A study of the Hong Kong colonial government's policy to Chinese burials (1945-1997) = 港英殖民政府對華人殯葬政策的研究（1945-1997）
Project title
A study of the Hong Kong colonial government's policy to Chinese burials (1945-1997) = 港英殖民政府對華人殯葬政策的研究（1945-1997）
Principal Investigator
Department
Grant Awarding Body
Research Grants Council
Grant Type
Faculty Development Scheme
Project Code
UGC/FDS15/H17/21
Amount awarded
HK$214,000
Funding Year
2021-2022
Duration of the Project
18 months
Status
Completed
Abstract
This research aims to explore and review the policy on Chinese funerals and interment pursued by the Hong Kong colonial government between 1945 and 1997. In recent years, private columbarium niches and insufficient graveyards have become two highly controversial topics in Hong Kong society. These topics have undoubtedly aroused public interest in the history of the government's burial policy, and therefore it is meaningful to review the past government policy on Chinese burials. The funeral culture of contemporary Hong Kong can be broadly divided into two traditions: urban traditions and New Territories traditions. In the early days of colonial Hong Kong, owing to society’s immigrant nature in urban areas as well as the restrictions and inducements of government policies, urban residents gradually developed a funeral culture that was different from that of the local inhabitants of the New Territories. This division became more apparent after the Second World War. The Hong Kong government's strict restrictions on the disposal of dead bodies, the expansion of the public medical system, and many deaths in hospitals, changed the Chinese tradition of holding funerals at home. Unlike in mainland China, where there was forceful state intervention in death, in Hong Kong, the government adopted a "soft" approach to funerals, even providing support to Chinese people in various ways. The support measures included providing a free transport service for cremations in the 1970s, monitoring the daily operations of funeral homes and undertakers, providing more land to public cemeteries, and religious cemeteries for the building of niches for ashes. The limited land supply for cemeteries, combined with the declining religiosity and diminishing adherence to traditional Chinese values among the generations born in the 1970s onwards, resulted in the prevalence of cremation over burials and the simplification of Chinese funerals in Hong Kong. However, there is no comprehensive and systematic study concerning the colonial government's attitude and policy during the Post-war period; instead, there are only a handful of studies that are related to the government's burial policy towards the indigenous residents of the New Territories. This proposed study will adopt an empirical approach to investigate and analyse the Hong Kong government's policy on Chinese burials with reference to other case studies other than Hong Kong（e.g., mainland China, Singapore, South Korea, and Japan）, seeking to verify the truth or falsity of claims based on anecdotal evidence. The primary sources studied will include official data and statistics; relevant government reports and correspondence; the reports and minutes of the Urban Council, which was responsible for burial affairs before 1999; and the archives of the Tung Wah Hospital. Secondary source materials will include various reports in newspapers, popular magazines, and scholarly journals. The proposed research is expected to benefit researchers doing Hong Kong studies, the HKSAR government, the general public, and heritage conservationists. The proposed study could yield insights that could help government policy makers to formulate funeral and internment policies in the future. It could also help to enrich death education.