As someone who have studied Fungshui and offers Fungshui advice, I am aware that the collective success of a village is often qualified, traditionally, by the number of wealthy landlords, accomplished scholars, illustrious officials, male offspring, and long-life people. In modern times, the attribution to good Fungshui in a village is similar: by the number of rich businessmen and landowners, accomplished professionals, high-ranking government officials and high-profile celebrities. The emphasis is still on men, even though there are more clanswomen and many successful clanswomen. Based on this notion of attributing the success of clansmen to good Fungshui, I wonder if this could provide a means of measuring how “good” is good Fungshui of a village. The Tang clan is one of the five great clans (i.e. Tang, Hau (侯), Pang (彭), Liu (廖) and Man (文)) residing in Hong Kong. Since the migration and settlement of the family to Ping Shan in the 12th Century by the 92nd generation ancestor Tang Yuen-ching (鄧元禎) with his son Tang Chung-kwong (alias Tang Man-lei) (鄧從光, 字萬里), the Tang clan of Ping Shan has been evolved for more than 800 years with a long period of economic prosperity and social achievements. Many villagers in Ping Shan attribute this success to good Fungshui in and around the villages. In what ways does Fungshui contribute to the economic and social success in villages in Ping Shan? How can this seemingly unmeasurable Fungshui qualification of success in Ping Shan be measured in more concrete terms? These are the research questions for this dissertation. This is an investigative research into the land and the people of villages in Ping Shan, with focus on tracing notable clansmen from past to present as a measure of the reputed good Fungshui of the land. It is with my interest in heritage and my lifelong dedication to the understanding of Fungshui that I attempt this unconventional research in making a connection between two pedagogies – the intangible cultural heritage of Fungshui and the cultural landscape of Ping Shan. The place Ping Shan, after all, is where I grew up, and this is a place to which I have strong emotional attachment. As such, I feel obligated to find out more about Ping Shan. I did not know the outcome of the research, and my expectation was that even if I did not find the connection, I would at least find out more about the history of the people and the geography of the place and contribute towards the understanding of the cultural landscape of two villages in Ping Shan. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation

The New Territories of Hong Kong has faced the drastic change since the 20th century. As concluded by the Lockhart Report in 1899, the landscape and village setting in the New Territories were much the same in few hundred years before 1900. However, with the social and economic developments, the natural and cultural landscapes of the New Territories have been shaped and evolved obviously. Being one of the witnesses of these changes is because that my family live at Tai Tseng Wai of Wang Chau in Yuen Long, I have my personal attachment and memory to my home village. The precious tangible and intangible heritage is required to record before it will be gone by the threads of development. There is no comprehensive and systematic research on the heritage resources at Tai Tseng of Wang Chau. As Tai Tseng is far from Yuen Long, there is no published research or study in this area. Most of heritage resources, especially the intangible heritage has been neglected. Most of the reports which are prepared by the Government or consultants are related to the natural environment and historic fabrics for the requirement of planning application and the Environmental Impact Assessment Ordinance (EIAO) such as the construction of sewerage and sewage disposal facilities in Yuen Long. However, the concept of cultural landscape, cultural mapping and intangible heritage are ignored. This research is expected to serve as the documentation and inventory study of heritage resources of Tai Tseng. The natural and cultural heritage will be evaluated and the driven forces will be studied. It is also expected that this study will help us learning more about the current condition of heritage resources in the traditional villages in Hong Kong. As Tai Tseng is one of Hong Kong surviving living village in the New Territories, it is expected that the research results could be the reference and resources for the challenges and future developments. The research results will also provide the direction and insight for the heritage conservation policy in Hong Kong such as applying the concept of cultural landscape, assessment of intangible heritage and cultural mapping skills to the traditional village in the New Territories. The study area is Tai Tseng of Wang Chau where is located in the north of Yuen Long. Although there are about ten villages in Wang Chau, only three villages which are located in the north of Wang Chau, including Shing Uk Tsuen, Tai Tseng Wai and Ng Uk Tsuen as labeled in Fig. 1.1 will be studied. Tai Tseng is the collective name which includes Three Villages in the north of Wang Chau. Tai Tseng is selected because of my personal attachment and connections. As my family is rooted at Tai Tseng Wai, many interesting stories about their cultural practices and ritual customs can be shared with my professional views and theories which I have learnt from the Architectural Conservation Programme (ACP) in The University of Hong Kong. As I am one of the witnesses, its conditions and changes could be assessed. With my family connections, the oral interviews can be conducted with the indigenous villagers to understand their views to Tai Tseng. Their experienced stories can be shared in the research. Tai Tseng is a good example for the cultural landscape study. Although Tai Tseng is not the oldest village in Wang Chau (the oldest village is Sau Tau Wai), many tangible and intangible heritage resources are still well-preserved. This project also is the example to apply some new conservation concepts and methods such as the concept of cultural landscape and application of cultural mapping. This research is the pilot study to capture the indigenous villagers’ views on the heritage resources through the cultural mapping techniques. Their views to heritage resources will be analyzed and visualized by the form of cultural map. As the landscape and setting of Tai Tseng have been evolved in the 20th century, many precious traditional customs and ritual practices should be recorded before it would be gone. The temporal changes and the driven forces over the last century also provide the insight to us for studying the evolution in the natural and cultural landscapes. This site is a good example to study the development of cultural landscape in the New Territories of Hong Kong. / published_or_final_version / Conservation / Master / Master of Science in Conservation