The fieldwork upon which this book is based was carried out in the Hong Kong village of Ha Tsuen, where I lived for 12 months in 1977–8. In 1978, Ha Tsuen had a population of approximately 2,500 people living in 11 hamlets or neighborhoods. The people of Ha Tsuen speak a subdialect of Cantonese common to Hsin-an County and are descendants of Han Chinese pioneers who first settled in this coastal region during the twelfth century.

The research for this study was made possible by grants from the Social Science Research Council (United Kingdom) and the University of London Central Research Fund; I very much appreciate their support. The present book is a revised version of my 1982 Ph.D. thesis at the London School of Economics. Professor Maurice Bloch and Dr. Jonathan Parry supervised the thesis writing, and I am indebted to them for the generous way in which they gave of both their time and their advice. Professor Jack Goody and Dr. Chris Fuller examined the thesis, and I gratefully acknowledge their comments and criticism.

Dr. Stephen Morris was my supervisor at the London School of Economics until his retirement in 1979, and I thank him for his encouragement during my research. The hours of discussion that I had with my fellow students while writing and revising this study were very important in formulating and clarifying many of the arguments that appear in this book.