First published in 1977, The Hong Kong Region is a historical reconstruction of long-settled vilA-lage and township society in Hong Kong's New Territories between 1850 and 1911. The book's central argument is that the gentry and bureauA-cracy played almost no role in these commuA-nities, which were run by local peasants and shopkeepers who had to deal virtually unaided with routine administration and with every form of disaster, natural or man-made. A subA-stantial new introduction reviews the research and its wider implications for our understandA-ing of traditional Chinese society in the light of later scholarly studies.
