香港歷史博物館- Hong Kong Museum of History

As part of our time in Hong Kong, we wanted to learn all about the history.  What better way to learn that than going to a history museum!

My favourite part was learning all about the ethnic groups who settled in Hong Kong.  We learned that there were four main ethnic groups:

The Punti, The Boat Dwellers, The Hakka, and the Hoklo. They all had different traditions, outfits and languages.

The Punti

The Punti settled on the fertile land of Hong Kong in about 960 and began small businesses and farming. Rice was the most important crop in Hong Kong. There are dry paddies, saline paddies and they both only produce 1 crop of rice a year. There was also wet paddies which could do 2 crops a year if there is good soil.

For the wet paddy, rice planting began in early March. Rice seeds were soaked in water to germinate and the sprouts were planted in nursery fields to grow. By April, seedlings were around 15 cm tall and could be planted in the wet paddy fields. By June they blossomed and grew into grain.

Once they grew into grain, they were harvested and hit on a ladder over a large wooden tub. The grains would fall into the tub leaving the rest of the plant. Then they were spread out on the ground to dry out under the sun so that they could be stored. Next, the grains were poured into a winnowing machine and then ground up to get the husks off to make red rice.

Those grains were put into a mortar and pounded with a pestle to make white rice that was finally sieved to get rid of bran.

Learning about the rice, reminded me of our bike tour in Vietnam because of all of the rice paddies we saw.

The Boat Dwellers

The Boat Dwellers spoke Cantonese and traditionally spent their whole lives on their boats. They separated themselves from the people on land and only went to shore to shop, sell or eat in restaurants. Whenever they did go on land, they were careful not to get into trouble with the locals. They fished, oyster-farmed and pearl dove.

Pearl diving was very dangerous, so dangerous that it was banned in 972 after many divers drowned. To pearl dive, ropes and heavy stones were attached to the divers feet. The diver then had to go down deep underwater, all the way to the bottom, and collect the oysters with pearls inside them. By the time they could collect as much as possible, most of them would have drowned and the person on the boat above would pull them up and collect the oysters that the diver had gathered. I would never want to go pearl diving, that’s for sure!  This pearl section reminded me Ha Long Bay, when we went to learn how pearls are made.

The Hakka

The Hakka people originally came from the north of the Yellow River. They started to settle in Hong Kong in 1684 but the Punti people had already taken all of the fertile land, so they were forced to settle in the hilly areas. The Hakka people were identified by their clothing- a black and blue loose pyjama like outfit known as shanfu which in English means shirt and trousers. This outfit is worn by both men and women.

Traditionally, women took care of household chores, worked in the field, made mud bricks, dyed cloth, made clothing and did handicraft work.

The Hoklo

The Hoklo people are originally from Guangdong. Their traditional dress is a colourful blouse with a side fastening and narrow long sleeves with no pockets. They also have beautiful baby carriers with beads, bells and different stitched designs all over them.

For weddings, the Hoklo people used to send the bride on a dragon boat to the grooms house rowed by married female relatives from the grooms family. Today, they have a dance with oars instead of the actual boat.

The Hoklo people introduced wet pan salt making.

There are two ways to make salt: dry pan and wet pan.

The wet pan method began with making five large salt pans on steps going down. Once the pans were made, they had to use a water wheel to bring the salty seawater into the highest pan. The water would be left there for a day or two and then would drain into the lower pan through a bamboo tube or a hole in the pan. While it drains, it evaporates so there is less and less water in each pan. Once it gets to the last pan, they wait for a few days.

Next, they have to test if the seawater has reached full saturation. To do that, they drop 10 lotus seeds into the water and if at least seven float, it was saturated enough to start harvesting….

To begin harvesting, pre-made salt was put in the seawater to start the crystallizing process. Once the seawater turns into salt, it is collected into piles and covered with straw mats to protect it from the rain.

Salt could not be made during the wet and humid seasons so salt farmers used the time to re-level their salt pans. The salt was used in shrimp sauce, shrimp paste, and salted fish.

Shrimp sauce, needs two main ingredients: salt and small shrimp

First shrimp are caught and delivered to factories where they are mashed by foot, ground, salted, fermented, sun-dried and last packed into barrels as a sauce.

Shrimp paste is almost the same, but needs less grinding and mashing. After the shrimp are sun-dried the hard paste is cut into blocks with a wooden frame for delivery shops.

Now that I have talked about the ethnic groups, Mikhaila will talk about some of their celebrations.

Mikhaila here!  After learning about the ethnic groups, we continued through the museum where we learned about their cultural celebrations which are still carried out today.

Festivals

There are many festivals which are all unique and celebrate different occasions. There are three types of festivals: jie, dan, and jiao.

• Jie festivals celebrate seasonal changes with family dinners and offerings to family shrines.
• Dan festivals celebrate birthdays of the gods, but since there are hundreds in the Chinese Almanac, only the important ones are celebrated.
• Jiao festivals are for community purification which is done by a hired Taoist priest.

The dates of the jie and dan festivals are fixed, while the jiao festival dates are chosen every several years by divination.

During some of these festivals, giant paper models of different gods are made. The gods are different in each village depending on which god is the most important to the way of life.

Bun Festival

This festival takes place on Cheung Cha Island and celebrates the end of a plague after parading a statue of the Northern Emperor around the villages. As part of the festival to thank the gods, 10 meter tall towers are constructed and covered with 6,000 steamed buns each stamped with the auspicious word “longevity”.

Once the festival was over, there would be a “bun scramble” where people try to grab the buns. This practice stopped due to injuries during the scramble and today the buns are handed out. To commemorate the “bun scramble”, a race was designed where athletes climb up metal towers to grab a plastic bun.

Another part of the festival is a parade when little kids wearing traditional costumes balance on the top of a tall pole. There are supports under their clothing so there isn’t a chance of injury, and is probably very entertaining to watch.

Seven Sisters Festival

The Seven Sisters festival came from the story of a cattle herder and a weaver girl who fell in love, but are only allowed to meet once a year on the Magpie Bridge in Heaven. The festival evolved into a celebration for young girls who prayed for good embroidery skills and a good husband.

To do this, spinsters make altars with paper accessories like gold and jade bangles, combs, dressing tables, and fans.  They also make offerings of fruit, flowers, cakes, and incense. The most popular offerings are one pair of paper clothing for each sister and two more for the cattle herder and weaver girl. The spinsters also make small chairs and tables so the deities can sit and review their embroidery. Along with the chairs and tables, there might be a bowl of water left out, which the lady would use to wash her face the next day and it would supposedly improve her skin.

A wheel full of paper goods and accessories for the Seven Sisters

Paper clothing for the Seven Sisters

Chinese Opera

Another piece of Chinese culture highlighted in the museum was Chinese opera. The operas are performed as entertainment for the villagers, to thank the gods, and for festivals. The themes of the plays focus on virtues such as loyalty, integrity, and righteousness. The operas were performed in temporary buildings called “mat sheds” made out of wood, although this practice was stopped due to fire safety.

There are many superstitions related to the Chinese opera. For example, before the shows, actors pray to the gods so they don’t forget their lines, and if they are performing in a place which has never hosted a show or an actor gets injured, the whole opera troupe performs a religious ritual to cleanse the stage.

It was really interesting to learn about China’s ethnic groups and their celebrations. The museum was really well done and presented all the information in an engaging way. To learn about the history of Hong Kong, this museum is definitely the place to go.