Indigenous inhabitant

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Indigenous inhabitants (Traditional Chinese: 原居民; Cantonese Yale: Yun4 Geui1 Man4) refers to the residents in the New Territories of Hong Kong, whose ancestors were inhabitants there before the commencement of British rule in 1898. They have special rights to preserve their customs.

When the sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the United Kingdom to the People's Republic of China in 1997, these special rights have continued to be preserved under the Hong Kong Basic Law.

Article 40 of the Basic Law

The lawful traditional rights and interests of the indigenous inhabitants of the "New Territories" shall be protected by the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Non-indigenous inhabitant (非原居民) is a resident in the New Territories of Hong Kong, whose ancestors were not inhabitants there before the commencement of British rule in 1898. They do not have special rights as the indigenous inhabitants do.

Contents 1 Special rights 2 People living on boats 3 Conflicts between indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants 4 See also

[edit] Special rights

Special rights are restricted to the village the indigenous inhabitant is from. To protect the tradition of villages, male indigenous inhabitants have right to apply for small house, known as ting uk (丁屋) in Cantonese. Properties are inherited by male members of a village only.

[edit] People living on boats

Although people living on boats has been in the New Territories for generations, they do not usually own lands or houses as those counterpart on the land. Hong Kong Government only counts established village in 1898. Thus, they have no special rights.

[edit] Conflicts between indigenous and non-indigenous inhabitants

With a large influx of non-indigenous inhabitants in the rural villages, conflicts between indigenous and non-indigenous are surfacing. As the management of a village was only in hand of indigenous, non-indigenous could not participate the matters of village.

[edit] See also

• Heung Yee Kuk
• Punti
• Rural committee