This new revised edition collects in one place the articles from the three volumes of Hugh Baker's Ancestral Images originally published in 1979, 1980 and 1981. The 120 articles and photographs explore everyday life, customs and rituals in Hong Kong's rural New Territories. They investigate religion, food, language, history, festivals, family, strange happenings and clan warfare. The book documents much that can no longer be found. But it also provides an understanding of a world which has not yet entirely disappeared, and which still forms the background of life in modern urban Hong Kong and its neighbouring cities. Esoteric nuggets of information are scattered through the book: How do you ascend a pagoda with no staircase? How can you marry without attending the wedding? When is it wrong to buy a book?

　　Hugh Baker answers these and many other questions in this well-rounded picture of a vibrant, quirky people painted with affection and informed by many years of scholarship and research.

作者簡介

Hugh Baker

　　Hugh Baker is Emeritus Professor of Chinese at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. He has published books on Chinese kinship, Hong Kong history and culture, the overseas Chinese, and the Cantonese and Mandarin languages. His published articles cover a wide range of Chinese cultural topics including food, symbolism, death, xenophobia, clan, marriage, slang, minorities, fung shui, migration, and religion. He was chief editorial consultant to the twelve-part television series The Heart of the Dragon, and his much-repeated Baker's Dozen on Radio Television Hong Kong ran to four series each of thirteen talks. He served as Chinese language training adviser to the Hong Kong Government 1973–75, and frequently writes opinions and gives evidence in court on Chinese customary law.