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• Hong Kong Anthropologist

11th Barbara Ward Memorial Lecture
Research at the Margins: Distinctive Occupational Groups in South China
by
Dr. Elizabeth Johnson
9th December, 1997 (Tuesday)

In her Hong Kong research, Barbara Ward chose particularly challenging subjects. Most of her work was focussed on two groups long considered to be marginal to respectable south Chinese society: boat dwelling fishing people and Cantonese opera actors. By working with them in an open-minded and respectful way, she has provided us with important insights into their particular variants of Chinese social organization, and their relationships with the broader society. In this lecture, Dr. Johnson will compare the distinctive characteristics of these two groups, as perceived by themselves and others. This analysis will be based in part on Ward's concept of the 'conscious model", theoretical work that continues to be of relevance as they investigate the diverse variants of Chinese society. It will also be informed by her own research with Hakka land people concerning their own relationships with boat-dwellers, and her interviews with Cantonese opera performers in Canada.

Elizabeth Johnson is Curator of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, and Associate of the Department of Anthropology. She received her doctorate in anthropology from Cornell University in 1975. She has done intermittent field work in Tsuen Wan, Hong Kong from 1968 to the present, and has also studied the history and social organization of Cantonese opera in Vancouver, Canada. The latter research was done so that the Museum of Anthropology could produce a major travelling exhibit on Cantonese opera in Canada.

Dr. Cheung Siu-woo is Assistant Professor of the Division of Humanities, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. He is also the Vice-Chairperson of the Hong Kong Anthropological Society.

Professor Rubie Watson is a social anthropologist who has been conducting research in Hong Kong's New Territories since 1969. She received her Ph.D. from the London School of Economics and has taught at the University of Pittsburgh and Harvard University. At present she is the Associate Director of the Peabody Museum and Senior Lecturer in Anthropology at Harvard University. Dr. Watson is now in Hong Kong as a visiting Professor at Chinese University and conducting research into issues of historical preservation, geomancy and memory.

During the last 30 years, Keith Stevens has visited over 5,000 Chinese temples in places as far apart as Yokohama and Cambodia, Java and Beijing as well as Taiwan, Singapore and Malaysia. Recognized as an authority on Chinese gods, Keith will talk of his travels around popular religious temples in mainland China, Taiwan and South-East Asia.

Using colorful anecdotes and recollections of conversations with temple custodians and religious specialists, he will describe his search for unusual gods in temple complexes and look at deities on their altars. Giving an overall picture of popular worship, the role of religious specialists and temple staff, he will also look at the ethnic groupings and the strength of religious beliefs and rituals throughout Asia.

Keith studied Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London and at Hong Kong University. He has spent many years in the Far-East, first with the army and later with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. His interest in Chinese deities and temples goes back more than 40 years. He has led trips to visit temples for the Royal Asiatic Society, and he makes visits to China and Taiwan twice a year to gather more information on gods. He has amassed one of the largest collections of Chinese gods in the world with over 2,000 busts or figures. He has lectured in England and Singapore and written a number of articles and a publication entitled "Images of the Other Side - Folk Gods of China". His latest work "Chinese Gods" will be available soon in Hong Kong bookshops.

Dr Teather is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of New England, Australia.

Why do modern societies build statues of ordinary people rather than gods? What are their social and political meanings? The lecture looks at their relationships with Buddha images and death. Dr. Grant Evans is Reader in Anthropology at the University of Hong Kong. His special research interests are mainland Southeast Asia and Southern China. He is the editor of a new series of books published by Curzon and Hawaiian University Press on the anthropology of Asia.