Bulletin Autumn‧Winter 2000

REDISCOVERING CULTURAL ROOTS Well knowing that many of Hong Kong's old communities will face the fate of redevelopment, the University's researchers not only work hardat uncovering their history but also striveto emphasize the need to preserve their cultural heritage in theprocess of redevelopment, so that bu ildings with historical value are not demolished anddwellers in the original communities do not find themselves lost and alienated in the homogeneity of new residential high-rises and shopping malls. It was with this sense of mission that researchers of the University studied Wu Kau Tang (Tai Po), Aberdeen, and Tai O. W u Kau Ta n g i nTai P o The Wu Kau Tang project is a one-year interdisciplinary research project coordinated by Prof. S. T. Kwok, dean of arts. Participating departments include Chinese Language an d Literature, History, Religion, Anthropology, Sociology, Architecture, and the then Chinese Medicinal Materials Research Centre. The par t of the project handled by Prof. H oPui-yin of the Departmen t o fHistory involved discovering which clans first inhabited this area a nd their subsequent d e v e l o pme n t charting their population distribution, and examining wa y s o fpreserving Hakka culture. Once an important anti- Japanese military base and a centre of Hakka culture, the place is f o u nd t ob e highly suitable for development into a spot for ecological and cultural travel. In another project entitled 'Village Culture Resources Development—A Study of Adaptive Reuse of a Hakka Village and Its Environs', Prof. Alex Lui of the Departmen t of Architecture studied a group of Hakka villages located in a smal but rugge d basin in Wu Kau Tang. They are surrounded by p a d dy fields, which used to support the livelihood of the villagers. Now, most village houses are vacan t and the fields abandoned. The villagers have given u p farming and mov e d to live in the city or overseas, looking for better lives. Apart from elucidating the historical background o f those Hakka villages, their culture an d their lifestyle in the social and geographical contexts of the Wu Kau Tang villages. Prof. Liu's project serves the important function of introducing the concept of adaptive reuse of old Hakka settlements. In the Wu Kau Tang context this would mean restoring two groups of deserted and ruined village houses for use as a Hakka Cultural Park and a Chinese Herbal Medicine Centre , and the conversion of abandoned p a ddy fields to a Chinese herb plantation. The objective is to accord n ew economic valu e to the old Hakka settlements and to save the Hakka villages fro m complete obliteration i n the process of urbanization. Through th e preservation of Ha kk a culture, mo d e r n cultural life can be enriched and the diversity of Ho n g Kong society ensured. Wu Kau Tang CHINES E UNIVERSIT Y BULLETI N Autumn • Winter 2000