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Description

Wooden plow (a) with two long, curved horizontal pieces with a wooden cross piece connecting them. Attached are a ploughshare (b), mouldboard (c), and ring (d) made from rusted iron.

Narrative

Mrs. Ng donated this plough to the Museum of Anthropology because she was elderly and had just given up rice agriculture, especially as she was demoralized by a house fire that had burned her stored crop. She had a second plough that she kept, however, as she remembered that during the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong during World War II they had not starved because they were able to grow their own food, and she wanted to keep this possibility. In 1980, the remote villages of Sai Kung District were inhabited primarily by elderly people who were unable or unwilling to emigrate with their family members and depended on small-scale farming and hoped-for remittances. Mrs. Ng said that she had learned to plough when she was about 20 years old, as soon as she was strong enough, learning from her parents. Hakka people are one of the two original land-dwelling groups that settled the area that became the New Territories of Hong Kong. Their spoken language, and some customs, differed from those of the other original group, the Cantonese or Punti. The Cantonese arrived first and settled on the best rice-growing lands, while the Hakka began to arrive after the late 17th century and settled the more hilly lands.

Cultural Context

agriculture

History Of Use

Such ploughs were in common use, being employed primarily by women but occasionally by men. They were used to plough the paddy fields before they were flooded, as well as sweet potato fields. In Saikung the ploughs were relatively small, as the terrain is hilly and the fields were small. This meant, also, that the ploughs were pulled by cows rather than the water buffalo that were used in the much larger flat paddy fields on the other side of the New Territories, which were much more productive. Until the 1960s Hakka women had primary responsibility for subsistence farming, as the men often worked elsewhere, or at occupations such as fishing. Many women learned how to handle a cow and to plough, and they did this work regularly, despite the fact that they may have been pregnant or have had small children. Every household had its own plough, and they were kept in water when not in use so that the parts would not become loose. Cloth was stuffed in if necessary to keep the parts together. Ploughs were purchased, and made by specialists.
In the remote areas of Saikung, by the mid-twentieth century younger men often emigrated to urban areas of Hong Kong or overseas, to England or elsewhere, to try to make a living. In such cases any women left behind had to continue subsistence agriculture as well as depending on hoped-for remittances. Saikung was a poor area in which people depended on the gathering of marine resources as well as farming. After the mid-twentieth century the New Territories of Hong Kong began to undergo fundamental changes. The people who had been settled there before 1898, when the British colonizers claimed the area, began to give up rice agriculture and coastal fishing, turning instead to wage labour and increased employment overseas. By the end of the century, educational opportunities leading to the possibility of white-collar work also increased, together with western influences. These changes meant that objects and clothing once useful and appropriate were no longer needed and generally were discarded. Some were saved by their owners, who sometimes were willing to donate them to museums, sharing, also, their knowledge of how they were made and used.