In Chapter 2, I argued that the economic and political framework that was established in Hsin-an County during the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries remained more or less intact until the twentieth century. Hsin-an was not of course, immune to change during this period, but the changes that occurred did not really alter the basic structural arrangements. Large lineages and their wealthy members continued to dominate the region's economic and political life. However, beginning in the early twentieth century, cracks began to appear in this structure when the new colonial land policy undercut the position of many absentee landlords.

New Territories villagers witnessed many changes in the years between 1905 and 1941, not only in landlord–tenant relations but also in commerce and industry. In 1916, for instance, a new market was formed in Yuen Long, financed by an issue of ten thousand public shares (see Young 1974:20–2). The Hop Yik Market, as it was called, quickly replaced the older market at Yuen Long (which is now little more than a residential district on the outskirts of the new market). A provision of the Hop Yik Market charter stated that no group (family, village, lineage) could hold controlling interest in the market. This provision was, of course, aimed at the old monopolistic practices of the dominant lineages, especially the Teng of Kam Tin who had controlled Yuen Long Old Market for nearly 250 years.