ABSTRACT
Liminality is the period of transition between different types of status, such as moving from childhood to adulthood or becoming part of an urban area. This chapter focuses on a crucial kind of territorial liminality. It demonstrates the importance of liminality in the colonial territoriality of New Kowloon and Hong Kong more generally. New Kowloon as part of the urban areas resulted in an anomalous position between ceded/urban lands and leased/rural lands. The differences between Hong Kong/Britains rules and those of imperial China were certainly stark. The chapter looks at the general issue of liminality and concentrates on its application to place and territoriality. It turns to Sham Shui Po in order to show how the development regime that was created had distinct consequences depending on geography and the timing of urbanization. While the distinct Chinese forms of landownership complicated the takeover of the New Territories, they also facilitated it in other ways.
