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Using historical documents and evidence gathered in the field, Rubie Watson provides a social history of the 600-year-old Chinese lineage village of Ha Tsuen in the New Territories of Hong Kong, and demonstrates the crucial role that the lineage played in the evolution of the community from a few scattered households in the fourteenth century into a regional power from the 1700s onwards. Despite a patrilineal ideology that extols the virtues of brotherhood and equality, Dr Watson shows that the lineage has in fact played a central role in the formation, development and maintenance of an élite class of landlords and merchants, who, even though their economic importance has now declined, continue to exert political control. Dr Watson examines the dynamics of interclass relations within a single lineage and shows how these relations have been transformed as a consequence of the growth of wage labour.

Social stratification --- China: South --- Arts and Humanities --- Philosophy --- Social classes --- Kinship --- Ha Tsuen (China) --- Hong Kong (China) --- Rural conditions --- Ethnology --- Clans --- Consanguinity --- Families --- Kin recognition --- Class distinction --- Classes, Social --- Rank --- Caste --- Estates (Social orders) --- Social status --- Class consciousness --- Classism --- Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (China) --- Xiang gang te bie xing zheng qu (China) --- 香港特別行政區 (China) --- Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo Xianggang Tebie Xingzhengqu --- Chung-hua jen min kung ho kuo Hsiang-kang tʻe pieh hsing cheng chʻü --- Zhong hua ren min gong he guo Xiang gang te bie xing zheng qu --- 中華人民共和國香港特別行政區 --- HKSAR (China) --- Hsiang-kang tʻe pieh hsing cheng chʻü (China) --- Xianggang (China) --- 香港 (China) --- Xianggang Tebie Xingzhengqu (China) --- Hong Kong S.A.R. (China) --- Hong Kong --- Hsia-tsʻun (Hong Kong, China) --- Ha Tsuen (Hong Kong) --- Xiacun (Hong Kong, China)