvard University Press, 1999), 129. 3 Zhong-tian Wang & Cheng-fu Zhan, ed., Xiang Cun Zheng Zhi: Zhong Guo Cun Min Zi Zhi De Diao Cha Si Kao (Village Politics: Investigation of Chinese Village Self-Governance) (Nan Chang: Jiang Xi Ren Min Chu Ban She, 1999), 10; Jean Oi, "Economic Development, Stability 332 of the Standing Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress passed the PRC

Village Committee Organic Law to supercede the Trial passed in 1988. It was expected that by the year 2000, village committees would be established through direct elections in all villages and that a basic level self-government could be implemented in the villages.

1 Background to the Formulation of the Village Committee Organic Law

After the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee of the CCP in

1978, the Household Agricultural Responsibility System was put into effect in all villages in China. The control that the people's communes and the brigades had over the utilization of village resources and the management of production was cancelled. This village reform changed the poor living conditions within the villages. In the coastal villages, particularly those along the Pearl River Delta, peasant income were relatively high and they became more well-off. This village economic reform and the open

and Democratic Village Self-Governance," in China Review 1996, ed. Maurice Brosseau , Suzanne Pepper, and Tsang Shu-ki (Hong Kong: The Chinese University Press, 1996), 135; Sylvia Chan, "Research Notes on Villagers' Committee Election: Chinese-style democracy," Journal of Contemporary China 7 (1998): 507-22; Kevin J. O'Brien, "Implementing Political Reform in China's Villages," Australian Journal ofChinese Affairs 32 (1994): 41-2. 333 policies not only radically changed the economic conditions within the villages but also brought about changes regarding the power of the village in relation to that of the town.

After the implementation of the Household Agricultural Responsibility System in

1979, the collectivization policy crumbled. Meanwhile, the three-level political and administrative structure, i.e. the people's commune, the brigade and the production team, which had control over the rights of the utilization of resources and of production management of villages ceased to exist except in name and the situation within the villages quickly became chaotic. During the 1980's, some villages began to initiate management organizations independently to solve the problems brought about by economic reform and the open policies. 4 In 1982, the Chinese government promulgated a constitution which further developed these self-initiated management organizations into village committees. In the past, the administrative affairs of the brigade had been managed by the town government, while matters relating to the general public and production affairs had been managed by the village committees. As a result, villages started to be managed by towns. According to the public notice announced by the State

Council in 1983 concerning the separation of the government and the people's communes, the legal status of the village committees was at a basic-level relating to the self-initiated organization. By 1986, there were about 70,000 small-town governments

4 Zhong-tian Wang & Cheng-fu Zhan, ed., Xiang Gun Zheng Zhi, 3-4. 334 and more than 800,000 village committees. In 1987, the Chinese Government promulgated the PRC Village Committee Organic Law (Trial) which further implemented the village self-governing system. 5 Although the central policies to establish the "small-town-governing-village" system had been followed, around the

Pearl River Delta in Guangdong province, village committees had not yet been established in most of the villages by 1987 because of their special economic and geographical conditions. Only a few self-governed village management regions had been formed in some villages. 6 The Lo Village Government is an example of this. Until

1983, it was part of the Cheung Lok Town Region, but by 1987, the Cheung Lok Town

Region had been promoted to Cheung Lok Town and the Lo Village Government was reformed as the Lo Village Administrative District. Unlike villages in other provinces, however, its village committee had not yet been established.

Since the Household Agricultural Responsibility System had been implemented in the villages, the peasants had regained the rights over the utilization of village resources and of production management and the political conflicts between the peasants and the cadres of the era of the people's communes have gradually diminished, although

5Xing-zu Pu, et al, Zhong Hua Ren Min Gong He Guo Zheng Zhi Zhi Du (PRC Political System) (Xiang Gang: San Lian Shu Dian (Xiang Gang) You Xian Gong Si, 1995), 391-2; Yu-shek Cheng and Hing-fu Tse, ed. Dang Dai Zhong Guo Zheng Fu (Contemporary Chinese Government) (Xiang Gang: Tian Di Tu Shu You Xian Gong Si, 1992), 343; Zhong-tian Wang & Cheng-fu Zhan, ed. Xiang Cun Zheng Zhi, 43. 6 Qing-quan Wei, Shi Ji Zhi Jiao De Zhu Jiang San Jiao Zhou Xing Zheng Qu Hua (Pearl River Delta Administrative Planning at the Turn of the Century) (Guangzhou: Guang Dong Sheng Di Tu Chu Ban She, 1997): 42-6. 335 conflict between the two parties did develop because of economic reform and the open policies. In 1982, the Chinese Government encouraged the peasants to establish their own village committees, in order to establish this as a self-governing region at a basic level, however the cadres which remained from the people's commune era still had responsibility for village management. 7 When these cadres executed the policies such as taxation and grain procurement, and the promotion and implementation of Birth Control, which were passed down from the Central Government, they encountered difficulties more serious than in the commune era. In the era of collectivization, the utilization and management of village resources were all under the brigade cadres' control. After deducting tax revenue and the expenditure for the villages, the grain procurement was turned over to the higher authorities. The rest of the income for the peasant was then distributed evenly according to their workpoints. To put this simply, all the resources which the peasants could use were distributed collectively. Under the Household

Agricultural Responsibility System, the peasants could now control the use of their own resources. The cadres in the villages, on the other hand, could no longer control the resources as they had in the past. 8 Instead, they now had to collect tax revenue and procure the grain from the peasants rather than distribute the peasants' incomes after

7 David Zweig, Agrarian Radicalism in China, 1968-1981 (Mas.: Harvard University Press, 1989), 181. 8 Jean C. Oi, "Two Decades of Rural Reform in China: An Overview and Assessment," The China Quarterly 159 (1999): 626; Elizabeth J. Perry, "Rural Collective Violence: The Fruits of

336 turning over the taxes to the higher authorities. In poor villages, the collection of taxes often aroused conflict between the two groups. In order to meet the Central

Government's demands, some of the cadres collected the revenue and procured the grain from the peasants by force. As a consequence, the villagers' dissatisfaction with the basic-level cadres became stronger.9

Another problem which arose from the implementation of the basic level self- governing systems was that the cost for capital construction and development, and the expenditure for building highways and constructing irrigation works, were now shouldered by the peasants. The local officials now have to collect funds for such developments as well as taxes and grain. Initially, the peasants had expected that after the reform and the open policies had been implemented, they would have free control over their own resources. However, the situation was not what they had expected because now they also have to bear the cost of construction in the villages. This has resulted in tremendous dissatisfaction amongst the peasants and more conflict between the villagers and the cadres. 10 In Sichuan, there was a large demonstration which was

Recent Reforms," in The Political Economy of Reform in Post-Mao China, ed. Elizabeth J. Perry and Christine Wong (Mas.: Harvard University Press, 1985), 179. 9 Daniel Kelliher, "The Chinese Debate over Village Self-Government," The China Journal37 (1997): 71. 10 Daniel Kelliher points out that this problem became more serious after 1984. See Daniel Kelliher, "The Chinese Debate over Village Self-Government," 72; Richard J. Latham, "The Implications of Rural Reforms for Grass-Roots Cadres," in The Political Economy ofReform in Post-Mao China, ed. Elizabeth J. Perry and Christine Wong (Mas.: Harvard University Press, 1985), 170-2; Lianjiang Li & Kevin J. O'Brien, "Villagers and Popular Resistance in Contemporary China," Modern China 22 (1996): 1; Amy B. Epstein, "Village Elections in 337 suppressed by the army and m Guangdong province, more than 4,000 peasants attempted to block the highways m protest against the village government's management. 11 This change has brought about a series of political crises in the villages.

Apart from the conflict that developed between the cadres and the villagers after the implementation of the economic reform and open polices, another management problem arose because of the execution of the policies of the Central and district governments. Economic reform and the open policies allowed the peasants to have considerable autonomy, for example, how they engaged in agriculture, especially the management of the harvest, and having the right to decide how land was used. Although the peasants' autonomy over land use had increased, the task of allocating the right of land use was still in the hands of the village cadres because the land was still collectively owned. As a result, decisions regarding which portion of the land was for collective management, and which was for use by peasant households, often ended up in conflict. 12 Some of the cadres even made use of public funds to profit themselves.

Before the implementation of the open policies, many of the village cadres were called

Tu Huang Di (local tyrant), as they flattered higher authorities but were tyrannical to the

China: Experimenting with Democracy," in China's Economic Future: Challenges to U.S. Policy, ed. Joint Committee, Congress of the United States (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 1997), 411. 11 Kuo-cheng Sung, "Peasant Unrest in Szechwan and Mainland China's Rural Problems," Issues and Studies 27(7) {1993): 129; Amy B. Epstein, "Village Elections in China: Experimenting with Democracy," 416. 12 Elizabeth J. Perry, "Rural Collective Violence: The Fruits of Recent Reforms," 178-9. 338 villagers. After the implementation of the open policies, these cadres, used their authority over land management, to bribe and embezzle public funds collected from land trading. Consequently, the villagers boiled with resentment staging both small and large protests and demonstrations throughout the country. Some peasants even brought lawsuits against the cadres to the Central Government. 13 Between 1993 and 1994, in the villages around Lo Village, demonstrations and protests were held by blocking the highways. The villagers had discovered that public funds had been embezzled by the cadres, and that they had been involved in bribery over construction work carried out on collectively owned land. In protest, the peasants planned demonstrations and brought a lawsuit against the cadres to the Central Government.

Concern was also expressed over the ability of some village cadres who seemed to have poor management skills and others, who lack knowledge especially about technology and the market economy. They could not play any role in the improvement of village economic standards and even hinder village development. Villagers complained about these cadres' failure to improve their living standards, resulting in further conflict between them. According to one report, 20% of the village governments

13 Lianjiang Li & Kevin J. O'Brien, "The Struggle over Village Elections," 131-3, 138-9; Lianjiang Li & Kevin J O'Brien, "Villagers and Popular Resistance in Contemporary China," 1; Daniel Kelliher, "The Debate over Village Self-Government," 71-3; Amy B. Epstein, "Village Elections in China: Experimenting with Democracy," 411-3; Jean C. Oi, "Economic Development and Village Self-Governance"; Tong-shun Cheng, Dang Dai Zhong Guo Nong Cun Zheng Zhi Fa Zhan Yan Jiu (Research on Contemporary Chinese Political Development) (Tianjin: Tianjin Ren Min Chu Ban She, 2000), 140. 339 in the country were paralyzed due to the inability of the cadres to manage these villages.

Some of them did not even have a Communist Youth League, a women's association or a security committee. 14

After the reform and the open policies had been implemented and the peasants had regained control over the use of resources and management, the collectivized people's communes system slowly crumbled. A new administrative system could not immediately be established in all the villages throughout the country, however, despite the fact that in 1982, the Central Government began to establish the village committee as a grass roots management system, they did not provide an effective solution to the problems brought about by the reform and the open policies.15 Consequently, in some villages there were failures in executing the Central Government's policies regarding taxes, birth control, while in others, conflict between the villagers and the cadres increased.

In view of the unstable situation in the villages, Peng Zhen, the Central

Government leader, proposed holding elections in the villages in 1984. He hoped that the elections would alleviate the conflicts between the grass-roots cadres and the villagers and improve the quality of the grass roots leaders as well as ensure the delivery

14 Jean C. Oi, "Economic Development and Village Self-Govemance,"l26-7; Daniel Kelliher, "The Chinese Debate over Village Self-Government," 68; Tung-shun Ching, Research on Contemporary Chinese Political Development, 136-7. 15 Daniel Kelliher, "The Debate over Village Self-Government," 65-7. 340 of the Central Government policies. The main intention of these elections, therefore, was not primarily to develop democratic structures but as a means to an end. 16 The

Central Government debated these elections fiercely for more than three years before passing the Village Committee Organic Law {Trial) and in 1988, the elections of village committees started in some villages. The leaders who opposed the electoral system claimed that elections would only speed up the emergence of instability in the villages in the light of the pro-democracy movement of 1989. As a result, the Central

Government appointed a working team to the villages, to try to understand grass-roots management problems. This working team reported that the political situation in the villages was grim and that if there were further faults in policy making, there could be a severe political crisis. This report turned the debate over the village committee elections white-hot and stopped the progress of the village committee elections. Some people who were against the elections even claimed that, as the peasants' dissatisfaction with the Central Government's policies was very strong, they might elect some cadres who opposed the Central Government. Nevertheless, Bo Yi Bo, a senior Central Government leader joined the debate in support of the proposed village committee elections. His

16 Daniel Kelliher, "The Debate over Village Self-Government," 67-78; Lianjiang Li & Kevin J. O'Brien, "The Struggle over Village Elections," 131-3. 341 support was very effective and in 1990, the Central Government decided to stop the debate and proceed with the village committee elections. 17

Apart from the opposition from within Central Government, the fiercest opposition came from the district and village governments. Although the Central

Government passed the Village Committee Organic Law {Trail), six provincial governments did not approve the majority of provincial implementation regulations in the Village Committee Organic Law {Trail) as promulgated by the Central

Government. 18 Some provincial governments passed the provincial implementation regulations of the Organic Law, but did not execute them enthusiastically. The opposition from county and town governments was even fiercer than that of the provincial governments with some county-level cadres threatening people that if the

Organic Law was implemented, they would be disciplined. Some cadres enthusiastically implemented policies such as birth control and the collection of grain and taxes but failed to implement the Organic Law. Research has found that 60% of the town-level cadres did not support the Organic Law. Moreover, most county-level and town-level cadres in Shanxi, Shaanxi, Jiangxi and Hebei provinces did not support the Organic

Law with some prohibiting its implementation. Some pretended to be obedient in their execution of the Organic Law, but in practice, continued to appoint cadres as village

17 Lianjiang Li & Kevin J. O'Brien, "The Struggle over Village Elections," 133.

342 committee members. Some even attempted to control the list of candidates in order to get their preferred candidates elected. 19

These county and town-level cadres opposed the Organic Law for the following reasons. In the past, village cadres were mainly appointed by them. These village cadres would execute their policies, so there were no major problems regarding management.

If the Organic Law is implemented, they worried that the village cadres who will be elected by the villagers would not be under their control causing management problems.

In addition, Article III of the Organic Law states that the duty of the town government is to offer guidance to the village committee rendering their previous role obsolete. 20

Secondly, after the implementation of economic reform, peasants had regained the control over their resources. As mentioned earlier, whenever the government collected funds and taxes, problems arose. District governments realized that the villagers would be in conflict with the village cadres because of the collection of funds. If the Organic

Law was implemented and the village cadres are elected by the people, these elected cadres would certainly protect the villagers' interests and refuse to execute the collection of funds required by the district governments. The peasants would even use

18These six provincial level governments are: Guangdong, Shanxi, Hainan, Guangxi, Yuanan, Shanghai, and Beijing. 19 Melanie Manion, ''The Electoral Connection in the Chinese Countryside," American Political Science Review 90 (1996): 738; Lianjiang Li & Kevin J. O'Brien, "The Struggle over Village Elections," 136; Daniel Kelliher, ''The Debate over Village Self-Government," 78-81; Kevin J. O'Brien, "Implementing Political Reform in China's Villages," 54-5. 20 PRC Village Committee Organic Law (Trial), 1987, Article ill. 343 the election as a means to reject unpopular cadres. 21 It is clear that this conflict was between the peasants' pursuit of autonomy and the district governments' desire to maintain power. Thirdly, some district cadres thought that the peasants neither knew anything about self-government nor knew how to choose appropriate people to govern their villages. These cadres believed that the peasants were selfish, feudal-minded, superstitious, lacked knowledge, and that they often failed to elect competent cadres.22

The fourth reason is that some district governments were afraid that the village committees would encourage the expansion of lineage power thereby increasing the power of lineage over village management, a concern shared by those in opposition within the Central Government.23

Although the district governments fiercely opposed the Organic Law, the peasants supported it enthusiastically. Villagers used a variety of means to demand that their district governments organize village committee elections for them. 24 Despite strong villager support for the Organic Law, given the resistance from their district governments, it was not until the fourth of November 1998, eleven years after the

Organic Law (Trail) was passed, during the Fifth Conference of the Standing

21 Daniel Kelliher, "The Debate over Village Self-Government," 78. 22 Lianjiang Li & Kevin J. O'Brien, ''The struggle over Village Elections," 136; Daniel Kelliher, "The Debate over Village Self-Government," 80. 23 Kevin J. O'Brien, "Implementing Political Reform in China's Villages," 56; Lianjan Li & Kevin J. O'Brien, "The struggle over Village Elections,"140; Daniel Kelliher, ''The Debate over Village Self-Government," 79. 24 Lianjiang Li & Kevin J. O'Brien, "The Struggle over Village Elections," 138-40. 344 Committee of the Ninth National People's Congress, that the government officially formulated and passed the PRC Village Committee Organic Law. By the year 2000, one million villages throughout the country had been compelled to hold village committee elections.

2 The Lo Village Committee Election

In Guangdong province, in order to promote the newly passed Organic Law, some villages were chosen from each county and town to pilot the elections. These were carried out in an exemplary manner paving the way for elections throughout the province. In 1998, Lo Village was chosen as a pilot village for Cheung Lok Town with the election to be held in December. In November 1998, a village representative election was held in Lo Village with 69 village representatives being elected by the six teams (i.e. the production teams from the people's commune era) in the village. The village representatives would elect the candidates for the chairman, vice-chairman and the village committee members. In early December, the Lo Village Election Committee announced that the village committee elections would be held in Lo Village in mid-

December.

345 Before the election, as in other villages in Guangdong, there was no self- governing village committee in Lo Village. When the people's communes crumbled, the

Cheung Lok People's Commune became Cheung Lok Town while the Lo Brigade was changed into Lo Village, establishing a town-lead-village administrative structure. The

Government promulgated the Village Committee Organic Law (Trial) in 1987 in order to have village committees all over the country to implement village self-governance, however, given the special economic environment of Guangdong Province, village committees were not implemented across the whole province. Instead, another kind of self-governing administrative district was formed in the villages, which was under the governance of specific counties or towns. Like the administrative districts in the villages under the governance of Cheung Lok Town, Lo Village Administrative District

Committee, which is composed of 7 members, was responsible for the administrative affairs of the whole village. These committee members were appointed by the

Government, rather than elected. After the establishment of the Administrative District

Committee in 1989, the members of the Lo Village Administrative District Committee were also members of the Lo Village Party branch. All village affairs, for example, land trades, factory construction, the introduction of foreign investment, road maintenance and construction, and the execution of Central Government policies were decided by the

Party Branch. The Party branch secretary, as in the people's commune era, held all the

346 political and administrative power. Administrative district committees existed as self- governing organizations in name only. Even after the am1ouncement of the election date and how to carry out the nomination of candidates, the villagers still did not understand just how much power the village committee had. Most of them participated enthusiastically in the election, however, because they believed they could choose the best people to govern. Moreover, some of the villagers, who were dissatisfied with the

Lo Village Party branch secretary Mok Chun-keung, united to prepare to nominate the administrative district chairman, Lo Kin-chee, who was also the Party Branch vice- secretary, as the candidate for the Village Committee Chairman at the election.

Lo Kin-chee, 47, a villager of the Second Team in Lo Village was a member of the Tang branch, a relatively weak branch of the Lo lineage. In 1978, Lo Kin-chee was the Second Production Team (the Second Team) leader. By 1982, he had become a director in an electronics factory in Lo Village, which only employed about ten workers and lacked capital investment. Machinery was crude and out-of-date and the technicians lacked experience. By 1987, the number of workers had increased to about 2,000 with a turnover of more than US$ 4 million in foreign currency. According to some villagers who worked in the electronics factory, it was due to Lo Kin-chee's contribution to the performance of the electronic factory that he was elected to the Lo Village Government in 1987. In the same year, he became a Communist Party member. In 1990, he was

347 elected the Lo Village Party branch vice-secretary and the Lo Village Administrative

District Chairman.

At the time of the village representatives' election, many people did not fully understand the role of village representatives, neither did they know that the village committee elections would be held in December. It was not until the announcement of the date of the election and the methods by which candidates were to be nominated that,

Lo Kin-chee and his supporters found out that the Party branch secretary had a group of his supporters elected as village representatives. This gives him control over the nominations for the village committee members, and he himself planned to be a candidate for the position of Village Committee Chairman. It was for this reason, that

Lo Kin-chee and his supporters, through different channels, tried to make sense of the rules and procedures for the election and planned to run against the Party branch secretary for the position of chairman. In doing so they also found that some of the procedures were unreasonable and unfair.

They found that the village representatives were not the only ones who could nominate candidates for the village committee. The Guangdong Province Village

Committee Election Methods stated that all the voters in a village under an anonymous nomination could directly nominate the candidates for committee members, this method

348 is generally called "sea nomination"?5 Another method was to have 10 voters or more jointly nominating candidates. The rules stated in the Guangdong Province Village

Committee Election Regulations states that village election committees were to decide the general methods for nominating candidates after obtaining the consensus of the villagers?6 The Lo Village Election Committee, however, failed to do this. There was never a village meeting to obtain the villagers' common opinion regarding the method to be used by the village representatives to nominate the village committee members.

Lo Kin-chee and his supporters wanted to contribute to the nomination process but they found that all the Lo Village Election Committee members had been recommended by the Party branch secretary, rather than being elected at a village meeting. Lo Kin-chee and his supporters could not find a channel through which they could lodge a complaint because the election committee chairman was the Party branch secretary and the

Cheung Lok Town Village Basic Level Mediation Management chairman was his sister-in-law. Despite this, however, they continued to seek ways to address these complaints.

Lo Kin-chee and his supporters found that half of the 69 village representatives, who had been elected by the 6 teams in November, had not been elected in accordance

25 Sylvia Chan, "Research Notes on Villagers' Committee Election: Chinese style democracy." 26Guang Dong Sheng Cun Min Wei Yuan Hui Xuan Ju Gui Cheng (Guangdong Province Village Committee Election Regulations) (Guangdong Sheng Li Shun Nong Cun Ji Ceng Guan Li Ti Zhi Gong Zuo Zhi Dao Xiao Zu Ban Gong Shi, 1998), 36. 349 with the election rules which required the number of village representatives to be elected to be proportional to the number of people in each team. Also the number of votes for some representatives did not meet the requirements which states that the number of votes for each representative to be elected validly should exceed half the number of voters. For example, there were 152 voters in one of the teams but the number of the votes for some of the elected representatives was less than half of that.

One of the representatives had only 74 votes, not the required 77 votes, according to the results submitted to the Mediation Management Office. After Lo Kin-chee and his supporters found out about these violations to the election rules, they went to the Lo

Village Administrative District to protest. The Party branch secretary, however, reasoned that if they were to hold the elections again, it would waste public money and so he refused to re-elect the village representatives. Lo Kin-chee and his supporters then went to the Cheung Lok Town Government to protest, however, the Town Government asked them to concede defeat and to stop fighting. After their failure with the Town

Government, they went to the Guangdong Province Village Basic Level Mediation

Management Office. On the way, the Party branch secretary sent some Party Branch

Committee members and some staff to intercept them and try to stop them from stirring up more trouble which would damage the reputations of Cheung Lok Town and Lo

Village, however, they were undeterred. Once the Provincial Mediation Management

350 Office was made aware of the situation, it immediately directed the Cheung Lok Town

Government to postpone the Lo Village Committee Election and to re-elect the village representatives for the teams who had been elected without meeting the required number of votes. More than thirty village representatives required to be re-elected. Even after the Party branch secretary had sought to make relevant arrangements before the second election, most of the village representatives were the Party branch secretary's supporters.

Despite the violations of the procedures for the election of village representatives,

Lo K.in-chee and his supporters found that the Party branch secretary had announced at the Basic Level Mediation Working Conference held by the Town Committee, that he would be a candidate for the Lo Village Committee Chairman, to which, Lo K.in-chee and his supporters expressed their strong dissatisfaction. They, along with some other villagers, went to the Town Committee many times to express their dissatisfaction with the Party branch secretary, hoping that by putting pressure on the Town Committee, they would force the Party branch secretary to withdraw. In the election regulations, it is not stated that election committee members cannot be candidates for election themselves, however, generally speaking, if an election committee member is elected as a candidate, he/she will resign his/her position as an election committee member?7 Also,

27 Sylvia Chan, "Research Notes on Villagers' Committee Election: Chinese-style democracy," 510. 351 m order to exercise the policy of separated Party-administration leadership, the

Government does not encourage the Village Party branch secretary to participate in an election as a candidate for the village committee chairman.28 Finally, in view ofLo Kin- chee, his supporters' and other villagers' strong opposition to his holding two positions of Election Committee Chairman and Party branch secretary, the Party branch secretary of Lo Village, after discussions between the Town Government and the Mediation

Management Office, was willing to sign a document withdrawing as a candidate in the election for village committee chairman. Nevertheless, he insisted that if the villagers elected him as the committee chairman, he would accept the position.

The Party branch secretary withdrew from the election but Lo Kin-chee also failed to be elected by the village representatives as a candidate. Even though the two failed to be nominated, according to the election rules, villagers can freely elect the people, who meets the requirement of being a voter, except the candidates, to be the chairman,29 making it possible for the Party branch secretary and Lo Kin-chee to be elected as committee members. Though Lo Kin-chee had failed to become a candidate to be committee chairman, he and his supporters canvassed enthusiastically for votes and although the Party branch secretary had withdrawn and pretended not to participate in any vote winning activities, his wife, his wife's family, his brothers and cousins actively

28 Guang Dong Sheng Cun Min Wei Yuan Hui Xuan Ju Gui Cheng, 14; Amy B. Epstein, "Village Elections in China: Experimenting with Democracy," 419. 352 tried to secure votes for him. More interestingly, the candidates for the committee chairman also worked hard to persuade the villagers to vote for the Party branch secretary as committee chairman.

In the early stages of the elections, there were many villagers who promised to support Lo K.in-chee, as most of the villagers thought that the Party branch secretary had used his power to satisfy his own self-interests and that he had monopolized the development of the whole village. For this reason, most of the villagers hoped that through this election some good leaders who would protect their interests would be chosen.

Within the twenty-year implementation of the village economic reform and the open policies, most of the Lo villagers agreed to and recognized their Party branch secretary's contribution to Lo Village's economy in the first 10 years. However, since the end of the 1980's and the early 1990's, they had found that the Party branch secretary had centralized power on himself In the main, economic development in the village had been totally under the Party branch secretary's and his family's management and control.

In 1979, after the economic reform and the open policies had been implemented,

Lo Village set up the Household Agricultural Responsibility System where 5,000 mu of

29 Guang Dong Sheng Gun Min Wei Yuan Hui Xuan Ju Gui Cheng, 51. 353 farmland in the village were evenly distributed amongst the villagers, with each villager receiving about 2 mu of farmland to farm. If a household consisted of 4 persons they were given 10 mu of farmland. In this way the Lo villagers initially regained the rights of the utilization and management of village resources. In 1988, there had already been

8 factories set up in Lo Village due to the village's proximity to Hong Kong and its transportation links. It is likely that the Party branch secretary understood the geographical strength of Lo Village as, since 1988, using village development as a reason he took back all the land contracts in the village so that factories could be built on the farmland. Another reason for this was to attract foreign investors to Lo Village.

During the first period of land trading, the Party branch secretary announced the income from the sale of land and each villager received about 100 dollars per mu. He further promised that the annual rent and management fee from the factories, and the income from the businesses ran under the collective name of Lo Village would be evenly distributed amongst the villagers as dividends at the end of each year. A group of elderly villagers were strongly opposed to farmland being used for factories, for two reasons. Firstly, they regarded farmland as their lifeblood, believing that if they lost their land, their future would not be secure. Secondly, even though they had agreed to sell their land, they did not agree to it being sold under a bidding system to outsiders who paid the highest price for it. The majority of villagers, especially the younger ones,

354 welcomed the Party branch secretary's handling of the land because they believed this would free them from the toil of farming. Since then, most of the villagers within the six

Lo Village production teams have hoped that the land owned by their production teams would attract foreign investors and that their income and standard of living would be improved as a result.

In 1991 land sales in Lo Village peaked with nearly half of the farmland being sold to foreign investors or to individuals. The Party branch secretary, however, failed to deliver on his promise to return the profits from the land sales to the villagers. He only promised the villagers that at the end of each year they could have the profits made from land trade, which aroused the villagers' dissatisfaction. This was because after the reform and open policies had been implemented in 1979, they had the rights over the utilization and management of the farmland. When the Party branch secretary collected all the land, the villages thought that he was just helping them exercise their rights of the utilization and management of the farmland. During the land sales in 1991, however, they found that they could neither participate in the decision making over land sales nor be informed of the price. Their rights over the utilization and management of the farmland existed only in principle. Early in 1992, a group of villagers tried to organize marches and protests, but the Party branch secretary and other cadres threatened them as well as promised them a share of the profits to appease them. Between 1992 and 1993,

355 many protests against the cadres' monopolization of the rights over the utilization and management of the farmland took place around Lo Village. 30 Although this incident happened in 1992, by 1998, land sales were still under the Party branch secretary's control with the participation of the villagers remaining impossible as they still did not have access to the information on the figure for buying and selling. Those villagers who had sold their farmland started to realize that the autonomy given by the village economic reform and the open policies had been usurped by the Party branch secretary.

In addition to the Party branch secretary's monopoly of the rights over the management of village resources over a period of 10 years, Lo villagers also found that he had selfishly abused his authority. In the busiest industrial district of Lo Village, there are two streets which the villagers referred to as The Secretary Street and The

Secretary's Lineage Street. The total area ofthese two streets was about 20,000 square metres . The Party branch secretary had sold this area to a staff member of the Cheung

Lok Town Government for 1120 of the market value in 1993, and then in 1994, he had bought the land back under his own name at the same price. According to some staff working in the Office of the Lo Village Administrative District, the Party branch secretary paid RMB$20 million less than the market value. After he had bought the land, he, along with his brothers and his other kinsmen, started constructing factories and

30 See David Zweig, "Struggling over Land in China: Peasant Resistance after Collectivization, 1966-1986," in Everyday Reforms of Peasant Resistance, ed. Forrest D. Colburn (New York: 356 shops. It was because of this abuse of power that these streets were named as such by the villagers.

Furthermore, the Lo Village Party branch secretary's brothers formed a firm of planning and design consultants and were awarded all the contracts for construction project design, quantity and quality management, and construction checking and accepting in the village. In recent years, the total cost of construction projects in Lo

Village, i.e. for the construction of factories, staff dormitories, shops, cement roads, Lo

Village Square, sports grounds and so on, was about RMB$400 million dollars. The firm charged between 3% and 5% of the capital cost for construction of each project as design, consultant and supervision fees.

The villagers also found that the Party branch secretary had earned considerable amounts in commission from construction projects in Lo Village. In 1993, for instance, one developer who was involved in house building and factory construction in neighbouring villages, complained about the Party branch secretary's greed as he was charging RMB$500 per square meters, RMB$200 more than the actual cost, just to sign the contract. In addition, in 1996, the Party branch secretary, in collaboration with his friends, formed a construction firm in his friend's name which was awarded all construction contracts in the village, despite the fact that the firm charged about

M.E. Sharpe, Inc., 1989), 162-3. 357 RMB$1 00 more per square meters than other firms. The villagers estimated that from this, the Party branch secretary could earn a commission of at least RMB$30 to

RMB$50 for each square meter, on project covering 600,000 square meters.

After the reform and the open policies had been implemented, Lo Village villagers were able to exercise the right of self-government over the area of the economy and have the right to utilize their own farmland which had been newly distributed by the Government. Since the late 1980's, however, from land trading to the signing of contracts, everything had been monopolized by the Party branch secretary, his family and those villagers who had good relations with him. Most Lo villagers believed that since the industrial development of the late 1980's, their economic achievement had been exploited by the Party branch secretary and his cronies. In recent years, the net profit from industry and agriculture increased from around RMB$30 million to around RMB$40 million but the villagers' allocated dividend had only been

RMB$2,000 a year. For instance, the total output value ofLo Village in 1998 was about

RMB$200 million with net profits of around RMB$40 million. The average income in

1998 was about RMB$20,000. The financial report issued by the Party branch secretary, however, stated that in recent years, the construction of factories, staff dormitories and the investment of over RMB$10 million for road construction projects had resulted in a debt of RMB$70 million. In contrast, the Party branch secretary and his lineage

358 members lived in luxury villas, which cost over a million dollars and drove famous brands of cars. Corruption, or the use of power to obtain profits was a feature throughout rural areas which had enjoyed development, but the case of the Party branch secretary ofLo dominating such a large amount ofbusiness is not typical.

Throughout these ten years, Lo villagers had been becoming increasingly angry with the Party branch secretary's control over their village resources. In 1996, some of the villagers went to Beijing to sue the Party branch secretary for bribery and abuse of authority, but they were unsuccessful. The village committee election, therefore, was seen as a good opportunity for them to make the Party branch secretary fall from power.

For this reason, in the early stages of electioneering, most of the villagers eagerly supported Lo Kin-chee.

When the Lo Village Party branch secretary became aware of the increasing numbers of Lo Kin-chee's supporters, he immediately developed a series of new strategies to gain votes. In order to influence and gain the support of Lo Kin-chee's supporters, the Party branch secretary found the influential Lo lineage branch elders and the parents of each family of the six teams and provided them and their sons with all kinds of incentives. For instance, most villagers in the First Team had the surname,

Chang, indeed 90% of the team came from three main Chang families of that lineage. In order to gain their support, the Party branch secretary promised to give members of

359 these three families favours, for instance he arranged for one family member to become the supervisor of a factory and pledged that he would continue to arrange for others to have senior positions in factories. The father of another of the Chang families who had worked as a teller in the administrative district for five years, was due to retire, however, the Party branch secretary promised him that if he and his family voted for him, he could continue working. The Party branch secretary also arranged for the most influential elder of the Leung lineage to become the manager of the Lo Village Sports

Centre. This was important because the number of voters of Leung lineage constituted more than 60% of the total number of voters in the Second Team. With such incentives many people changed their support to the Party branch secretary.

During the election those who were unable to vote due to work commitments could vote by proxy. The Lo Village Election Committee looked into the numbers who would be eligible to vote by proxy and decided that only about 180 would qualify.

When the actual numbers of proxy votes were counted they numbered 440, 300 of which were for the Party branch secretary, which suggested that, in addition to using bribery to gain votes, the Party branch secretary had also manipulated election procedures.

The six teams were divided into six election areas. In each area, monitors were arranged to oversee polling with private rooms being provided for those who wanted to

360 vote in private. The purpose of monitors was to check that nobody voted fraudulently and that the election was carried out in an open and fair way. On polling day, the Party branch secretary increased the number of monitors from 2 to 5 or more for each team.

After the voters had finished casting votes in the private rooms, some of the monitors asked the voters to let them check if they voted for the Party branch secretary for village committee chairman. Some even asked the voters to allow them to fill in their ballot papers for them. One young villager from the First Team claimed that he had wanted to go into a private room to vote for Lo Kin-chee, however, his vote was snatched from him and filled in in favour of the Party branch secretary by his uncle who was a monitor.

The election results showed that the numbers of votes for the official candidates for the village committee chairman were only 23 and 27 respectively and, although the

Party branch secretary and Lo Kin-chee were not official candidates, they had 950 and

500 votes respectively. The Party branch secretary, therefore, was elected as the first Lo

Village Committee Chairman. Even though Lo Kin-chee had lost the election, he and his supporters had collected a great deal of evidence and were willing to go to the provincial government and Beijing government departments to sue the Party branch secretary for having controlled the election and for his abuse of authority. It is perhaps because the Party branch secretary became aware of the villagers' opposition to him that at the end of 1999, he doubled the villagers' dividend from RMB$2000 to RMB$4000,

361 and arranged for the contracts for capital construction projects to be openly bid for in the Dongguang county court.

3 Lineage and the Village Committee Election

During the canvassing for votes at the election, both the Party branch secretary and Lo Kin-chee targeted the heads of families, and leaders of fang and lineage branches, by first contacting the head of each family, each fang, and each lineage branch in order to gain their support. Once the parent of each fang, or each branch promised their support, other lineage members were rarely contacted individually because they believed that the lineage members would obey their parents and vote for them.

When the Party branch secretary targeted the Tak branch for votes, he first contacted the most influential heads of the four fangs of the Tak branch. Among the four fangs of Tak branch, the parents of two of the fangs promised to vote for him, however, the most influential parents of the other two fangs did not support him. In view of this resistance, the Party branch secretary helped the son of one of the parents to solve his debt problems and arranged for him to become a factory supervisor. In the case of the other opposing fang he arranged for the father to become the manager of Lo 362 Village Market. As a result, the two most influential parents promised their family's support for the Party branch secretary. Lo Kin-chee and his supporters used similar strategies to gain votes, however, unlike the Party branch secretary, they were unable to provide incentives or make promises to give benefits in the future.

Attempts to rally support through family relations resulted in conflict between the two most previously united branches of the Lo lineage. Lo Wai-kit, a Lo Kin-chee supporter, was a candidate for the Fifth Team leader, and a member of the Wui-dian branch of the Los as opposed to the Tak branch to which the majority of the Fifth Team belonged. Historically these two branches were in conflict with one another over leading positions in Lo Village. (These conflicts are noted in Chapters 3 and 7.)

Members of the Tak branch and Wui-dian branch supported the Party branch secretary and Lo Kin-chee respectively, leading to conflict over vote canvassing. Lo

Wai-kit competed for the team leader of the Fifth Team which the members of Tak branch saw as a direct challenge by the Wui-dian branch, which only intensified the conflict between the two branches. As a result, the Party branch secretary's and Lo Kin- chee's vote-gaining activities served to fuel the conflict between the two branches.

During the election campaign members of the two branches were seen to shout in the Lo

Village Market and posters were put up in the streets satirizing and criticizing one another.

363 After the election, I went to visit Uncle Shing, a member of the Tak branch to try to understand more about some of the incidents which had taken place during the election. Uncle Shing was one of the most influential elders of the Tak branch, who enjoyed a very good relationship with the Party branch secretary. Before the election, one of his sons who was quite idle and did no decent work was given the position of director in one of the factories. It was probably for this reason that Uncle Shing worked very hard during the village committee election to rally support for the Party branch secretary.

I asked Uncle Shing to describe what had happened between the two branches at the time of the election.

"In this election, they (members of the Wui-dian branch) all lost. They were useless. How could they compete with us (members of the Tak branch)!" In the past

Uncle Shing had seldom displayed a negative attitude towards members of the Wui-dian branch, but this time he could not stop criticizing them.

"Now, they (Uncle Hing and the members of Wui-dian branch) are hiding themselves in their homes and dare not go out to the administrative district office because they have lost face! A week ago, the Lo Fraternity Association held an event.

We had to borrow the administrative district office's tour bus. None of them dared to go to ask the Party branch secretary for the bus. They knew the Party branch secretary

364 would not restore their face to them. So, I went to borrow the tour bus. They said they

could beat us but now let's see who the losers are."

Uncle Ring, the chairman of Lo Village Fraternity Club, was the most influential

elder of the Wui-dian branch, and a supporter of Lo Kin-chee. When the Association

was established, Uncle Shing and Uncle Hing had competed for the position of

association chairman. Uncle Ring had become the chairman and had subsequently been

re-elected twice while Uncle Shing had twice been elected as the secretary.

There was a man called Lo Shui-wo who had competed with the present Party

branch secretary for the position in 1974 but had failed to secure the position. Since

then he had become more involved in business in Cheung Lok Town than with Party

matters. Uncle Shing, however, said that he returned to rally support for Lo Kin-chee at

the election. Because Lo Shui-wo was a member of the Wui-dian branch, the election

became a competition at a lineage level for supremacy between the Tak and Wui-dian

branches. Uncle Shing clearly disliked Lo Shui-wo and blamed him for starting the

poster campaign between the two sides, as it was he who had put up the first posters

criticizing the Tak branch, describing them as "mouse shit".

I suggested that the Wui-dian branch's criticism of the Tak branch was reasonable because with 75% of the population having the surname Lo, the village committee chairman should be a Lo. Uncle Shing had, however, supported the Party branch

365 secretary Mok Chun-keung who was of course not a Lo lineage member. Uncle Shing

replied:

"The village committee chairman should be a competent person but not

necessarily have the Lo surname. We should elect a competent person as the chairman.

If we only elect one of our own lineage members, how will Lo Village be well managed!

That man Lo Kin-chee is incompetent. He has done nothing other than want to be

chairman. The Party branch secretary told him not to go too fast. He could be the

chairman in the next term, however, he wanted to be the chairman immediately. He also

said that he had to make the Party branch secretary lose his power."

Uncle Shing had obviously changed his opinion as what he said was different

from his past performance. A few years ago, I had gone to Chun Pak Village with the

Tak branch to participate in a lineage gathering. I clearly remember Uncle Shing and the

other elders deeply admiring the Lo members in Chun Pak Village because the Party branch secretary and other cadres were all Los. They believed that members of their

lineage performed better as village leaders than outsiders, because members of the same

lineage would take care of each other. Uncle Shing and the other people complained about the Party branch secretary did not take enough consideration of Lo interests over the sale of farmland.

366 "They supported Lo Kin-chee so they used this as an excuse to have a Lo

surnamed person as their leader. We should follow principles when having an election.

It's ridiculous to talk about stuff like insiders and outsiders. Doesn't this provoke

segregations? The main reason they lost was their lack of unity. We are different. We're

united and share the same goals, unlike them, they split up due to self-interest."

"But there were members of the Tak branch who did not support the Party branch

secretary, weren't there?" I knew that there were two members of the Tak branch, one

called Ah Sang the other Ah Chiu, who had publicly objected to the Tak branch's

support for the Party branch secretary.

"Those two are traitors. They didn't help our people but the outsiders. Well, they

didn't have an alternative. I heard they owed someone (Lo Kin-chee) over

RMB$100,000. They had to do what he said. The guy Ah Nam (Lo Hing-nam, the old

villager whose story is discussed in Chapter 4) was also with them (Ah Sang and Ah

Chiu). One night, we had a meeting in the Tak Ancestral hall. We discussed something

about the village committee election. The Party branch secretary was also there. That

guy Ah Nam knew about the discussion topic but still asked Ah Sang and Ah Chiu to join our meeting. What for? Was he asking them to spy on us? I don't think Ah Nam is trustworthy."

367 In fact Ah Sang and Ah Chiu do not know Lo Kin-chee that well, neither have they ever borrowed money from him.

During this interview, Uncle Shing seemed very pleased. This may not have been due to the Party branch secretary's success in winning the village committee chairman position, rather and more importantly to him, it is because of the defeat of the Wui-dian branch in the election by the Tak branch. He felt he had raised his status as he thought that if the Lo lineage or the Fraternity Association planned to do anything, he was the one they would depend on to secure the Party branch secretary's support.

Two members of the second fang of the Tak branch, Uncle Chuen and Uncle

Chao, had always criticized the Party branch secretary for his abuse of authority, however, they supported the Party branch secretary and worked hard to rally support for him during election. It was claimed that the reason for this change was the help the

Party branch secretary had offered to their sons. Uncle Chao's son, Lo Wai-hung, had worked outside the village for many years but did not have a decent job. Before the election, it was arranged for him to become the director in one of Lo Village's larger factories. Uncle Chuen's son, Lo King-lam (the young villager whose story is discussed in Chapter 6), was a director in a factory in the village which received foreign investment. More than six months before the election, he was found to be responsible

368 for a public funds deficit of about RMB$400,000, however, he was not held responsible

for this because of the Party branch secretary's help.

During the election, Lo King-lam and Lo Wai-hung worked hard to rally support

for the Party branch secretary and on the polling day, they were employed as monitors.

In the polling station to which they were attached, they not only advised members of the

Fifth Team to vote for the Party branch secretary, but also went into the private rooms,

telling the members of the Tak branch to fill in the Party branch secretary's name on

their ballot papers or checked their votes to ensure they had all kept their promise, made before the election, to vote for the Party branch secretary.

A few months after the election, Lo King-lam, was enjoying a decent salary and welfare. In the middle of this year (2000), his father became the manager of the new Lo

Village Market, with responsibility for the management of about 16,000 square meters of market space. At about the same time, Lo King-lam also invested about

RMB$200,000 in a catering business near the Sports Square.

Lo King-lam and Lo Wai-hung talked about their views on the election during an interview, "an election is all about interests. If you offer me incentives, I will support you. An election is practical. It's unlike the democracy you people in Hong Kong pursue."

"Is this the reason you did not vote for Lo Kin-chee?" I asked.

369 "He is much weaker than the Party branch secretary. If he became the village committee chairman, I believe the economy ofLo Village would be terrible. He doesn't have any relations with the people working in the Town Government and in the county.

The Party branch secretary is different. Everybody gives him respect. People are practical. Without the offer of incentives, why would the villagers choose him?" Lo

King-lam added, "you see, after the Party branch secretary became chairman, our year end dividend was doubled. We got about RMB$4,000."

"Wasn't one ofLo Kin-chee's election promises to increase the year end dividend to about RMB$6,000?" I asked.

"That would have been impossible. It won't have come true. Nobody would believe you!" Ah Hung further claimed that, "if our Tak branch was not so united, how come the Party branch secretary asked us to support him? Similarly, if the Party branch secretary didn't have any power, we (members of Tak branch) wouldn't have supported hi m. "

"There are a few Tak branch members who do not support the Party branch secretary, aren't there" I pointed out, drawing their attention to the incident related to

Ah Sang and Ah Chiu.

"Yes! Everybody has his own view. How can you listen to the elders all the time?'' That's why I said the lineage's influence would become weaker.... Members of

370 the Wui-dian branch belong to different groups and this lowers their power to mobilize

their members. In addition to this, the main reason they lost was their different

individual views and the fuss they make over individual interests. That's why they

cannot unite. Nevertheless, it is likely that our Tak branch will suffer the same problem

later. People are practical!"

Lo King-lam and Lo W ai-hung had gained many benefits from this election. This may have been the reason why they had not mentioned anything about the monopoly of village resources. They also did not mention any unfair incidents. From what they said, they seemed to believe that an election is all about the exchange of interests.

Lo King-lam and Lo Wai-hung believed that "people are practical" and that "an

election is practical." Their comments on the village committee election reveal an

element of truth. Their parents and some other members of the Tak branch were in fact opposed to the Party branch secretary being the Village Committee Chairman, however, when they received incentives from the Party branch secretary, they changed their attitude and supported the Party branch secretary and so united the members of the Tak branch in their support for the Party branch secretary. When it came to the pursuit of economic and political interests, the Tak branch was united, however, both the Party branch secretary and Lo Kin-chee were able to use the lineage network to rally support.

371 The campaign revealed that the traditional lineage network and values are still influential, a view support by Lo Hing-nam.

According to Uncle Shing, Lo Hing Nam, who is close to Ah Sang and Ah Chiu, had his own view on the election. In my first interview with Lo Hing-nam after the election, he referred to the issue of supporting lineage members for positions of authority, as he said, "my name is Mok, no longer Lo!" In doing so he was commenting on the fact that the Tak branch had supported the secretary Mok Chun-keung as opposed to Lo K.in-chee, a member of the Lo lineage.

Although Lo Hing-nam had not supported Lo K.in-chee, he, like the elder villagers, had hoped that the village committee chairman would be someone with the Lo surname.

He clearly knew about how the Party branch secretary had behaved so he had not been willing to support him either. Unfortunately, however, the Tak branch, to which he belongs, supported the Party branch secretary. Because his opinions differed from his lineage branch members, it had been his desire to stay aloof from the election. He had not participated in the Tak branch's electioneering activities yet still had been satirized by members of Wui-dian branch, who criticized him for supporting the Party branch secretary in as far as he supported his lineage branch. During the election, the Wui-dian branch members continually satirized him in the streets calling him Mok Hing-nam and condemning him for forgetting his ancestor. As a result, Lo Hing-nam felt bad and

372 stayed at home on his own during the election to avoid the gossip outside. Moreover, he did not actively participate in the Tak branch's vote-gaining activities. On one occasion he invited Ah Sang and Ah Chiu to the meeting held in the Tak ancestral hall where their support for the Party branch secretary was discussed. This made his lineage branch members suspect him of working with Ah Sang and Ah Chiu.

"We lost everything! We had to support an outsider for the committee chairman.

Don't you think we have changed our surname?" Lo Hing-nam grumbled.

"So, you mean you supported Lo Kin-chee." I said.

"How could I have supported Lo Kin-chee? I belong to the Tak branch and everybody supported the Party branch secretary. How could I support Lo Kin-chee!"

Uncle Nam replied helplessly.

"Do you mean you supported the Party branch secretary for chairman?"

"I didn't have any alternative because we belong to the same family. If I hadn't done this, I would have been criticized (for betraying the Tak branch). However, our Lo lineage in Lo Village has been split. Different branches have supported different candidates in this election. The Lo lineage has broken up." Uncle Nam said disappointedly, " I don't think the matter will end soon. They (Lo Kin-chee and his supporters) must keep on doing something because of the Party branch secretary's bribery!" Lo Hing-nam did not say any more, but used the gesture of getting money.

373 Lo Hing-nam had not been willing to support the Party branch secretary and had hoped to have a Lo member as the village committee chairman, however, because he belongs to the Tak branch, he felt he had to follow the Tak branch's decision and vote for the Party branch secretary.

Lo Hing-nam' s case shows that traditional lineage values are still important to some of the villagers. Those who commit themselves to the traditional lineage values will always suppress their personal "likes" and "dislikes" and submit themselves to the collective welfare of the family or lineage branch. Thus, those who want to pursue their economic and political interests can use these traditional lineage values to mobilize support and influence election campaigns.

Even though traditional lineage values which emphasize collective welfare are still significant to some villagers, individual autonomy has begun to appear after decades of rural economic reform. Ah Sang and Ah Chiu who are younger than Lo

Hing-nam, may have been exercising this autonomy in refusing to support the Party branch secretary.

Ah Sang and Ah Chiu, who were condemned as traitors by Uncle Shing, belong to the third fang of the Tak. branch. Both are about 30 and married. Ah Sang drives a motorbike and has a comfortable existence transporting people to and from Lo Village.

Ah Chiu has a frozen meat business in a neighbouring village and enjoys financial

374 security. In an interview, they told me about their views on the village committee election.

"Over the years, we have all come to know how the Party branch secretary has behaved. Why should we support him? We don't support the Party branch secretary but that doesn't mean we have betrayed the Tak branch. Why are we called the Tak branch traitors? We are his (Uncle Shing's) nephews and belong to the same fang. We are very close. Why do they accuse us like this?" Ah Sang was clearly angry about the Tak branch meeting they had attended, "On that day, Uncle Nam (Lo Hing-nam) told us that there was a meeting being held by the Tak branch. You know, Ah Nam never tells you things clearly. If he had told us clearly that the meeting was something to do with supporting the Party branch secretary, we wouldn't have come. They even called us spies."

During the election it was said that, because of some issues relating to the election,

Ah Sang and Ah Chiu often argued with Uncle Shing in the market.

"We belong to the Tak branch but do not necessarily follow them in everything.

We supported something reasonable. For instance, we supported Ah King (Lo King-lam) for the position of team leader (the Fifth Team leader). Do you think Uncle Shing and his followers are right? If they had not been provided with incentives, would they have worked so hard? A few years ago, when they were rebuilding the Tak ancestral hall,

375 didn't they fight with other fangs of Ancestor Tak because of their self-interests?" Ah

Sang continued, "Shit Chuen (Lo King-lam's father) and Ah Jin asked their family members to support the Party branch secretary because they too had received incentives." Ah Chiu, sitting on one side, agreed with him.

When the descendants of the four fangs of the Tak branch had discussed the rebuilding of the Ancestor Tak hall in 1995, it was Uncle Shing who belongs to the third fang, who had thought it unfair for them to ask him to give up his one-fourth share of the user rights of the Tak ancestral hall, which had been allocated to him during the land reform of the 1950's. He had thought that the Tak branch should exchange another piece of land for his user right. This was a fair deal. For his one-fourth user rights of

Tak ancestral hall, Uncle Shing was very unhappy with the other fangs of Tak branch.

Due to this conflict among branch members, the rebuilding plan of the ancestor hall was postponed for over a year. At last, in order to fulfill the wish of rebuilding the Tak ancestral hall, a descendent of the third fang exchanged his land, which was bought a few years ago, with Uncle Shing's utilization right. This conflict ended finally. When the land was exchanged, the market price was about RMB$80,000. As most people were dissatisfied with Uncle Shing's selfishness, in the banquet on the opening day of the ancestral hall, they recorded the exchange of land with the utilization right that wad

376 demanded by Uncle Shing, in the distributed rebuilding donation list and rebuilding expenditures chart. They did this for Uncle Shing to lose face.

"Supporting the Party branch secretary to serve their own interests was their business. Why must they demand that others do likewise? If you don't follow them, they scold you. Don't you think that's unreasonable?" Ah Sang said angrily.

"In fact, I don't believe all the members ofTak branch supported the Party branch secretary. They just did not dare to speak out! If Uncle Shing had really believed every member supported the Party branch secretary, why did he ask Ah King (Lo King-lam),

Ah Hung (Lo Wai-hung), Ah Chao (Lo Wing-chao) and others to wait outside the private polling rooms to check all the Tak branch members' votes to see if they had all voted for the Party branch secretary?" It seems that Ah Chiu was right, as there were

230 voters in the Fifth Team 70% of whom belonged to the Tak branch. The number of voters who vote for the Party branch secretary was 139, which means that at least 20

Tak members did not vote for the Party branch secretary.

Although Ah Sang and Ah Chiu publicly objected to the Party branch secretary, they were not ardent supporters of Lo K.in-chee, taking little or no part in his election campaign.

It seems that there were many young villagers who did not listen to their parents' or elders' instruction in the election, but unlike Ah Sang and Ah Chiu they did not

377 publicly express their opinions. At the polling station, some voters had wanted to vote

for the candidate of their choice, however, their ballots were removed by their elders

and filled in in the Party branch secretary's favour. Only a few voters insisted on filling

in their ballot papers themselves. Some young villagers complained that they were

unable to elect the candidates of their choice.

Grass-roots political reform is considered part of a modernization process towards a more democratic political structure. fu Lo Village, however, the competing parties used lineage networks as a means of influencing the electorate. This process to

some extent reinforces the traditional lineage values which are in conflict with modern values such as the emphasis of individual autonomy. The conflict between Ah Sang and

Ah Chiu and the Tak branch is one example of the tension between the tradition and modernity during the village committee election. This tension is not only apparent between two generations, but also experienced on a personal level as in the case of So

Yiu-kong (the midde-aged villager whose story is discussed in Chapter 4).

So Yiu-kong's experience during the election was very different from that of Lo

King-lam and Lo Wai-hung. He rejected the Party branch secretary's offer of incentives

and, together with one of his brothers, supported Lo Kin-chee for the position of village committee chairman.

378 When the village committee election was announced, So Yiu-kong did not have a preferred candidate, but thought that supporting the Party branch secretary might be advantageous. He told me how the motorbike drivers used the opportunity given by the election to protest against outsiders competing for business at the administrative district office.

"In that year, a group of motorbike drivers from other provinces had come to the village. They competed against us for business. We were not happy with them. We contacted the security committee chairman wanting him to drive them out, however, a few of them were relatives of the wife of one of the chairman's brothers. He refused to deal with it. Some of us argued with him and gathered all the motorbike drivers in our village to protest at the security committee. Having seen what a large crowd we were, he hid himself from us. We thought it pointless to allow the incident to drag on so we decided to drive to the administrative district together and protest to the Party branch secretary. After listening to us about the situation, the Party branch secretary immediately promised us that the motorbike drivers from other provinces would not be allowed to come to our village to do business." So Yiu-kong believed that it was because the incident happened during the election and that the Party branch secretary wanted to have more villagers to support him that he quickly solved the problem caused

379 by the group of motorbike drivers from other provinces. He also pointed out that if he was to support the Party branch secretary, he must benefit more from him.

Two weeks before the village committee election, I found So Yiu-kong had changed his mind in support of Lo Kin-chee for the village committee chairman. After the election, I contacted him in order to find out why he had changed his stance.

So Yiu-kong honestly admitted that at the beginning of the election campaign, he had not preference. He had thought that as the Party branch secretary was rich and powerful, he must be the winner in the election. At that time, his younger brother, Ah

Keung, was actively helping Lo Kin-chee prepare for the election campaign and was trying hard to gain votes from each team. Meanwhile one of the Party branch secretary's trusted followers was his cousin. Combining threats with inducements, his cousin told him to persuade his younger brother and the So side of his family not to support Lo Kin­ chee, which he did.

"When my two younger brothers came to my home, I told them that if we supported the Party branch secretary, anyone who was not a factory director would become a factory director; who had not been admitted to the Party would be admitted more quickly. If we didn't support the Party branch secretary, anyone who was a factory director would be fired." So Yiu-kong told how he had tried to persuade his younger

380 brother not to support Lo Kin-chee, but that his brothers had not taken his advice but

had asked him to support Lo Kin-chee instead.

"Do you mean you supported Lo Kin-chee just because of your brothers?" I asked.

"They are my brothers, we have the same father. This was the main reason. The

other reason was to avenge my dead grandpa, the father of my mother. I clearly remember that when my grandpa was an accountant in Lo Village Production Brigade,

"Chou Chun" (Party branch secretary's nickname) trumped up a charge of bribery

against my grandpa. He was locked up in the Guan Di Temple for three months. He

suffered torture. My grandpa loved us very much. When we were young, our family was poor. My two brothers and I lived in my grandpa's home. He took care of us like my

parents. I had to take revenge!"

"Why didn't you support Lo Kin-chee at the beginning?" I asked.

"At that time, I didn't think we could oust the Party branch secretary from power

so we just thought about what advantages we could get from the election. Later, I found more and more people did not want him to become the village committee chairman so I changed my mind. Soon, my cousin contacted me again. This time, he told me I could be given a taxi and it could be arranged for me to become a director in a factory. He hoped that if I accepted, I would persuade my brothers and the So family members to give up their support for Lo Kin-chee. Nevertheless, I refused in the end!"

381 I remember that during the election in Lo Village, So Yiu-kong had called me

long-distance and asked me about the cost of overseas study, which I felt was strange at

that time. When I think about it now, it was probably the time when his cousin

contacted him again to persuade him to give up his support for Lo Kin-chee by offering

him more incentives. Perhaps he had thought of his son's prospects and the offer was

tempting to him so he gave me a call.

"When my cousin mentioned the offer, though I didn't accept, I did consider. I

worried that if we lost, the Party branch secretary might take revenge against us. That's

why I decided to tell my youngest brother not to support Lo Kin-chee."

"Ah Shing (Uncle Shing) didn't know about this and he told me my youngest

brother was smarter because he didn't hang around with them (Lo Kin-chee and his

supporters). If we lost, he (my youngest brother) would not be involved so we, the So

family would not be penalized by the Party branch secretary." So Yiu-kong pointed out

that during the election, it was only his younger brother who was put under pressure not

to be meddlesome and to mind his own business. No one harassed his youngest brother.

After the election, although Lo Kin-chee had lost, So Yiu-kong and the other

supporters did not give up. They collected as much information as they could, drafted a

letter to disclose the Party branch secretary's crimes and sued him. More than six months after the election, they sued the Party branch secretary in over ten departments

382 of the Central and provincial governments, but to no effect. During these months, in view of the poor progress, So Yiu-kong, Lo Kin-chee and his supporters became discouraged.

When I returned to Lo Village towards the end of 1999, almost a year after the election had been held, the memory of the election and the accusations of the Party branch secretary's crimes had faded from the villagers' minds. Lo Kin-chee and his supporters were occupied with their own businesses and it had been some time since they had had a gathering. So Yiu-kong continued in his job as a motorbike driver but he regretted the decision he made at the time of the election.

"We worked so hard for such a long time but the result was the same as if nothing had happened, wasn't it? I was very stupid and didn't think carefully. The guy was rich and in power so of course he won his present position. If I had thought carefully, I would have taken the taxi and at least, I would have had about RMB$300,000 now.

RMB$300,000! Don't know how long I will have to work for that kind of money." He sighed while speaking.

"I laughed at the guys who helped "Chou Chun" and claimed "Chou Chun" wouldn't keep his promise. Eh! You see, that guy Ah Wah of the Sixth Team? He had a huge debt before the election. He once asked me to lend him money. Soon after the election, however, he immediately built a beautiful house in the town house area. And

383 the other guys, they have become things like a manager at the sport square, a market manager, factory directors and so on. Anyone who tried to gain votes for the Party branch secretary has become rich. I'm the dumbest!" When he thought about the possibility of his son entering the university and the financial burden this would place on his family he accused himself of having been too stubborn.

At the beginning of the year 2000, after So Yiu-kong, Lo King-lam and Lo Wai- hung and I had had dinner, So Yiu-kong returned to my hotel with me and talked about the salaries and working conditions Lo King-lam and Lo Wai-hung now enjoyed as a result of their support for the Party branch secretary and how he blamed himself for making "a most terrible decision". He clearly regretted his actions because of the financial gain he had turned down.

Before 1949, lineage organization had a political function. Since the political reform in 1949, however, the political and administrative organizations of the

Communist Party entered the village and lineage organizations were broken down and their political functions disappeared. It was not until the beginning of the 1980's, that lineage activities became active again and some lineage organizations reappeared.

During the Village Committee election, some influential branches united themselves in order to pursue their shared political and economic interests. The most

384 united branch was the Tak branch, which seemed to be united largely for practical reasons with parents of some fangs uniting Tak members in support of the Party branch

secretary because they had been offered incentives from the Secretary. Some young Tak members such as Lo King-lam and Lo Wai-hung seemed to have done so for the same purpose, pointing out that they had collaborated only out of their own interests.

The supporters of another nominee, Lo K.in-chee, collaborated with each other for personal interests as well. Apparently, they came from different fangs, branches and had different surnames, but they formed an interest group at an early stage. The ways of

gaining votes by the group of supporters of Lo K.in-chee, however, seem to have been similar to those of the Tak members. Both gained votes by using the networks of lineage, branches and fangs. In other words, the traditional family networks still had a certain amount of influence. In order to establish power, family relations were used to unite the branch and fang members, which shows that traditional family networks became the resource for pursuing political interests, and still had a role to play in the political arena.

In the case of Lo Hing-nam for example, he understood the Party branch secretary very well and was not willing to vote for him, however, he reluctantly suppressed his personal dislike of the Party branch secretary and supported the Tak Branch. Another case is So Yiu-kong who obviously wanted to gain personal economic interests through

385 this election. He gave up these interests, however, to support the organization to which his brother belonged because family interests were more important than personal ones to him. These two cases show that traditional lineage ideology still had influence so the two nominees and their supporters used their lineage networks to gain votes in the election. Thus, the lineage network was used as a means of gathering support and this served to reinforce lineage network.

The election also showed the increasing desire for autonomy. Even though some members of the Tak branch used the traditional lineage ideology to condemn Ah Sang and Ah Chiu on moral grounds, they still held their position firmly in public. They did not, therefore, suppress their personal dislikes to conform to their lineage's directive.

They had insisted on holding individual views rather than following the Tak branch's collective decision and the conflict which arose with the Tak branch members is reflective of the tension which exists between individual and collective interest; the traditional and the modem.

In view of the above, the Village Committee election also reflected a kind of internal contradiction. On one hand, the Rural Economic Reform has strengthened the consideration of personal interests and the desire for autonomy, while on the other, the gaining of personal interests in the Village Committee election process relied on lineage

386 networks to realize these interests. The use of lineage networks, however, strengthened the traditional values and lineage organization.

387 CHAPTER tO

Rural Economic Reform: Continuity, Change, and Contradiction with

Regard to the Structures of Lineage

The reforms of the ruling Communist Party after 1949 were volatile. The implementation of Land Reform, the establishment of the People's Commune and a series of anti-feudalism measures almost extinguished the lineage activities in China's countryside. Though the influence of these changes on Chinese rural traditional lineage culture was tremendous, 1 some research work has pointed out that the deep structure of the traditional lineage system remained intact during the three revolutionary decades.2

After the implementation of the Rural Economic Reform in 1979, traditional lineage activities resurged rapidly, particularly in the Pearl River Delta in Guangdong. With the rapid economic development, would the revived traditional lineage structures survive in this period of rural reform? Studies of the Rural Economic Reform and rural social

1 Anita Chan, Richard P. Madsen & Jonathan Unger, Chen Village under Mao and Deng, expanded and updated edition (California: University of California Press, 1992); Madsen, Morality and Power in a Chinese Village (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1984); Vivienne Shue, The Reach of the State: Sketches of the Chinese Body Politics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1988). 2 Kay A. Johnson, Women, the Family and Peasant Revolution in China (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1983); Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants: The Anthropology ofa Revolution (New York: Cambridge University, 1990), 251-69. 388 change seem to be unable to offer a deeper understanding of their impact on the structures of lineage. It is likely that these studies were carried out in the wake of the

Reform, when the time for a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of economic modernization on peasant society had not yet been reached. 3 As the research of this thesis has been carried out since the mid- 1990's when Rural Economic Reform had already been implemented for one and a half decades, it may be able to provide a better understanding of its impact on the revived lineage structures in villages in southern China, which is the aim of this thesis. The thesis has argued that modem economic conditions, which have ensued from the implementation of the Rural Economic

Reform have brought about changes and continuities of the structures of lineage in Lo

Village, resulting in the formation of a specific form of modernity. I shall also argue that this specific form of modernity in Lo Village has led to the coexistence of modern and traditional elements, resulting in various kinds of tensions. Structures of lineage in this thesis refer to lineage activities such as ancestral worship, lineage ideology such as lineage

3 Most of the famous rural studies in China are in the eighties or early nineties. The following are some famous works. Jean C. Oi, State and Peasant in Contemporary China: The Political Economy of Village Government (California: University of California Press, 1989); Jean C. Oi, "Communism and Clientelism: Rural Politics in China," World Politics 31 (1985): 238-66; Helen F. Siu, Agents and Victims in South China: Accomplices in Rural Revolution (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1989); Anita Chan, Richard P. Madsen & Johnathan Unger, Chen Village under Mao and Deng; Sularnith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants: The Anthropology of a Revolution; Louis Putterman, Continuity and Change in China 's Rural Development: Collective and Reform Eras in Perspective (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993); Elisabeth Croll, From Heaven to Earth: Images and Experiences of Development in China (London: Routledge, 1994). 389 norms and values that the villagers commit themselves to, and lineage patterns such as segmentation, social relation, and family life within the peasant village.

At the beginning of the 1980's when the political pressure gradually disappeared, the lineage activities of the Lo lineage in Lo Village revived. The ceremonies of Spring and Autumn started first and were followed by the gathering of members of lineage branches to visit their ancestors' graves. In the mid 1980's, with the support of the lineage members in Hong Kong, the Los rebuilt their main ancestral hall, and by the beginning of the 1990's, the reorganization of the genealogical record was completed and the Lo Village Fraternity Association, which was managed by Lo members, was established. Later, the Tak branch, a branch of Lo lineage, rebuilt the Tak ancestral hall which had been closed down during the Cultural Revolution. In addition the Los also contacted other Lo lineages that had split from Lo Village inviting them to all ceremonies held in Lo Village. This revival of the Lo lineage was clearly a result of the implementation of the Rural Economic Reform.

Some scholars think that the revival of lineage activities is in fact only the reformation of fragments of traditional values to help people cope with rapid economic

390 change and is, therefore, a kind of transformation of traditional lineage culture. 4 Siu further claims that the cultural understanding behind the lineage practices has never been the same again. 5

They hold this position because they believe that thirty years of socialist revolution had not only suppressed the lineage activities but had also shaken the deep structure of lineage in the countryside. Lineage activities had apparently ceased to exist before this revival, but it does not necessarily imply that the deep structures of lineage were shaken. Stacey's research work reveals that collectivization in the countryside was built upon patrilineal kinship groups. 6 Potter and Potter point out that although "many surface features of the old lineage system were changed by three decades of revolutionary praxis ... The deep structure of the lineage continued."7 Johnson also maintains that "collectivization and rural development policies kept intact groups of families who were socially integrated by common descent. Old relationships and old conflicts could readily operate even in a changed political environment."8 The socialist

4 For instance, Aijmer and Ho maintain that the revival of lineage activities is the new reconstitution of tradition. See Goran Aijmer and Virgil K.Y. Ho, Cantonese Society in a Time ofChange (Hong Kong: The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000), 278. 5 Helen Siu, Agents and Victims in South China, 289. 6 Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983) 7 Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China 's Peasants, 251-69. 8 See Graham E. Johnson, "Family Strategies and Economic Transformation in Rural China: Some Evidence from the Pearl River Delta," in Chinese Families in the Post-Mao Era, ed. Deborah Davis and Steven Harrell (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993), 132; See also Anita Chan, Richard P. Madsen & Jonathan Unger, Chen Village under Mao and Deng, 16- 40. 391 ideology and patriarchal culture are not incompatible.9 In other words, the traditional lineage values which maintained relations among villagers had not been challenged.

Taking the case studies in Chapters 4 and 5 as examples. Lo Hing-nam and So Yiu- kong, who represent two different generations, one born and grown up before 1949 and the other born in the 1950's and grown up in the period of collectivization. They still commit themselves to the traditional lineage norms and values regarding family life such as the choice of spouse, marriage and gender relations.

Lineage activities resurged after 1979 when the implementation of the Rural

Economic Reform Policy gradually replaced the agricultural economy with a market- oriented one. Moving to the 1990's there has been a phenomenon, discussed in Chapter

7, that the more developed the economy, the less enthusiastic the villagers are in participating in lineage activities in the countryside. James Watson succinctly points out that "a lineage consists of a set of ideas, or ideological constructs, which exist in people's heads, [i]t is also tied to notions of property, and relations ofproduction."10 As demonstrated in Chapter 3, Chinese lineage can be understood from two analytical perspectives: system and lifeworld. When the economy becomes more advanced, there will be an increased differentiation of system and hence the rationalization of lifeworld.

9 Margery Wolf, Revolution Postponed: Women in Contemporary China (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1985); Judith Stacey, Patriarchy and Socialist Revolution in China. 10 James Watson, "Chinese Kinship reconsidered: Anthropological Perspectives on Historical Research," The China Quarterly 92 (1982): 597. 392 Following this line of thought, the structures of lineage will be shaken due to the impact of the market-oriented economy brought about by the Rural Economic Reform. In other words, there will be a possibility of change of cultural elements, social relations, and personal identity with the advancement and development of the economy in rural society in China.

The case studies in Chapters 4 and 5 show that the traditional lineage culture has had influence in orienting the elders' and the middle-aged villagers' attitudes to interpersonal relations. In Lo King-lam's case, however, in Chapter 6, his choice of spouse, marriage and family life indicate fundamental changes. In the past, when decisions had to be made, consideration was firstly given to the welfare of the family over and above personal preferences. Lineage endogamy was an example of this. As evidenced by Lo King-lam, growing up in the period of rural economic reform has resulted in significant changes in ideas about courtship, marriage, and family life. At the individual level, these changes reveal that young villagers demand more individual autonomy in their daily lives. This seems to be what Habermas maintains, that economic modernization will at the same time lead to the rationalization of the lifeworld, and hence reproduce a modem personal identity. 11

11 Jurgen Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action, vol. 2 (Boston: Beacon Press, 1987), 137. 393 Rapid advancement of the market-oriented economy in the 1990's has also

brought about challenges to social relations in the countryside. In the early stage of the

Rural Economic Reform, there were businessmen from Hong Kong who came to Lo

Village to invest in the construction of factories. Those who had relations in the villages, however, would be given priority over those who did not. In view of this privilege, many Hong Kong businessmen invested their money in villages where they had lineage relations. In fact in Lo Village, those who ran businesses would usually take care of their "family members"; those who worked in factories would certainly recommend their own family members for employment. With the rapid economic development in the Pearl River Delta, the concept of taking care of "family members", however, is undergoing challenges. There are some cases where consideration of the profit made through bidding seemed to have overridden the consideration of lineage norms and values. These cases are examples of the increasing impact of impersonal market forces on Lo Village. The principle of justice based on traditional lineage values will be weakened, and as Scott claims, modernization will undermine the moral ties by means of which social relations were intertwined. 12

12 James Scott, Weapons of the Weak: Everyday forms of Peasant Resistance (Mas.: Yale University Press, 1985), 184.

394 Popkin argued that peasants are selfish and view things instrumentally. 13 Indeed

Chapter 8 asserts that even ancestor worship involves the consideration of personal interests. In traditional society, when peasants consider their own interests, these are still based on the norms and values provided by their lifeworld as their reasons for taking strategic action. Under the influence of the market economy, however, there comes the conflict between the consideration of collective welfare of lineage and personal interests. For instance, regarding the rebuilding of the Tak Hall in Chapter 7,

Uncle Shing, who participated in the rebuilding of the Tak Hall, was not willing to sell his quarter right of use at a price ofRMB$20,000 to Tak branch members, claiming that this was a donation if he accepted this price and not its market value which he wanted.

In other words, he was not willing to give up his personal interests for the collective welfare of his lineage branch. Uncle Shing used the argument of market value to fight for his own interests. Obviously, the development of this economic system has effected the lifeworld of the peasant village.

At the cultural level, the lineage norms and values are prior to the ideas of justice and fairness reproduced by the market-oriented economy. In other words, the lineage conception of good is prior to the modem conception of right. With the advancement of the market economy, the goodness claim reproduced by the traditionallifeworld will be

13 Samuel Popkin, The Rational Peasant: The Political Economy of Rural Society in Vietnam (California: University of California Press, 1979), 31. 395 challenged. From Habermas' perspective, the rationalization process of lifeworld will produce modem cultural elements such as fairness and individual rights which will be reproduced. These modem cultural elements will be in conflict with the lineage-based conception of good. Hence, at the societal level, there will be the possibility that kinship-based social relationships will be shattered and hence gradually replaced by a society legitimated by civic virtues, resulting in the development of possessive individualism at the personality level.

Economic modernization in China, however, is to a certain extent obviously different from that of western societies as described by Habermas. One of the important issues is: Before 1979, collectivization was still being implemented in China, yet after the Rural Economic Reform was implemented, the rural societies in China, particularly those in the south, changed immediately from collectivization into a free market economy. A change which, according to Charles Taylor, would bring about serious problems. 14

Taylor claims that modem western societies have been trying to distinguish market and non-market elements. He points out, however, that "market relations need some ethic of honesty built into the people who participate in them. For markets to

14 Charles Taylor, "The Philosophical Reflection on Caring Practices," The Crisis of Care: Affirming and Restoring Caring Practices in the Helping Professions (Washington D.C.: Georgetown University Press, 1994), 174-87. 396 operate, the people participating in them must adhere to ethics of keeping one's word

and obeying one's contracts."15

But Taylor further points out that in Russia, the rapid change from a communist

state into a free-market economy has made all things become market-oriented. This

development seems to lack the enframing ideals of a market economy which has developed more gradually over a long period of time. As a result, even the medical service in Russia rapidly became governed by market conditions. The colonization of lifeworld may be faster than in western society.

Indeed there are cases which are similar to Taylor's analysis of the situation in

Russia. In Chapter 8 it was clear that many temples have also been influenced by this change. The most obvious example is the Guo Zhen Ren Temple, which had many worhsippers before 1949. It was rebuilt in the mid 1980's, and it attracts many worshippers not only from Cheung Lok Town, but also from other towns. In view of the popularity of the Temple, the leaders of the village decided to contract out the Temple.

In 1999, it was said that the price of the contract was five hundred thousand dollars. As a result, worshippers who visited the Temple were required to pay various kinds of fees.

Contracting out the management of the temples was adopted by other temples in other villages. The Lo Villagers also discussed whether they would contract out their two

15 Charles Taylor, "The Philosophical Reflection on Caring Practices," 178. 397 temples but have decided not to do so. The rapid development of a market economy has effected tremendous change in the sphere of religion, with religious service having become a business. This, however, goes against the wishes of the villagers who do not want religion to be treated as such. Based on the traditional norms and values in the villages, these changes make the villagers feel that there is a break down of the moral order which has resulted from economic modernization.

During the Rural Economic Reform, the economy was changed from collectivization to market-orientation. The result is that even temple worship has become market-oriented. As Taylor claimed, the enframing ideals such as honesty and justice as the elements for stablizing the market development, have not been strengthened. At the same time, the market development has shaken the traditional lineage values. As a result of the rationalization of the economic system, the validity of traditional lineage norms and values has been thrown into doubt. It seems that this has left a vacuum in terms of norms and values as a new set of norms and values has not yet been reproduced to support the highly differentiated systems of the market economy. In other words, from Habermas' perspective, money and power as steering media will become dominant in the peasant lifeworld in Lo Village.

398 However, in view of the case of the Lo Village Committee Election, it seems that neither Habermas' theory of modernity nor Taylor's prediction can account accurately for the social change ofLo Village.

The Communist Government has been aware of the problem of the disproportionate development of the economy and politics and hence has decided to implement grassroots political reform to minimize social unrest in the countryside.

Political reform, however, cannot enhance the development of democracy and also fails to facilitate the growth of political citizenship.16

The emphasis of personal interests has also reinforced the traditional lineage structure in the area of polity. Village Committee Election reinforced the lineage structure where due to the competition for political and economic resources, during the election, the nominees made use of lineage networks of branches, fangs and influential families. This indicates that the kinship network is still influential and most villagers even now commit themselves to the traditional values of kinship ties between ''me" and anyone who is "one of us" (family members). 17 More important, the strategic use of traditional family networks during the Village Committee Election at the same time reinforced the political function of lineage and the organization of lineage networks.

16 On the discussion of the development of political citizenship in relation to grassroots political reform, see Kevin O'Brien, "Villagers, Elections, and Citizenship in Contemporary China," Modern China 27 (2001): 407-35.

399 In fact, traditional kinship relations, values and norms have not been undermined but have survived the modem economic conditions. The survival of traditional elements is also evident in the revival of folk religious practices.

At the beginning of the 1990's, religious and magical beliefs and practices have become common phenomena in the countryside in Guangdong. Potter and Potter maintain that these ritual forms are the expression of the traditional lineage system, which means that some parts of the lineage structures survived the rapid economic development and have become important again. 18 In Chapter 8 it is seen that ancestor worship as a religious activity, is male-dominanted. The worshipping of ancestor tablets in the home, by the burning of incense is the responsibility ofwomen, however, while visiting graves and ancestral halls is limited to men. The male dominance within lineage is clearly embodied in ancestor worship. Ancestor worship, therefore, further secures the father- son dyad based upon lineage social relations.

Temple worship is different from ancestor worship as about ninety percent of the participants are women. It is possible that younger women have trouble fitting into their role due to the impact of economic modernization on the traditional values and norms.

They feel helpless and hence seek out cultural resources from pre-Liberation local

17 See Thomas Metzger, "The Western Concept of the Civil Society in the Context of Chinese History," Hoover Essays No. 21, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace (Stanford: Stanford University, 1998), 12-7. 18 Sulamith H. Potter & Jack M. Potter, China's Peasants, 337. 400 traditions for support, such as worshipping deities for help. Some "seek spiritual comfort because they are overwhelmed by the change and competition of the Dengist era." 19 The ceremony of spiritualization carried out by shamans offers comfort to women and at the same time teaches them to recognize the importance of traditional values and norms which have been challenged by the impact of modernization. Folk religions seem to have the function of social hygiene which weakens the challenge of modernization to the traditional norms and values. 20 If this is true, the revival and popularity of folk religions seem to have a function in securing the traditional gender relations and reinforcing the commitment to the traditional lineage norms and values.

At the cultural level, Taylor predicts that the rapid change from collective economy to market-oriented economy will lead to a moral and cultural vacuum, and hence accelerate the colonization of the lifeworld. The revival of folk religious practices, however, seems to fill this immense moral and cultural void.21 Thus, it would appear that economic modernization has brought back the entrenchment of traditional world

19 Andrew B. Kipnis, "The Flourishing of Religion in Post-Mao and the Anthropological Category of Religion" The Australian Journal of Anthropology 12 (2001): 32-46; Stephan Feuchtwang, "Local Religion and Village identity," in Unity and Diversity: Local Cultures and Identities in China, ed. Tao Tao Liu and David Faure (Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 1996), 174. 2° Concerning the idea of social hygiene and purification, see Yik-yuan Li's analysis of Taiwanese shamanism, Yih-yuan Li, Wen Hua De Tu Xiang (Xia): Zong Jiao Yu Qun Zu De Wen Hua Guan Cha (Picture of Culture (2): Cultural Observation ofReligion and Clan) (Taipei: Yun Chen Wen Hua, 1992), 35-7; see also Mary Douglas, Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo (London, RKP, 1966); and Mary Douglas, Natural Symbols, (New York: Vintage, 1973). 21 Arthur Waldron, "Religious Revivals in Communist China," Orbis 42 (1998): 327. 401 views, which are "divorced from both the mechanisms of the state and institutionalised

science"; 22 the sets of pre-Liberation lineage ideologies are once again reinforced

through the practice of religious rituals.

In addition to folk religions securing traditional gender relations, the popularity of

visiting prostitutes and keeping a second wife has also strengthened gender inequality.

At the beginning of the 1990's, in and around Lo Village and Cheung Lok Town, there

were many coffee shops and karaoke clubs. There were many women from other

provinces in these places. They provide three-company-services - a woman working as

a "sitting-companion", an "entertainment-escort" and a "sleeping-companion." Initially,

these services were provided for businessmen from Hong Kong and elsewhere who

were working in the area. Later, due to continuing improvement of the economy in the

Pearl River Delta, more and more local men began to spend their time in these places.

By the mid 1990's, local men were the main customers in the coffee shops and karaoke

clubs. Visiting prostitutes and keeping a second wife became very common in Cheung

Lok Town and throughout the Pearl River Delta with some rich people even keeping a

third or even a fourth wife. According to a man who was from another province and working as a "go-between" looking for prostitutes for male villagers, visiting prostitutes

and keeping a second wife were popular among both the old and young of Lo Village.

22 Andrew B. Kipnis, "The Flourishing of Religion in Post-Mao and the Anthropological Category of Religion," 36. 402 Rich villagers would go to karaoke clubs for women while the poor would look for part- time prostitutes who were also factory workers. Some villagers said that many men collaborated with the factory managers, intimidating or luring the more attractive girls working in the factories and asking the girls for free sex services. For example, they threatened to fire the girls if they refused to do what they asked or they would lure the girls by promising a promotion to supervisor.

According to Hsu, as the father and son relation is more essential than the husband and wife relation, the one-husband-many wives polygamous marriage system was therefore common before 1949 and the husband had sole authority over his wives.23

Hershatter also points out that before 1949, marriage, concubinage, and prostitution were in a continuum in which women were considered as property and only the forms of transaction were different. 24 In order to alter this gender inequality, prostitution and concubinage were eliminated after 1949 and a new marriage law was promulgated in

1950 where polygamous marriage and marriage by sale were prohibited.25 The thriving sex trade which began in the 1990's, however, is considered as the revival of the pre-

1949 prostitution. With the huge supply of girls in the sex trade market, the traditional

23 Francis L. K. Hsu, "Chinese Kinship and Chinese Behaviour" in China in Crisis: Chinese Heritage and the Communist Political System, vol. 1, bk. 2, ed. Ho Ping-ti & Tsou Tang, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1968). 24 Gail Hershatter, "Prostitution and the Market in Women in Early Twentieth-Century Shanghai," in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, ed. Rubie S. Watson and Patricia Buckley Ebrey (Berkeley: University ofCaliomia Press, 1991), 256-85. 25 Jonathan K. Ocko, "Women, Property, and Law in the People's Republic of China," in Marriage and Inequality in Chinese Society, 313. 403 idea that women are considered as property has resurged and the one-husband-many wives marriage has also revived in the form of buying mistresses, despite the fact that polygamy is prohibited.

In Chapters 5 and 6, So Yiu-kong and even Lo King-lam who advocated the freedom to love were both in the habit of visiting prostitutes, a practice they believed to be insignificant. The more elderly villagers thought that as their fathers and even grandfathers, in the case of those who were rich, had as much as three wives and four concubines, there could be little wrong in keeping a second wife. The only reason it was wrong was because it was prohibited by the Communist Party. This reveals that the thriving of the sex trade has revitalized the traditional ideas of polygamous marriage.

Although the middle-aged and the younger generations had been raised under the

Communist Party and had learnt about gender equality and respect for females, viewing women as playthings is considered to be very normal and common in the 1990's. They, like the elderly villagers, used the idea of the pre-1949 traditional polygamous marriage system to justify their behaviour. The huge expansion of the sex trade not only jeopardizes the status of women, it also further commodifies them.

Ancestor worship secures the father-son dyad of traditional lineage relations and together with temple worship further strengthens the gender roles within the family.

Through the communication between shamans and the god, the traditional norms and

404 values will again be reinforced, with the sex trade further deepening traditional gender

inequality. The Village Committee Election reinforces the kinship network. All these reveal that the modem economic conditions induced by the Rural Economic Reform are not determining factors26 and they have not been able to pull up the entire roots of the revived traditional lineage structures of Lo Village. Rural Economic Reform has not led to an absolute transformation of the lineage structures. Structures such as lineage organization, traditional lineage norms and values, lineage social networks and traditional gender relations seem to have survived the rapid economic reform.

In short, in view of the above discussion of the complex phenomena of Lo Village, it seems that some parts of the revived lineage structures have been transformed while some parts have survived intact or unchanged, leading to the coexistence of the modem and traditional elements. However, such a coexistence may culminate in increasing tensions within lineage structures and this is elaborated in the following.

Rural Economic Reform has brought about a growing awareness of individual autonomy. This will lead to challenges to both traditional patriarchal relations and lineage collectivity. Hence the traditional father-son dyad will be possibly replaced by the husband-wife dyad, giving rise to the development of more gender equality. The

26 Peter Taylor points out that among the four major social processes namely social, economic, political and cultural, economics is not a determining factor in the process of the transition to modernity. See Peter Taylor, Modernities: A Geohistorical Interpretation (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1999), 22. 405 impersonal force of the market-oriented economy has also shaken the traditional form of

economy, resulting in the increasing emphasis of personal interests over the family's

collective interest. At the societal level, kinship relations will then be weakened; at the

cultural level, there will be a growth in the emphasis of the modem conception of good

over its traditional conception.

The impact of the modem economic condition is not universal and has faced resistance from the re-embedding forces of the local culture in Lo Village, with the result of constituting contradictions. Grassroots political reform in Lo Village has not been able to further transform the kinship relationship into modem social and political relationships. On the contrary, at the societal level the traditional kinship relationship has survived in the Village Committee Election and at the cultural level the traditional value of kinship ties has been reinforced as well. The survival of the traditional social

structure has also been reflected by the thriving revival of religious and magical beliefs.

The thriving of the sex trade has revived the traditional ideology of having three wives and four concubines, though in the form of keeping mistresses secretly as the traditional marriage system is now considered illegal. Traditional gender relations have also been affirmed by revived folk religious practices.

To conclude, modem economic conditions which have ensued from the implementation of the Rural Economic Reform in 1979 have brought about changes and

406 continuities to the structures of lineage in Lo Village, resulting in the fonnation of a specific fonn of modernity. This specific fonn of modernity in Lo Village will lead to the coexistence of the modern and traditional elements, with the result of constituting internal tensions. This indicates that when the modern economic condition is introduced to non-

Western societies, there will be resistance from the local cultures.Z7 Thus Western theories of modernity may not be able to account for the modernity of rural China.

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