Download or read book The Hong Kong Region 1850-1911 written by James Hayes and published by Hong Kong University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: First published in 1977, The Hong Kong Region is a historical reconstruction of long-settled vil­lage and township society in Hong Kong's New Territories between 1850 and 1911. The book's central argument is that the gentry and bureau­cracy played almost no role in these commu­nities, 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 sub­stantial new introduction reviews the research and its wider implications for our understand­ing of traditional Chinese society in the light of later scholarly studies.