Pai-fang: gateways to history and socio-politics of indigenous villages in the New Territories

Abstract

In the past few decades, there are quite a number of Pai-fangs built in the indigenous villages of the New Territories in Hong Kong and the number appears to be on the rise. The phenomenon of having so many pai-fangs in NT indigenous villages in Hong Kong could not be coincidental. They must be built as a result of some negotiation among different stakeholders – the villagers must agree, or at least do not object to the erection of pai-fang in their neighborhood; the government must also agree as they very likely take up government land and many different government departments need to be involved to build the structure.

Pai-fang (牌坊) (literally archway) is a traditional form of Chinese architecture that is a physical gateway to a village. In the past few decades, there were quite a few pai-fangs built in the indigenous villages of the New Territories (NT)1 in Hong Kong and the number appeared to be on the rise. This kind of architecture neither provides physical accommodation for living or storage nor do they provide temporary shelter like a pavilion. In addition, the pai-fangs in Hong Kong are not aesthetically distinguished, especially when compared with those in Chinatowns or in the tourism spots in other countries. Nonetheless, they are increasingly popular in the NT indigenous villages in Hong Kong. It would appear that there are other reasons attributed to their origins and their increased popularity in Hong Kong other than their function or their aesthetic value. In a practical modern society like Hong Kong, when land and resource is scare, who would provide funding to build such architecture and who would find value in such architecture?

The research issue is to address the phenomenon of pai-fang proliferation in the NT indigenous villages which may reflect some historical and socio-political factors in Hong Kong. Indeed, not much work has been done so far on researching pai-fangs in general in Hong Kong, not to mention research focusing on the recent trend in the increasing number of pai-fangs in the NT indigenous villages. Obviously, there is a gap in this area and this dissertation aims to cover the gap in this research by investigating into the reasons for the proliferation of pai-fang in NT indigenous villages, which may reflect some underlying historical and socio-political factors that are unique to Hong Kong.

1 For the sake of definition covered by this dissertation, the indigenous villages of New Territories exclude the indigenous villages in the Outlying Islands and New Kowloon. ---------------

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