The colonial state and rural protests in Hong Kong

From the British colonization of the New Territories in 1899 to the 1970’s, the attitudes of the rural residents towards the colonial government appeared to change dramatically from armed resistance to active support. In this paper, we are going to take a fresh look at this question and examine the basis for the political stability in the rural areas of the Colony of Hong Kong. By tacking this issue, we also hope to contribute to the understanding of broader issues of colonial governance in Hong Kong and the relationship between state and society under British colonialism. We shall first review past attempts to answer the question of rural stability and pinpoint some of their shortcomings. Then, we shall delineate the development of colonial rule in the New Territories since the late nineteenth century. We shall divide our discussion into four different parts. The first looks at the situation of the New Territories prior to the imposition of British colonial rule. The second de-scribes the process of colonization and the establishment of colonial governance over the area before the outbreak of the Pacific War. A third section turns to the postwar period and discusses the critical period of rapid socio-economic transformation in the New Territories. The fourth section then uses several cases to illustrate our arguments.
從一八九九年英國強佔「新界」到二十世紀七十年代，新界居民對殖民政府的態度出現極大轉變，由初期武裝反抗轉變到後來大力支持殖民統治。本文嘗試探討這轉變的原因，並討論香港鄉郊地區政治相對穩定的因素，期能進一步了解香港殖民管治的性質及國家與社會在殖民主義下之關係。本文先回顧以往之相關研究以指出其不足之處，再進而勾劃新界在殖民統治下的政治發展軌跡。後者的討論分為四部份，第一部份為新界在建立殖民統治前的情況；第二部份敘述新界殖民地化的經過及至二次大戰前的發展；第三部份探討戰後新界在社會經濟結構上之重大改變的政治脈絡；最後我們以幾個個案來驗證我們的主要論據。 Copyright © 1997 Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies, The Chinese University of Hong Kong.